Leaving Home with a Portable Water Filter

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When I first left home, I was headed to Ecuador to spend a few years traveling and learning about life on my own. I knew that I was heading to a third-world country and that the water supply would not be pure. I knew that I could boil the water to make it drinkable, but I wanted another option just in case I needed water and I wasn’t near a heat source. I decided to take a portable water filter with me to Ecuador. I had grown up camping, and so I was very comfortable with camping water filters. I knew that I would have the ability to buy purified water from stores, so I just needed a filter that I could use in emergencies. I also wanted something that I could easily carry with me if I decided to go on a hike or was going to be away from my house for a while.

It might sound a little bit paranoid, but I didn’t always trust bottled water either. I had heard horror stories from friends about getting sick off of bottled water, so I didn’t want to take any chances. I figured that if I bought a camping water filter, it would be the sort of portable water filter that I could easily carry with me in a backpack or keep in a cupboard in my kitchen. As it turns out, it was a good thing I had my water filter because it saved me from serious illness if not death on more than one occasion. Living in a third-world country is always an adventure. They just do things differently than we do here. For example, during my first week in Ecuador, I bought a drink from a shop with some friends. I was used to my drinks coming in a paper or plastic cup with a lid and a straw.

I soon learned that at least at this store, your drink came in a plastic sandwich bag with a straw. I distrusted the cleanliness of the arrangement, but I was too thirsty to care too much. I paid the price for my nonchalance later that night when I began to have stomach pains and later vomited. I lucked out in that once I purged my system I felt better. I could have ended up much worse considering that Ecuador was experiencing a cholera epidemic at the same time period. This one bad experience was enough to teach me to be more careful. Because I knew that food poisoning and disease were distinct possibilities, I made sure to take precautions from then on. I lived in some areas where purified drinking water was not readily available. It was at these times that I relied on my portable water filter most heavily. Since it was lightweight, easy to set up, and easy to operate, I used it almost on a daily basis in some situations.

I know for a fact that people around me got sick off of drinking unpurified water while I suffered no ill effects from drinking the water I had purified from the same source. Some of these people even required medical help due to the severity of the illness or parasites they had contracted. These experiences only served to strengthen my trust in and dependence on my portable water filter. I don’t know if I would have died had I not had a portable water filter with me in Ecuador, but it seems likely that at the very least I would have suffered major illness. I am just glad that I had my filter to keep me safe and healthy. I still use the same water filter as my camping water filter now that I am home, and I still trust it completely.

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