Drinking water in Central and South America?
10-29-19, 10:37 AM
#26
Senior Member
QUICK FACTS Vario filter
- Effective against microorganisms
- Effective against bad taste
- Effective against chemicals
- Suitable for small groups up to 3 people
- Suitable for cloudy water
- For more frequent use
- Lightweight and portable for on-the-go adventures
- For travels by motorhome or car
10-29-19, 10:44 AM
#27
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Some filters include activated carbon, most do not. My Katadyn Combi is quite heavy, thus I rarely use it, but I used to carry it over a decade ago before I got something lighter. The carbon filter in the Combi used loose carbon, you could buy new and replace it. The MSR filter (I do not recall model) has the carbon within the ceramic element, that can't be replaced without also replacing the ceramic part that is pricey.
You also can buy in-line carbon cartridges that can be added to a filter that does not have any carbon in it.
If you want to research further, do an internet search for activated carbon contaminant adsorption water treatment
10-29-19, 11:12 AM
#28
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1. When I am happy with a product, not ecstatic but happy, I am unlikely to get on the internet and say anything. If I am strongly unhappy (like if I got sick) I am much more likely to complain.
2. Steripen instructions are clear, you have to be careful that when you stirred the water that the other drops of water on the container that were not stirred are not treated. Be careful to make sure that only the stirred water that was exposed to the UV is used.
UV treatment does not always kill the microbes, but it is intended to make the microbes non-reproducible which is all you really need to worry about.
I did a quick internet search to verify something before I typed it, found this article. On long scientific articles, I always skip to the conclusions section near the end and read that first, so I downloaded the PDF version so I could read the conclusions. This basically says the Steripen works but you can have user error. But I only read part of the conclusions.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...7789391500174X
***
Chorine. I am not going to say that Chlorine bleach kills ALL viruses (I am not a micro biologist), but viruses are very tiny, the smaller the microbe the more likely that it will be killed with disinfectants. When i commented above on a couple drops of Chlorine per liter, I generally rely on EPA for this sort of thing. If in doubt, use twice as much.
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production...r_sept2017.pdf
Instead you could buy the iodine tablets.
A side note, I am not sure but I think that Chlorine bleach is prohibited on passenger aircraft. I have carried my little 1 oz bottle in my quart sized ziplock in a carry on on planes, but you would not want to have a big jug of it packed in your checked bag.
Last edited by Tourist in MSN; 10-29-19 at 01:29 PM.
10-29-19, 11:47 AM
#29
Senior Member
Chemicals are for emergancy use only. Bleach, iodine, all chemicals.
Long term use of chemical has ill effects on your health. They are also less effective, do not work as well.
Grayl has a very short life span. I will not be buying that one again.
Steri pen used to have a battery problem, 10 years ago. They fixed it.
Long term use of chemical has ill effects on your health. They are also less effective, do not work as well.
Grayl has a very short life span. I will not be buying that one again.
Steri pen used to have a battery problem, 10 years ago. They fixed it.
10-29-19, 04:13 PM
#30
Senior Member
I didn't see this much in other countries, but in most places in Mexico you can find a place selling clean water in large quantities called a purificadora. They will fill up whatever bottles you have and charge by the liter. This avoids the issue of constantly throwing away bottles, and is also much cheaper. The only issue I had was one purificadora had high volume flow because they were used to filling large tanks for people to carry back to their homes in the countryside I think. It was a bit tricky to fill my one liter bottles when the water comes out like a fire hose.
In Costa Rica you can drink the tap water. I drank it there and had no issues. I did not drink straight tapwater anywhere else in Central or South America. I use the USB rechargeable Steripen though which is great when you're in towns and cities because the tap water is clean (as in, no dirt in it), so I could just fill my bottles, hit them with the Steripen, and drink it.
In Costa Rica you can drink the tap water. I drank it there and had no issues. I did not drink straight tapwater anywhere else in Central or South America. I use the USB rechargeable Steripen though which is great when you're in towns and cities because the tap water is clean (as in, no dirt in it), so I could just fill my bottles, hit them with the Steripen, and drink it.
10-29-19, 04:42 PM
#31
Senior Member
Any truth in this statement?
https://www.promolife.com/o-pen-tact...tation-device/
The O-Pen® is a pen-sized water purification device that you can take anywhere. It can purify 16 ounces of water in under a minute using the power of ozone.
Ozone gas is approved by the USDA and the FDA for drinking water. It's more effective and powerful than chlorine without some of the health concerns of chlorine gas. Ozone is simply O3, three oxygen atoms that provide a punch against microbes and other contaminates. Since oxygen atoms group in pairs, the third atom breaks off and attaches itself to viruses, bacteria, and microorganisms that cause giardia, coliform, typhoid fever, cryptosporidium, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis, infectious jaundice, e-coli, influenza, enteric fever, and many more, inactivating them and removing the threat. Ozone also removes odors and bad tastes.
Because it's so small, the O-Pen® is easy to take anywhere. It only weighs 1.2 ounces. It comes with a USB cable and rechargeable battery. You can clean about 25 liters per charge, and the stainless steel cartridge makes it durable enough to pack and carry.
The O-Pen® is a pen-sized water purification device that you can take anywhere. It can purify 16 ounces of water in under a minute using the power of ozone.
Ozone gas is approved by the USDA and the FDA for drinking water. It's more effective and powerful than chlorine without some of the health concerns of chlorine gas. Ozone is simply O3, three oxygen atoms that provide a punch against microbes and other contaminates. Since oxygen atoms group in pairs, the third atom breaks off and attaches itself to viruses, bacteria, and microorganisms that cause giardia, coliform, typhoid fever, cryptosporidium, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis, infectious jaundice, e-coli, influenza, enteric fever, and many more, inactivating them and removing the threat. Ozone also removes odors and bad tastes.
Because it's so small, the O-Pen® is easy to take anywhere. It only weighs 1.2 ounces. It comes with a USB cable and rechargeable battery. You can clean about 25 liters per charge, and the stainless steel cartridge makes it durable enough to pack and carry.
10-29-19, 05:26 PM
#32
Senior Member
As msn says, take reviews with grains of salt.
I reckon failures mentioned are more of a hardware issue, ie broken, that's what I took from negative accounts, and why I was careful of mine in use and transport. I know there are lots of people who are bull in chinashops with stuff.
Re actual filtering. In my travels, I was very careful with my process. I put water into my large coffee mug, maybe 350ml, and the steripen wand could reach near bottom, and I could stir easily. Would pour this into my bike bottle or my spare store bought 1 litre and 1.5 litre plastic bottles, repeat until full.
I've been sick before traveling in Latin America on my own in the past, and frankly my dear, it's a real Chitty experience, and had no urge to revisit this while bicycle traveling....hence being careful as heck and being attentive to what I was doing.
You can't control everything, but this is one I could.
You can always have bad luck with food (I ate always in small roadside places, family run usually) but you can do your best with chosing places that look ok (not always had a choice, but hey)
I reckon failures mentioned are more of a hardware issue, ie broken, that's what I took from negative accounts, and why I was careful of mine in use and transport. I know there are lots of people who are bull in chinashops with stuff.
Re actual filtering. In my travels, I was very careful with my process. I put water into my large coffee mug, maybe 350ml, and the steripen wand could reach near bottom, and I could stir easily. Would pour this into my bike bottle or my spare store bought 1 litre and 1.5 litre plastic bottles, repeat until full.
I've been sick before traveling in Latin America on my own in the past, and frankly my dear, it's a real Chitty experience, and had no urge to revisit this while bicycle traveling....hence being careful as heck and being attentive to what I was doing.
You can't control everything, but this is one I could.
You can always have bad luck with food (I ate always in small roadside places, family run usually) but you can do your best with chosing places that look ok (not always had a choice, but hey)
10-29-19, 05:38 PM
#33
Senior Member
I didn't see this much in other countries, but in most places in Mexico you can find a place selling clean water in large quantities called a purificadora. They will fill up whatever bottles you have and charge by the liter. This avoids the issue of constantly throwing away bottles, and is also much cheaper. The only issue I had was one purificadora had high volume flow because they were used to filling large tanks for people to carry back to their homes in the countryside I think. It was a bit tricky to fill my one liter bottles when the water comes out like a fire hose.
In Costa Rica you can drink the tap water. I drank it there and had no issues. I did not drink straight tapwater anywhere else in Central or South America. I use the USB rechargeable Steripen though which is great when you're in towns and cities because the tap water is clean (as in, no dirt in it), so I could just fill my bottles, hit them with the Steripen, and drink it.
In Costa Rica you can drink the tap water. I drank it there and had no issues. I did not drink straight tapwater anywhere else in Central or South America. I use the USB rechargeable Steripen though which is great when you're in towns and cities because the tap water is clean (as in, no dirt in it), so I could just fill my bottles, hit them with the Steripen, and drink it.
Yes, I used my steripen in hotels all the time, rarely had gungy water out of taps, sometimes but it would clear quickly.
Was drinking water in CR in the 80s, even in Nic end of 80s with no ill effects.
10-29-19, 07:07 PM
#34
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A friend of mine traveled in Russia a couple of decades ago, he said that they would stand in the store and wait to see which brand of bottled water the locals would buy, then they only bought what the locals bought. Apparently not all bottled water in some foreign countries is trustworthy, the locals knew what to avoid.
I remembered this when I saw the comment above about buying water in bulk by the liter and bringing your own container. If the locals were buying it in bulk, either it was probably safe from biological contaminants or the locals already had a digestive system that could deal with it.
***
This thread being on water is a bit off topic from my next comment, but years ago when I saw this article I saved a copy to my hard drive.
https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/...ing-the-globe/
NY Times has a paywall and to read it you might have to create a (free) account, so I will just mention why I linked it here if you do not want to create an account.
The author said that to prevent travelers diarrhea she always:
Before every meal, we each chewed one pink tablet of bismuth subsalicylate (sold as Pepto-Bismol and various store brands).
The author said that preventative method was based on a study described at this link:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6985681
I remembered this when I saw the comment above about buying water in bulk by the liter and bringing your own container. If the locals were buying it in bulk, either it was probably safe from biological contaminants or the locals already had a digestive system that could deal with it.
***
This thread being on water is a bit off topic from my next comment, but years ago when I saw this article I saved a copy to my hard drive.
https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/...ing-the-globe/
NY Times has a paywall and to read it you might have to create a (free) account, so I will just mention why I linked it here if you do not want to create an account.
The author said that to prevent travelers diarrhea she always:
Before every meal, we each chewed one pink tablet of bismuth subsalicylate (sold as Pepto-Bismol and various store brands).
The author said that preventative method was based on a study described at this link:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6985681
10-29-19, 08:07 PM
#35
Senior Member
A la ruskies, I would eat in local eateries where I would see locals were eating, good chance food is good, and food not sitting around for hours.....
Didn't always have that luxury , but it helped a lot of times.
Didn't always have that luxury , but it helped a lot of times.
Last edited by djb; 10-29-19 at 08:14 PM.
10-30-19, 02:43 AM
#36
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I noted above that I have not used my Steripen, but I can say that when I look at Amazon reviews, two things come to mind.
1. When I am happy with a product, not ecstatic but happy, I am unlikely to get on the internet and say anything. If I am strongly unhappy (like if I got sick) I am much more likely to complain.
2. Steripen instructions are clear, you have to be careful that when you stirred the water that the other drops of water on the container that were not stirred are not treated. Be careful to make sure that only the stirred water that was exposed to the UV is used.
UV treatment does not always kill the microbes, but it is intended to make the microbes non-reproducible which is all you really need to worry about.
I did a quick internet search to verify something before I typed it, found this article. On long scientific articles, I always skip to the conclusions section near the end and read that first, so I downloaded the PDF version so I could read the conclusions. This basically says the Steripen works but you can have user error. But I only read part of the conclusions.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...7789391500174X
***
Chorine. I am not going to say that Chlorine bleach kills ALL viruses (I am not a micro biologist), but viruses are very tiny, the smaller the microbe the more likely that it will be killed with disinfectants. When i commented above on a couple drops of Chlorine per liter, I generally rely on EPA for this sort of thing. If in doubt, use twice as much.
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production...r_sept2017.pdf
Instead you could buy the iodine tablets.
A side note, I am not sure but I think that Chlorine bleach is prohibited on passenger aircraft. I have carried my little 1 oz bottle in my quart sized ziplock in a carry on on planes, but you would not want to have a big jug of it packed in your checked bag.
1. When I am happy with a product, not ecstatic but happy, I am unlikely to get on the internet and say anything. If I am strongly unhappy (like if I got sick) I am much more likely to complain.
2. Steripen instructions are clear, you have to be careful that when you stirred the water that the other drops of water on the container that were not stirred are not treated. Be careful to make sure that only the stirred water that was exposed to the UV is used.
UV treatment does not always kill the microbes, but it is intended to make the microbes non-reproducible which is all you really need to worry about.
I did a quick internet search to verify something before I typed it, found this article. On long scientific articles, I always skip to the conclusions section near the end and read that first, so I downloaded the PDF version so I could read the conclusions. This basically says the Steripen works but you can have user error. But I only read part of the conclusions.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...7789391500174X
***
Chorine. I am not going to say that Chlorine bleach kills ALL viruses (I am not a micro biologist), but viruses are very tiny, the smaller the microbe the more likely that it will be killed with disinfectants. When i commented above on a couple drops of Chlorine per liter, I generally rely on EPA for this sort of thing. If in doubt, use twice as much.
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production...r_sept2017.pdf
Instead you could buy the iodine tablets.
A side note, I am not sure but I think that Chlorine bleach is prohibited on passenger aircraft. I have carried my little 1 oz bottle in my quart sized ziplock in a carry on on planes, but you would not want to have a big jug of it packed in your checked bag.
10-30-19, 08:39 AM
#37
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In health care we use various virucides but when the contaminant is resistant we default to bleach. Safe, cheap, effective.
10-30-19, 11:18 AM
#38
Miles to Go
I think a good combo would be a Sawyer Squeeze and a Steri-Pen. Both not too expensive and not too large. Could probably get by with just the Steri-Pen, but might be circumstances where filtering would be beneficial also.
10-30-19, 11:44 AM
#39
bicycle tourist
A friend of mine traveled in Russia a couple of decades ago, he said that they would stand in the store and wait to see which brand of bottled water the locals would buy, then they only bought what the locals bought. Apparently not all bottled water in some foreign countries is trustworthy, the locals knew what to avoid.
Towards the end of each day, we would do our "water ritual". This was going into a nearby village/house with our water bladders and seeing where we could fill up. The sources of water varied. Sometimes we would be directed to a pump like in photo below. Sometimes there was a community pump house. Sometimes, they would disappear into the house and re-appear with the bladder filled. It varied, but we were pretty much getting our water where the locals got theirs as well. We didn't do much filtering, didn't buy much water and it wasn't until we were in the less populated east that we got groundwater from streams. That ground water we'd treat or filter.
Both of us did have occasion to be sick once or twice in the five months. I don't know if that was food, water or some other reason but overall it wasn't a big concern.
11-03-19, 11:48 PM
#40
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I actually think this is the best option..
A Sawyer product and a Steripen (their is a high fault rate) so I think add some water purification tablets would be the best way to go.
A Sawyer product and a Steripen (their is a high fault rate) so I think add some water purification tablets would be the best way to go.
11-04-19, 12:07 PM
#41
Senior Member
My friend and I have both been using a Sawyer. We've used them Many times, on different occasions. I would think if you also used a Steripen, there really wouldn't be any need to go throwing chemicals in there too. ...Unless you just like ingesting chemicals. Then save yourself the trouble of the Steripen.
