In warm countries, the heat can quickly cause food to spoil. Within the last year I unfortunately had to go through the experience of food poisoning twice. Once in Europe on the Spanish island Tenerife and last week here in Mexico. I would like to share my experiences with you and at the same time explain the procedure if you are also affected by it.
With which food did I get the food poisoning?
In both cases I got food poisoning from sweet coconut. In Tenerife I ate a coconut ice cream that was spoiled.
Here in Cancun I drank sweet coconut cream from a street stand, which was obviously also spoiled.
In both cases you could not taste that the food was spoiled because of the sweetness. But since I like coconut very much I will not stop eating it after the second bad experience 😉
How did the food poisoning become noticeable?
In both cases the course of the disease was very similar. After about 1 day the symptoms started. Nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhea.
Food poisoning in Spain
On Tenerife I went to the doctor when I still had diarrhea after 2 weeks. The examination at the doctor took about 15 minutes and cost me 278 € (6.960 Pesos / 330 USD). I was not prescribed any medication. I was only advised to continue to pay attention to my diet, so no fatty foods, no spicy food and nothing with a lot of fiber. Bananas and dark chocolate are very well tolerated. In the third week I had no more symptoms and I was fit again.
Food poisoning in Mexico
In Mexico I went to the doctor on the second day. Since my girlfriend was also ill, we went to the doctor together. We drove to an Ahorro pharmacy here in Cancun. Some Ahorro pharmacies have a small doctor’s office in the same building. You report to the pharmacy and are assigned a number. You then sit down in the waiting area of the doctor until you are called. The examination took about 10 minutes per person and we were prescribed an antibiotic. The examination at the doctor’s was completely free. However, it is open to give the doctor a tip. I paid 150 Pesos (6 EUR / 7 USD). for the antibiotic. Already the next day I was fit again. However, I was advised to continue my diet for 5 days, so no milk, no fatty foods, no spicy food and nothing with a lot of fiber. During these 5 days I also had to take the antibiotic twice a day.
Conclusion
Food poisoning is really very unpleasant and I do not wish anyone to have this experience. However, I was really positively surprised how easy, uncomplicated and inexpensive the doctor’s visit to Mexico was.
