Hello - I'm excited to say that I will be visiting Bonaire next week, for my first time in the Caribbean. My husband and I are very adventurous about food, but are concerned about common travel maladies (i.e. diarrhea). What are good general guidelines to follow? Can we eat salads, or should we not eat anything that doesn't have a removable peel?

Thanks so much!

Welcome to BT Shelly.

It's safe. Never got sick. Use common sense.
Water is very clean and taste like spring water.

Do take some meds for back-up. That does not sound right.

well put..."don't back up!" Cute

This is my first vacation in 10 years - I'm looking forward to trying everything. And I do have meds. For back-up. Or lack of back-up.

Where will you be staying?

We'll be at Lighthouse Beach 33. Hope it's nice....

Bubbles and I got food poisoning on our first trip to Bonaire back in 2000. We were both rather ill for 18 hours each. We had eaten some lunch meat that was sliced and put in a styrofoam tray and wrapped with clear plastic wrap. This particular store has been closed for a long time and I believe it was just poor food handling and not having an expiration date. I have been back 8 times since and have had no problems and don't believe it to be a problem with the island as you can have that same issue here.

Aquaman

I have the dubious accolade of having eaten just about everywhere on the island.

Every tourist restaurant and more importantly, just about every snack bar from Nikiboko to Rincon.

I either have a cast iron constitution or the food is OK.

Be a devil and try everything!

Antony, you and I are cut from the same cloth.

I spent Sunday battling the effect of food poisoning. Did not stray too far from home. We ate at El Fogon Latino on Saturday night, I had the chicken special.
Never had a problem before, but never leave home without immodium!!!!

There is a very effective health department on Bonaire but it is sometimes just impossible to stop the occasional bout of "food poisoning" that occur from time to time. If you do have a problem, it is always a good idea to tell the people where you ate and alert them. I know it is hard to prove that it is their problem however.

Shelly, we just came back from our first trip to Bonaire. We found food safety to be quite good. Quite a few restaurants have open kitchens and you can visually inspect how clean they are. Established restaurants on the island are very careful with food safety. With all the competition around, they cannot afford the bad reputation that comes with food poisoning. Have a great time. A *must* dive, in my opinion, is Angel City.

Thanks Leo! Did you stick to bottled water and drinks with no ice, or did you eat/drink it all?

Shelly, we didn't have a drop of bottled water while at Bonaire! Tap water was great at Den Laman. We brought with us a collapsible cooler and two water bottles capable of holding 2L each. We'd fill them with tap water up to 1L and leave them in the freezer overnight. In the morning we added more water, stored them in the cooler and take them with us at shore dives. Nothing tastes better than ice cold water after a dive!

Shelly, Bonaire's water is very good, no need for concern. Alot of places have ice shipped in from a dealer on island. As with any restaurant, cross contaimination can be a problem. It doesn't matter how clean a kithchen looks. What matters is how the food is handled. And on premise ice machines, whether in the states or on an island vacation spot, can be a source of food poisoning. Out of 20 trips to Bonaire, I have had too many bouts with the stomach, but I have also fallen to the same at restaurants in the states. Samonella (sp) have had twice at home, not on Bonaire (thankfully).

Just enjoy!!!

Shelly,
You need to be careful not to apply generic "Caribbean island" advice to Bonaire. Our sanitary standards are good, our tap water is better than most US tap water, our fruits and vegetables are safe. The standard of living on Bonaire is much higher than on most islands.

And 2 Polars will cure anything! I can prove it. Just watch me.

Having had the pleasure of entertaining 'Smack' for lunch I can confirm that he uses this cure frequently. I think my lunch must have been a worry to him cos I think it was more than two polars but he was probably concerned about germs from across the pond rather than Bonaire hygiene.
(hugs, Smack)

I'm all for the Polars! My next question was going to be: where do I get the four food groups: liquor, beer, wine and cheese?!

In all my travels, my only case of food poisoning was 20 miles from home in the USA!

Enjoy the food. The local water is great.

And to keep any illness away take your standard travel meds (pain, allergy, cold, the runs, anti-acid, etc.) Murphy's law comes to mind here. If you have your meds you won't need them. If you left the meds on the kitchen counter at home, you will need them.

Shelly.

Beer is usually cheapest at the two main supermarkets, Warehouse & Cultimara although sometimes you can get better deals at the smaller "Tokos" if they have some offers on.

For Liquor try T.I.S. which is just along the road from Warehouse. On the same road again (Kaya Industria) but this time diagonally opposite Warehouse there is Antillean Wine Company who stock a great selection of fine wines. Marjolien is very knowledgeable about wine, especially those from Italy.

Bonaire is one of the places that my husband and I have never gotten sick. We've eaten at small and "large" restaurants, take out and eat in.
Never a problem.
The restaurants are always clean, as is the rest of Bonaire, come to think of it.

interesting
Cities Ranked by Dirty Restaurants

chuh chuh chuh CHEESE?

That was an interesting article Boat Chick. I wonder if they are just more stringent in their inspections in Austin and Boston. My husband and I are both adventuresome eaters. That is part of the fun in traveling to different cultures I think. (Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern are on our tivo list! haha!) Living on Okinawa was a kick. (also where we learned to dive way back in the day!) My theory for the trots is to let it run its course. If something needs to make a fast exit, stay close to the biffy, and ride it out. Same for the other end. If it wants to make a U turn, let it go! That is probably TMI. Oh well. Dr. Jane

Thanks Dr. Jane! Not TMI for me - I study parasites for a living

How cool! You would love my story about how I got three bot flies bites in Belize then. They were incubating in my ankle and two places in my legs. Most excruciating pain I've ever had in my life as they were chewing on nerves! After messing around with local yokels I finally went to Baylor Hospital where the doc confirmed that, yes, they were indeed bot fly larvae. I was doing my own internet research and concluded that they could be bot fly bites. The larvae come up to the surface of the skin through holes (breathing holes)at night. I covered the holes over with some kind of heavy cream to suffocate them basically, and then pulled them out myself with tweezers. I put them in ziplok baggies and took them back to Baylor where the doctor was pretty excited about them. He is from South Africa, and had seen plenty of bot flies there, but not so many in Dallas. Go figure. They are now part of his microscope slide collection for future presentations. He called all the folks in to see them under the microscope. Creepy little boogers! Anyway....I do what I can for science! I told him to remember me, because I might see him again. Bot flies aren't going to keep me out of third world countries. ha! BTW, this part of Belize that we went to was Hopkins which is on the coast of the mainland, not out at Ambergris. Just take bug spray if you go. Jane

Jane, there are some bot fly "removal" vids on youtube...o...m...g....you had 3 and pulled them out yourself??? Beings I do what a do for a living, pretty much nothing medical grosses me out. If you search on Youtube for "bot fly" the one from tromar44 is pretty good.

Oooooh.... I love bot flies - we get to see them occasionally in pets, too! Ok, I know some people are likely very grossed out, but parasitology fascinates me. I had one a week or so ago, but it was tiny... about the size of a grain of rice. I've pulled some out that were the size of my thumb to the first joint! Cooool!

I don't, however, think it would be so cool to get one myself.

Hi Jane, I've seen bot fly larvae 'in the flesh' in humans and animals - not in my own flesh though. They don't really bite - the larvae are covered with spines that abrade the tissue. There are videos, I think through BBC, that show how the female bot fly captures a female mosquito and lays her eggs on the mosquito in flight. Then when the mosquito feeds, the heat/CO2 from the skin of the victim triggers the bot fly larvae to hatch from the eggs and crawl into the wound, where they develop further. In many countries they tape a piece of bacon over the airhole to suffocate it, just like you did. I study filarial diseases, which are caused by insect-borne worm of people and animals in the tropics (a nontropical example is heartworm). Not a problem in Bonaire though I'm sure people are loving this discussion on the 'Bonaire Diving' site.

oops, I mean Bonaire Dining site. slip of the fingers

Becky, you have bot flies in WI??? OK, that state is now OFF my list...lol...after watching the vids on you tube, I'm with you, I would never want to get one...parasitology...cool...

Shelly, lol, yes, I'm sure that this discussion has turned a lot away...lol..I was going to post a link to the youtube vid, but figured it would be too much for some...

OK, lunch anyone? lol!

I think I'm going to be sick! you guys are cracking me up....bot flies, larvae, parasites YUM!

We're not eating them, RA, just removing them! haha! Shelly, it sure felt like it was eating through nerves! It you say they were just wriggling around, I'll take your word for it, though. I would wake up at night literally screaming with pain, though. I would never wish that on anyone. While I was trying to figure out from my internet research what was causing all this, I cam across another account of a guy who had gotten a bot fly bite while down in the Caribbean. He had gone to bed nude trying to keep cool, and had got bitten on...well...the scrotum. Of course he didn't know anything had happened until started developing after he got home to the states. He said that the pain literally brought him to his knees while he was at work. I can only imagine! Ay yi yi! Anyway, you can probably google up his story. This happened to me about 8 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

Hubby is getting the dive bags ready. Went to City Cafe for lunch. Kaya Abraham is finished. Lots more building since we were here in March.
Going out to leave bubbles and totally relax.

Jane

Cynde - as far as I know we only get them in animals... I've never heard of a person getting one in Wisconsin unless they were out of the country traveling. I guess our bot flies only like critters (I've seen them in cats, dogs, rabbits, and cows)

Wow, interesting info. I guess I'm living a sheltered life I knew nothing about bot flies.
RA, LOL....burp

Will Canadian Bacon work too?

And horses. When we had horses( many years ago) I was very alert for bot flies. Never had a problem, thankfully.

Timmy...I think so...hmmm..poor guy...

Becky, OK, WI back on the list. So, how do you know a critter has one? scratching? whimpering?

Jan, wow on the horses...I had no idea they were as common as they appear to be.

Hi All,

I happen to, in addition to being a parasitologist, also be a resident of WI! No human bots in the US. There are two major types of bot flies here - Cuterebra spp. that usually inhabit the skin of small rodents/rabbits/kittens; and horse bots which larvate in the GI tract of horses. Cuterebra behaves like Dermatobia hominis, the one that most unfortunately jangled Jane's nerves - larva gets laid usually in some type of wound, grows, eventually drops out to pupate on the ground. Horse bots are just as common, but really enigmatic - the females have black/yellow coloration so people think they're bees and leave them alone. They lay their eggs on the hair of the horse's legs/chest/neck/nose (depending on species), the horse bites at them in irritation, and the horse's saliva causes them to hatch. The larvae travel from the horse's mouth to it's stomach, larvate there, then get pooped out to pupate in the fecal pat. Can cause nasty colic during the intestinal phase. If anyone wants to meet me for a beer next week in Bonaire to discuss parasites endlessly, I'll be in Lighthouse BEach 33! Especially if you're the guy covered in bacon! My husband shouldn't mind him being there since it's work related. BTW, if you really love the bot thing - sheep are affected by a species that larvate in the sinuses - when they're ready to pupate, the sheep sneezes them out.

Shelly, let me know if anyone takes you up on the beer offer LOL!
I'll pass but wish you a safe & wonderful trip to Bonaire!!!!

Shelly, fascinating (seriously). Dang, if I were going to be on Bon next week, I'd have a couple of beers, got pictures or vid? My hubby wouldn't be able to watch, he's got the worse vasovagal syncope you've ever seen. 45 seconds and he'd be hitting the floor.

Oh, if you can get the bot subject above wrapped in bacon there, I'll buy a ticket tomorrow....we must keep him at your place however as a "subject" for a Bonaire Bot Fly Experiment...

lol...this is turning into the ancient car thief thread...however, since Shelly started the thread, I think the turn classifies as ON topic...lol!

We can just call the specimen "Kevin Bacon". Jane

Jane, I like the way you think

Wow, we are a sick bunch of people! I love it. If I were in Bon next week I'd definitely have a beer and talk parasites with you Shelly! Parasitology was my favorite undergrad and vet school class - what can I say, I'm warped. I also haven't thought of sheep nasal bots in ages! I LOVE them!!! LOL

Where in WI are you Shelly?

I'm thinking the taped on raw bacon would be a great source for Taenia solium ... LOL

Where is your practice Becky? My dad is a vet (retired now), so talking about things like this was very common in our household when I was growing up. I learned when I was much older that most people didn't discuss this like this at the dinner table. Surprise! Jane (who did her 4th and 5th and 6th grade science fair projects on Heartworms in Dogs).

Kevin BAcon - I love it! Becky, I'm in Oshkosh (prof at UWO). And yes, Taenia solium could definitely be in the pork, as well as Trichinella and many more of my good friends.

And Jane - one of my side projects is studying Dirofilaria in Wisconsin black bears. It's way cool.

Thanks to all that answered my posts - my trip was wonderful, and now I have a healthy case of PBS. More incentive to work hard, save, and come back next year!!!

Oops, lost track of this thread

Jane - I'm in Manitowoc, WI. I'm laughing at your dinner conversations. I learned that the hard way, too when I'd come back from vet school to spend time with family that when they asked what I was doing in school - they didn't really want details (I came from a family of engineers - not medical types )

Shelly - Dirofilaria in black bears? Do they develop heartworm disease like dogs, complete with microfilaria? Ever need help on a field trip getting samples?? LOL

Shelly, looking forward to your trip report