What can't I buy in Colombia?

[Kiltboy1]

Mar
Secnidal is available OTC in most drug stores in Colombia, no script needed. Cost about 5 bucks

KB

[Mar]

GREAT news! ^^^
Thank you sir!

[JimD]

"This drug is an antiparasitic belonging to the nitroimidazoles group. It is intended for the treatment of: -Urethritis and vaginitis due to trichomonas vaginalis. -Intestinal amoebiasis. -Hepatic amoebiasis. -Giardiasis."

You can avoid problems with your dick by using a condom but I caught a hellacios case of Giardia on one visit to Barranquilla. Giardia is caca+the food/water you consume. ¡Cuidado!

[JimD]

(Good advise about the tap water, when I was living in Cali about 4 years ago my ex-wife sister got hepatitis b from drinking tap water. Hell even using ice freak me out, My ex told me even to make ice they had to boiled the water. I don't know if that was all over Cali but in La Floresta Vieja where my ex-wife's family lives definitely couldn't drink the water. )

The tap water quality in Cali depends on the strata of the barrio.  In lower stratas people have to use a Bell Ozono or similar purifier. In stratas five and six the tap water is usually safe. The big risk as has been said many times is street food, usually when it old (by a day or more) and has been in Cali heat all day. I have a most miserable recolection of a day and night after eating a bad "papa rellena" a pastry consisting of a potato inside a fried pastry shell with an egg and rice inside.

[Bob_S]

The issue with shopping while traveling is not that they don't have what you're looking for but that you won't recognize it when you see it because either you can't read the language (not as much of a problem when you're traveling to LA or SA as opposed to Asia) or it goes by a different generic or brand name.
To cope with the first option, you might want to make yourself a list.  Column 1 has the English name of the product (toothpaste, shampoo, Aspirin, etc.), column 2 has the target language name in the target language alphabet, and column 3 has the target language name transliterated back into English so you can pronounce it.  I found Travlang helpful for making such a list.

[Kiltboy1]

Giardiasis


Yep. I had that suker one time too. That is when I found out about Secnidal and never have had problemos since , but I kill the little bastards before they can mate and multiply

KB

[hennatoes]

I went to Brazil without a yellow fever shot. If I remember how it was back then, I could have gone from USA to Colombia to Brazil to home and no one would have asked me, but if I had gone from Brazil to Colombia and back, they would have asked me in Colombia if I had had the shot. I also brought andiroba oil, which is like taking owls to Athens. There was some dengue going on in Minas at the time; the trains had the usual warnings about not letting tires collect water, but nothing about medicines to take.