I had heard pretty much everyone who goes to Xmas gets the runs at some point. I’m here to tell you this is not the case.
The risk is certainly on Christmas Island, however, and caution is your friend.
The Villages provides purified water in a pitcher in your room. Use it. Use it to brush your teeth. Use it to rise your toothbrush. Use it for anything.
Don’t put water in your mouth in the shower. Just don’t.
I had a phone appointment before I left with the Kaiser Travel Clinic and they got me a 3 pill prescription for antibiotics specific to what I might encounter there. I didn’t need to use them.
It was frequently the case that guides missed days because of GI bugs. Water borne disease is pretty rampant on Christmas and the locals are very much not immune. Many guides powered through their days even with their stomach bugs and would simply excuse themselves to take care of business. It’s life on the island and that guiding money isn’t going to come from anywhere else.
Only one guy out of our 16-17 anglers had any issues and that was minor, treatable with Imodium (which is NOT how you treat sever diarrhea). Caution and prevention is where it is at.
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Tags: Christmas Island, diarrhea, Xmas Island
“I had heard pretty much everyone who goes to Xmas gets the runs at some point. I’m here to tell you this is not the case.”
Yes, that is not the case, in my case–after a number of trips to Christmas with a number of anglers, who didn’t get sick.
However, a dose of common sense and Boy Scout prep can work wonders, especially when fishing places such as Patagonia, Brazil, small islands anywhere , and even in the good ol’ USA (those crystal clear streams that might have had Flossy & Bossy standing in them a bit upstream).
Most of my bonefishing friends take with them: Cipro, or other massive antibiotic (Cipro literally saved my life in the Yucatan five years ago), anti diarrhea meds, and the reverse –stool softener and /or good ol’ ExLax, and such.
And of course a load of Tums & asprin for the night before and the morning after, and tons of ibuprofen in any form for the post 8 hour days of throwing streamers. Of course bandaids in all sizes with anti-bacterial cream is a must.
I always carry fresh spool of J&J waterproof tape — which will secure those band-aid or larger wound protectors– is my favorite for protecting those tender digits from stripping line burns and burns from fast fish.
Plus, J&J tape works fine for marking reel cases and soft rod sleeves with line wts, etc. There is so much more, of course., Best is take a massive dose of common sense with you.
“I had heard pretty much everyone who goes to Xmas gets the runs at some point. I’m here to tell you this is not the case.”
Yes, that is not the case, in my case–after a number of trips to Christmas with numbers of anglers, who didn’t get sick.
However, a dose of common sense and Boy Scout prep can work wonders everywhere, especially when fishing places such as Patagonia, Brazil, small islands anywhere , and even in the good ol’ USA (those crystal clear streams that might have had Flossy & Bossy standing in them a bit upstream).
Most of my bonefishing friends take with them: Cipro, or other massive antibiotic (Cipro literally saved my life in the Yucatan five years ago), anti diarrhea meds, and the reverse -stool softener and/ or good ol’ ExLax. And of course a load of Tums & asprin for the night before and the morning after, and ibuprofen in any form for the post 8 hour days of throwing streamers.
Of course bandaids in all sizes with anti-bacterial cream are a must. I always carry fresh spool of J&J waterproof tape — which will secure those band-aid or larger wound protectors– are is also great for protecting those tender digits from line burns from stripping and runs from heroic bonefish and other types. Plus this wonder tape is fine for marking what’s in those reel cases and even those pesky cloth rod sleeves