The Halls of Montezuma

Thanks for the ideas, Harry.

On the note of Montezuma's revenge, my sister got very sick after her recent trip to Mexico city. She thinks it was from the water. Any other tips for avoiding it? Is it safe to order drinks with ice, or should that be avoided?

It's tough to suggest what your sister became sick from. In Z/Ix the city water goes through a modern processing plant that I expect eliminates the worst things that can infect a municipal water supply, like killer protozoa and E Coli, but the pipes delivering that water can be dodgy and it's not unusual to run dry at different times of the year, so that will mess with the water quality too. But bottled water is everywhere, and the hotels have cisterns and buy trucked in water with consistent quality, so you should be OK that way. I won't drink the tap water, but I have brushed my teeth with it with no apparent ill effects so far. You must also guard against food poisoning which is very easy to happen with cooked, especially starchy foods are allowed to stand in tropical temps which multiply bacteria literally in minutes. So just be sure to eat freshly cooked and not re-heated foods, avoid stuff mixed with mayonnaise (unless you opened the jar) and I avoid leafy salady things and non-acidic cut veggies unless they are piping hot. Salsas are fine. They are acidic by nature. Squirting lime juice on your meat or fish is a good idea for more than just the taste.

When served a drink with ice, as long as the cubes have the holes in the middle o they were machine made, and therefore generally sterile. That's standard in Z/Ix anyway.