Faremax: Travel Forums

I really appreciated UncleTravelingMatt's blog post today about Montezuma's Revenge. The concept has become more famous than the details about it, and it's good to get some practical tips about what precautions to take and exactly how much one needs to actually worry about it (and how much one doesn't). I wonder whether a frequent traveller to Mexico can actually build a resistance to the bacteria so that it's no longer a factor? It seems like it's more a matter of exposure than genetics, but I don't know.  

Experience tells me that yes you can begin to build a resistance to the bacteria but you have to have long term exposure to the enviornment.  To take a few two week trips a year will probably not be enough to build that resistance.  A person's individual "intestinal fortitude" also plays a part, some people just have weak stomachs while other can eat rotten mean, moldy cheese, and straight e-coli and not even get a little gas. 

Ouch...a friend of mine got that one time, on a missions trip to Bolivia.  Not fun.  :-)  But a family I knew who had actually moved to Bolivia did develop a resistance to it, after the first year or so of living there.  So it can be done! 

SweetCharity:

Ouch...a friend of mine got that one time, on a missions trip to Bolivia.  Not fun.  :-)  But a family I knew who had actually moved to Bolivia did develop a resistance to it, after the first year or so of living there.  So it can be done! 

I guess that's what you get for being a missionary.

Guess they should have packed Lomotil along with the Bibles.

Went back and read that blog after reading these posts.  I am always very careful, but it never seems to help.  Haven't been to bad in my own experiences as I know other people get.