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<DIV>We drank from fountains last year on the Camino Frances and had no issues
nor did we hear of others with problems. Fountains that were unsuitable were
clearly marked. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I know that some of the other travellers were drinking bottled water
exclusively. I would consider it a personal decision based on your own risk
tolerance.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=HMe347aAOL.COM href="mailto:HMe347aAOL.COM">Howard Mendes</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=GOCAMINOapete.uri.edu
href="mailto:GOCAMINOapete.uri.edu">GOCAMINOapete.uri.edu</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, March 24, 2004 6:58
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: water</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 03/24/04 05:15:27 AM Eastern Standard Time, <A
href="mailto:claudietta67aHOTMAIL.COM">claudietta67aHOTMAIL.COM</A>
writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
face=Arial>Some Italian friends of mine biked the Camino francès two years
ago.<BR>They warned me not to drink water from fountains on the road. They
did it<BR>and were sick for some days, with also slight fever.<BR>I don't
know exactly which kind of fountain they took water from, but just<BR>to be
sure, I avoided public fountains and always bought bottles of
water.</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0080c0>We had a long debate about this subject a
couple of years ago. I believe that the consensus was that it is safe to
drink from the public fountains except those that are clearly marked not to
drink from and my recollection is that they even had a skull and crossbones as
a warning. Most of the pilgrims I encountered drank from public
fountains all of the time with no adverse affects. In my opinion,
bottled water in a plastic bottle that is on a shelf for an unknown period of
time can be harboring bacterial growth more likely than running fresh
water. After all, from historical times, people in villages have been
drinking this water. I think that there are better uses for money than
buying water. Further, what convinces you or your Italian friends that
it was the water that made them ill? It reminds me of people who think
that drafts give them colds. Howard Mendes,
NYC</FONT></STRONG></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>