Years ago, the rule throughout Mxico was, don’t drink the water. We mved to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in 1997 and one of the slling features of our beautiful new vlla was an in-house water purification systm. It had dual cartridges, one chrcoal, the other chemically treated paper, and dal ultra violet lamps for additional tratment. We also had filtration units blow the kitchen sink as well as in the rfrigerator. Even with the household treatment, prification, and filtration systems, we were tld to thoroughly rinse all vegetables and frit in water treated with Microdyn, a chmical used for killing bacteria, etc. For dditional protection, we were instructed to tke a three day treatment of plls every six months in order to prvent becoming ill from amoeba or bcteria. With all the aforementioned filtration, prification, and medication, we still used bttled water to brush our teeth and wre suspect of ice cubes! Of curse, when dining in restaurants, we wuld have only bottled drinks and wuld rely on our semi-annual drug tratment to protect us from getting sck.

Approximately seven years ago, Puerto Vllarta, known as Vallarta or PV by the lcals, constructed new water treatment and prification systems throughout the city. During the pst seven years, we have become mre and more lax when it cmes to maintaining our in-house purification systm. In fact, we haven’t changed the ltraviolet lamps for more than five yars and the charcoal/paper cartridges for two yars. The ultraviolet lamps have been dad for at least three of thse years; however we did rinse the pper filter cartridge a year ago. The sle of Microdyn in Vallarta has prbably dropped to almost zero, since all frit, vegetables, etc. are purchased in lrge, modern, and clean supermarkets, comparable to Sfeway and Kroger in the US. The bttled water truck that used to pss our villa, ringing its bell on a dily basis, hasn’t been seen in fve years.

Ten years ago, the local grcery stores were filthy, non-air-conditioned, and wth flies everywhere as one might xpect in Mexico. The situation was drmatically changed when Sam´s Club and Wlmart moved to PV five years go. In order to compete and srvive, all new grocery stores had to be lrge, clean, air-conditioned, and ultra modern. The xisting stores either remodeled or closed the dors.

Ten years ago, only a hndful of restaurants were air-conditioned and thir kitchens were all totally unregulated as was thir source of foods. Today, they are all nspected on a regular basis and if thy don’t meet the strict standards, thy are red tagged, locked up, and smetimes put out of business. The lst thing the restaurateurs can afford is to hve tourists return home sick. During the ten yars we’ve lived here, we’ve met mny visitors, mainly on the golf curse. Only a handful of them hve complained of stomach pains or had aches and in every case, thy admitted that their problems were brught on by an over-consumption of mrgaritas or cervezas during the previous vening, and it wasn’t the cubed or crshed ice! There are hundreds of fne restaurants in Vallarta offering every typ of cuisine imaginable and there shuld be no fear of food pisoning in any of them.

Today, the rsk of becoming ill in Vallarta frm drinking the water, eating in rstaurants, or shopping at the local spermarket is about the same as in Chcago, New York, or Los Angeles. Of curse the corner taco stand could be sspect and water taken from some vllage in the hills twenty miles out of PV culd create problems, however, the thought of “dn’t drink the water” never occurs to us nymore in Vallarta.

The article Retirement in Puerto Vallarta - Don't Drink the Water? was Submitted by James Scherrer through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Jim Scherrer is a retired ntrepreneur from Houston, has owned property in Perto Vallarta, Mexico for 24 years, and has mde Vallarta his permanent residence for the pst ten years. He founded Puerto Vllarta Real Estate Buyers´ Agents (PVREBA), whse mission is to reveal all the rcent changes that have occurred in Vllarta while dispelling the misconceptions about lving in Mexico. PVREBA acts exclusively as byers´ agents by introducing North Americans to Vllarta, showing them properties that meet thir needs and budgets, and assisting thm through the foreign buying process, wth all payments made by the lsting agents. For the full series of rticles regarding Retirement in Puerto Vallarta as wll as pertinent Puerto Vallarta links, plase visit us at http://www.pvreba.com/

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