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I haven’t written a blog post in sooo long. Between work, school, travel planning, and life - I just haven’t had the energy :( But this morning (currently writing this at 6:45am) I feel inclined to put out some content.
Before I get into it though, can y’all please leave a comment with the kind of travel blog content y’all are interested in? I have a bunch of blog post ideas, but I want to make sure I’m writing about things you guys actually want to read.
Okay, let’s get into this story of the time I spent a four hour flight in the bathroom. Spoiler alert, it’s not because I had covid (I read a story about that recently so wanted to clear that up first lol) and I wasn’t stuck… technically.
The year was 2017 and this was my FIRST international land vacation. My first passport stamp and everything. I had been on a cruise to the Bahamas the year prior, but that’s really it. AND THIS WAS SPRING BREAK?! So needless to say, ya girl was beyond excited for this trip. But also needless to say, I was VERY inexperienced with international travel. Luckily we were going to a place that used the same US outlets, because I did not even think about any converters or anything of that nature. Nor did I think about potential scammers, currency exchanges, police extortion, or ANYTHING of that nature.
I’m giving you guys all this back story because it’s important to the overall story (and because I want all of my newer travelers reading this to know you’re not alone and we all started from somewhere). So if you’re a person who’s done some international travel, you may have heard the term traveler’s stomach or traveler’s diarrea or something of that nature — and you can probably guess where this story is going. But prior to this trip, I had never heard of the such…
Based on the words “police extortion”, can you guys guess where I was traveling to? If not, let me give you a couple more hints: 1) very popular spring break destination and 2) $17 street tacos are in abundance. If you still aren’t sure about the destination, I’ll say one more word: TEQUILA!! Now that should definitely give it away. If your guess was Mexico 🇲🇽… you are correct! (Also, $17 tacos is in pesos lol, the tacos there are usually less than $1 USD each 🤪😋)
Okay, back to the story. I spent 4 days in Cancun for my junior year of college spring break. I was there with my best friend at the time and for the most part, we were having a blast! I did almost go to jail on the trip (check out the blog post on that story here), and I did drink enough tequila for the rest of my life on the trip, but it was still amazing. That was… until it was time to go home.
For reference, my best friend at the time was a very experienced traveler and she had already warned me not to drink the water. Not that it’s necessarily contaminated (it can be), but moreso the filtration process they use is not to the same standard as our filters in the US so your stomach won’t take to it well. Her mom even told us to be weary of ice and not drink water at restaurants if we didn’t see it come from a bottle. Okay, cool we were doing great.
Until we realized we had been brushing our teeth with the regular sink water… 😭😭 And unfortunately, we realized too late. My best friend spent the last full day of our trip going back and forth to the bathroom (sorry if that’s TMI, but it gets worse lol). Myself, on the other hand, I felt fine. I was still eating, drinking, everything — having a grand ole time. But because we ate most of the same stuff, I knew my time was probably coming.
Unluckily for me, because I have a slow digestive system, it didn’t hit me until the day we were set to leave. So here I am trying to pack my luggage so we can drive to the airport and my stomach starts bubbling. Chile, I should have known I was in for a time. But I hoped for the best. I was able to contain myself to pack, take a last few pics at the beach outside of our resort (can you see the pain in my face?), and get to the airport.
But once I boarded my plane from Cancun to Newark Int’l Airport… my time had come. I sat in my window seat (🤦🏾♀️) squirming around for the entire takeoff. As soon as the captain turned the seatbelt sign off, I zoomed faster than Usain Bolt over to the bathroom. I stayed in there so long that the flight attendants had to check on me. When I thought I was done I returned to my seat, just to have to disturb my seat neighbors again in 5 minutes to let me out. The plane ride was was 4 hours, and I spent almost 3 of those hours in the bathroom fighting for my life. And to top it all off, I was also slightly hungover from our last night of turn up. The way I felt… I for sure thought that was my last day on Earth.
Luckily for me (and you too, I guess lol), I survived — and I’m here to tell the story.
If you made it this far, I have one thing to say: If you’re traveling to Mexico, DON’T DRINK THE WATER!! (not even to brush your teeth or for ice in your drinks or in the shower). Don’t be like me.
Ciao for now,
P.S. If you stay at an all-inclusive resort in the Hotel Zone, your experience *may* be different and you *may* be fine. We stayed at a regular beachfront resort (which I really loved because we ate at so many local restaurants and the food was amazing and cheap). But after my near-death experience, I would never take the risk again. Also, some restaurants will ensure you that their water is filtered, trust them at your own risk though.