Hey All,
I am currently travelling in Patagonia and have unfourtunately run out of Aquamira, which I have been using for water treatment until now (goddarn leaky part A bottle!). Up in the high mountains here the water is by and large much safer to drink than in the US, but my main problem is that I am doing a lot of fishing and often camping down low on large river systems with plenty of grazing animals. Since running out of aquamira I have been boiling water on campfires when possible (usually tastes awful), and on other occasions braving it and drinking straight from the river. This hasnt proven to be the best strategy as I have gotten moderately sick twice in the last 1 1/2 months from drinking tainted water. Nothing too bad, but something I would definitely prefer to avoid.
My question is does anyone have any ideas of how I can treat water down here besides boiling? I am thinking iodine drops as a possibility as I have used them in the past when I worked on a trail crew and we needed to treat large volumes of water daily. The question is, would the type of iodine available at a pharmacy be suitable for this or does it have other additives that should not be consumed? AND if pharmacy iodine is a viable solution does anyone know the proper ratio? Any other ideas? I´m not going to try it unless someone can confirm its safety for me. I will look around for some kind of drops or tabs or something in a camping store tomorrow, but usually the stuff you see down here is powder that comes in individual packets and doesn´t stretch very far in terms of longer term (higher quantity) use. Guess I could always buy a whole bunch of packets though.
Thanks for any knowledge anyone might have,
Wishing for Aquamira in Argentina,
Seth Ayotte
