Greetings ,

Last time i visited Rio the 3rd day in I got the worst case of the shits I have ever had. Obviously I made an error in consumption or prevention. Could anyone who has been to Rio many times post some good practices before/ during Rio trips so that I can concentrate on the garotas and not the toilet next time.

Never had an intestinal problem in 15 trips over 3 years. Strep throat, colds, certainly, but no intestinal issues. What/where did you eat that brought them on?

I got sick from eating at Bob's Burger at 3 AM in Buzios (at the end of Rua das Pedras)-lasted the better part of two days...the right back to Rio was a rough one...kind of wierd in as far as I ate lunch at another place a year later just a block away and got really sick for a day...

Don't eat anywhere at the end of Rua das Pedras - the end away from the docks.

Eating at Bobs (except for the grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and the ice cream) is always a bad idea, not as bad as eating at Alcazar but close enough.

If you get sick eating at Alcazar you better stay home. The food is excellant at Alcazar.

I wouldn't say the food at Alcazar is excellent, but it is way better than Bob's. I actually like the food at the Terraco - good stuff.

My first trip to Rio I got a terrible case of the shits. It was so bad, that I virtually quit eating in order to keep screwing. Fortunately I kept pounding the liquids. I guess one of the biggest dangers with the shits is getting dehydrated. I don't know if I had bad food, water, ice cubes or what.

I've made four subsequent trips to Rio and haven't had a single problem. I don't do anything different or prepare. I think part of the solution is just getting your intestinal tract used to the different types of bacteria that are local to Rio. I wish I could offer some sage advice, but I can't!

EA

Bluelight,
If you think the food at Alcazar is excellent, you need to get out more. Although, the chicken soup there is decent. I do not think I am a particulaly picky diner, I have eaten off of the taco carts in TJ many times, but I almost get sick just from the smells coming out of Bob's.
CG

Of the tourist traps along Av. Atlântica, Alcazar is in the lower 1/3 in terms of food quality and taste. I'd never heard anyone call the food there "excellent" until today. Non-toxic? Yes. Edible? Sometimes. Excellent? NEVER! The company is great (often) but the food sucks.

Bob's? Stick to the sorvette; the meat they serve is just wrong. I'm certain that no cows are harmed in the making of their burgers.

Often it's what you eat rather than where you eat it that'll get you sick. I got some bad seafood at Marius that left me with a 24 hr. case of the runs.

OTOH, avoid all the food at Vila Mimosa. Right Jag?

(Message edited by Branquinho on July 21, 2006)

I believe there might not be any way to prevent "the shits" for some folks. If you think about it, the women eat the food and drink the water and then you kiss the ladies. The ladies are used to the common germs and resistant to it.

Diarrhea is pretty easy to treat as there is a wide range of solutions, both prescription and non-prescription, in the drug store. I would be more worried about fever and throat-nose type ailments as those might require prescription drugs. Then again the prescription drugs may not work if its viral in nature.

My advice would be to hit the drug store before you go. You can also consult with your doctor and he can give you a prescription for the stuff that really works. I have been prescribed Lomotil in the past and that stuff is REALLY good.

I've traveled almost constantly for over 12 years now, and whether you're in Rio or London or Minneapolis or the restaurant down the street from your house, from time to time you're going to get some food or drink that just doesn't agree with you. Some places have poor water and food preperation systems such as most of Africa, parts of Asia, parts of Latin America. However, the Rio water supply is fairly safe, and the food prep in the restaurants is generally pretty good. Not to give out too much info but if I eat a burger from McDonalds in the US, I'm doing intestinal yoga for the rest of the day. A lot of Asian food will do the same to me, regardless of where I eat it, so I don't think it's a Rio thing per say. When you're on the road and mongering your ass off, you will tend to get sick in any number of ways. Your sleep is off, different foods, different drinks, heat and humidity, a whole number of factors throw off our immune and digestive systems.

I got the Korean Krud a few weeks after I first arrived in Korea back in the 90s. I was told that at least a quarter of expats would come down with it within the first month or two. Believe me, a bad case of strep throat combined with dysentary and the generally shitty Korean food and the amazing polution in Seoul, it will fuck with you hard. We used to joke that whenever we got back to the States, we would get constipated after a day or two just because the food was better quality and less spicey. Getting a solid shit after a few weeks was a great change of pace.

Getting back to the crud, aying flat on your back in bed for three days waiting for the antibiotics and Kaopectate to kick in was the worse three days of my life. You're a zombie, you can't sleep but you're too tired to even sit up in bed, you're burning up one minute than freezing cold the next. You can't eat, can barely swallow water, you can't talk, your head pounds, every muscle seems to be sore and your joints are swollen up. All the guys on the board who have had something similar, hell, they'll agree a simple case of the shits from eating some oily food or something is a walk in the park.

I got strep two weeks ago in Brasil; I was fine when I went to bed at midnight, I got up a few hours later to take a leak and my throat was killing me and the pains were kicking in. I started antibiotics the next day and was more or less recovered after 48 hours, but it was rough. When it first kicked in I tried to fight through it and went to my favorite dive termas. It took a long while to get it up and even longer to bust a nut, and I very nearly passed out just as I came.

Colds and flu and strep throat and various infections and the shits and drip and everything else can strike just about anywhere. Just minimize the risks if possible - eat often, drink lots of juices and water, try and get as much good sleep as possible - and you might not get sick.

I have no idea what your eating at Alcazar, but the filets are excellent! If you want to show someplace better, I'll be there in 3 weeks.

In all of my trips out of the US, including eating at many roadside taco stands throughout Mexico, I have never had a problem with the shits. I do think that when you go to a new country there are enzymes in the meat, etc that your body is not used to an may give you a slight case of the runs and there isn’t much you can do for that other than what has already been mentioned. However, there is a liquid vaccine called Dukoral (I know, kind of a funny name). It is for traveler's diarrhea and last for 3 to 4 months. It is for the more serious stuff, E. coli and cholera. The kind of thing that can cut down on your "up" time. If you eat spicy or just shitty food, it wont help. In fact, I think it states on the vial it comes in that if you eat at Bob's you’re fucked anyway, so don’t bother.

It is not available in the US (surprise), but you can order it over the internet from Canada. Do it early because if I recall it is two doses and you spread them out over a week. This last trip to Colombia I wanted to make sure I did not have a real problem with the shits and ruin my trip, so I gave it a try. There are guys on here that know way more than I do on this subject, but that’s my 2 cents worth. AZ

In all of my trips to Rio, last week was the first time that I got a bad case of the shits. I had eaten at Marius the night before 7/16/06, at approximately 11pm while sitting in bed with a pretty garota, the worst case of the shits I ever had attacked me for the full night. I was vomiting and shitting at the same time. Luckily this garota was concern about my welfare and nursed me through the night. The next morning, I went to the pharmacy and bought some antibiotics that really took care of the situation. I am glad to read that I am not the only one who ever suffered this ailment because for a moment I thought someone had poisoned me.

Sly, you have to go back to Medellin if you want food that doesn't give you the shits!

Good to see your post. I'm off to MDE in September. Hope to see you there. PM me and I'll give you my MDE phone number.

I've never gotten food poisoning in Rio (of course, I never ate at Bob's) during months and months spent there. I think I've pretty much got a cast-iron stomach. Once, though, I broke out in a rash after eating five or six DIFFERENT lobster-like shellfish at Marius.

But, I got food poisioning twice in Pattaya--once, I got a barbecued squid off a cart at 2 AM, which wasn't already cooked (I had thought it was), and realized as I ate the last bite that it maybe had been out in the sun all day. That wasn't as bad as the next time, when I had some kind of bamboo shoots and hot pepper concoction out of a plastic bag (so hot I had to shift my masochism into high gear to avoid looking like a farang wuss to my girl)--I was up all night purging at both ends. Both times, a trip to the hospital and antibiotics took care of it.

Hunterman,

I'm shocked, I can't imagine how eating squid from a street vendor at 2:00 AM and mystery stir-fry out of a plastic bag would give you any intestinal issues

Gee, all the other known and unidentified foods I got off the street carts went down tasty and stayed down.

Somehow, all those carts and alfresco restaurants that have no health department check-ups do pretty well. Astoundingly well, considering that I see how they wash the dishes I'm eating from, there in buckets in the street.

My experience with street vendor food worldwide - from a hot dog vendor in Wichita KS to mystery sea creatures in Korea to rats'-ass souffle in Turkey - is that it's a form of Russian roulette. Eventually you'll get sick at one, and at the ones you didn't get sick at someone else probably did.

Now there is a great idea for a hot coffeetable book: "International Street Dining With Hunter and Cat"

Everyone needs to pre-order, this one will fly off the shelves.

Not as hot as "International Bar Napping With SweetMesquite." That one's a guaranteed Oprah Book Of The Month... ;)