Blog post by Tina Winterlik © 2011
http://tinawinterlik.blogspot.com
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| Religious Handmade Ornaments for the Altars during Semana Santa-Oaxaca, Mexico-Adventurez in Mexico Photo by Tina Winterlik © 2011 |
Cultural Differences :
- No drinking water from taps- this includes brushing your teeth
- Use Bottled water
- Washing dishes, make sure they are completely dry before use.
- Use microdyn to wash all fruits and veggies
- No baths
- Basically your camping for 5 or 6 months
- Cold Showers
- Throwing toilet paper in a basket and not down the toilet
Here are some tips to help with the above:
* Kids hate cold showers - a trick we worked out was to fill a couple of water bottles with water and then put them in the sun for a few hours, buy a small dish tub(or the biggest you can find) and pour the water in and viola, you have a mini warm bath for your child.
*You must rinse the salt water off. We ended up a with a nasty rash from the heat and the salt and all the tan from the back of Angel's leg left and was all pink and raw and exposed to the sun.
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| View of Zipolite Beach from Shambhala- Adventurez in Mexico Photo by Tina Winterlik © 2011 |
This happened for 2 reasons-
1) We forgot to shower off after visiting a beach an hour from home
2) She didn't like wearing cream, she hated the feeling
People actually thought she had El Hongos which translates to fungi
But a Oaxacan doctor told us she was allergic to the sun and his advice was
- at the beginning put a tiny amount of hydrocortizone on it
- then Almond oil in her bath (that's where the dishtub came in)
- sunblock(Personally I don't like it, I think it has a lot of chemicals, so we used it in moderation)
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| Sunset-Zipolite, Oaxaca, Mexico- Adventurez in Mexico Photo by Tina Winterlik © 2011 |
The second year she was accustomed to the heat, and I was more prepared and we had less issues.
For little babies, my friend recommended corn starch...she used it for her little boy and it worked great.
She recommended to a very earthy mom but she didn't want to use it, because of breathing issues it might cause. We couldn't figure that one out, as the baby had a terrible heat rash and had been playing in dusty sand...so go figure.
On that note...travelling with very young children ...I wasn't able to return to Mexico until Angel was 6. I believe everything happens for a reason. I just don't know how I would have managed the diapers, putting things in mouth, buggies/strollers, all that with a little baby...those things are challenging enough in Canada...so please keep this in mind. It's different if your Mexican and this is your culture, but as an outsider it's something your going to want to consider very seriously.
Mosquitos
- Angel does much better with mosquitos than I do...I am allergic and must use Off Crema -which they charge a fortune for $6-8 a bottle
Sunblock is also very expensive $12- $14 a bottle and when your there 6 months, this can really eat up your budget.
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| Long-term Green Travel with Kids- Adventurez in Mexico Photo by Tina Winterlik © 2011 |
