I worked for a couple weeks in Durango, Mexico in the summer 1977 and was ultra cautious about what I ate and drank. One Sunday afternoon I was strolling about town on a VERY hot day. I mean scorching hot. So I let my guard down and bought a snow cone from a street vendor. I thought to myself “What are the chances of a single street vendor snow cone causing me troubles?”
Big mistake. I got to jobs in Ecuador, Chile and Argentina after Mexico. By the time I got to Chile about three weeks later, I was feeling pretty bad. In Argentina a couple weeks after that and the man I was working with said “You have Hepatitis. I’m taking you to the hospital.” They confirmed Hep A and I flew home the next day.
Moral of the story: NEVER buy any food or drink from street vendors in foreign lands.
My wife ate the entire fruit cup from the street vendor so she must have a stronger stomach than me. Meanwhile just TWO small pieces of that fruit immediately set off a chemical reaction in my stomach so violent that I could hear my stomach loudly growling. At that point I could feel the countdown of impending eruption. After I hit the bathroom of the Portuguese official, either the director of their Museum of Modern Art or somebody just below that, I was fine for the rest of the trip.