August 13, 2010

Our entire trip has come with warnings and ominous advice — including the well-worn refrain of “Don’t drink the water.”

Everybody has told me this, in one variation or another.

Don’t drink the water. Don’t use the ice. Don’t brush your teeth with water from the tap. Don’t let water from the shower splash your face. Don’t consume blended margaritas. Don’t wash fruit with water from the tap. Don’t eat the fruit that has been grown using the water that you should not be drinking in the first place.

Excellent advice except … I still need water.

Buying many bottles of water per day is expensive and not very eco-friendly. And the chemical drops and pills designed to treat the water are impractical and not a decent long-term solution. Plus, they taste bad.

That’s why the most important thing in my backpack is my SteriPEN.

It’s about the size and shape of a highlighter marker, so it’s extremely light and compact. I can easily stow it away in my daypack or purse when I’m on the go.

To use, I simply press a button, an ultraviolet light comes on, and I stir the pen into the water. Just 90 seconds later — PRESTO! — I’m the proud owner of one liter of fresh, safe water.

I have The Adventurer model, which comes with a solar battery charger — so I’ll never be stuck without access to clean water, no matter where I am in the world.

So far I’ve used my SteriPEN all over the Amazon, through rural Bolivia, even on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, where our guides confirmed the water contained cryptosporidium (aka one of the nasty buggers that will sock you right in the intestines). With my SteriPEN in hand, I was confident that I could purify the water and remain healthy — and I was right.

I firmly believe that this trip would be next-to-impossible to do without a SteriPEN. And that’s something I’d say even if they weren’t one of our sponsors.

I’ll probably even carry the SteriPEN with me once I return home, since some water sources can be pretty dodgy. (I distinctly remember one water fountain at LAX that tasted like mold and poison.) I also think it makes a valuable addition to my earthquake kit.

SteriPENs range in price from about $60 for the small emergency version to $100 for the heftier models. (Extra batteries and solar charging kits cost extra). Purchase through an online retailer like Amazon.com, or visit an outdoor goods store, like REI.

Find out more about the product at their website.