Who Was Montezuma, and What Was His Revenge?

Montezuma was emperor of the Aztecs in the 16^th century, and not a good man. His specialty was human sacrifices. He was captured by Cortez , and died in the Spaniard’s custody in 1520. He was reputed to drink as many as 50 cups of hot chocolate a day, spiked with chilli peppers – hence the name ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’ for the explosive diarrhea that sometimes hits visitors to Latin America .

The ways to avoid this problem include not drinking the tap water, avoiding salads and fresh fruit - unless you can peel it yourself- and taking a Pepto-Bismol tablet daily while you are in the area. If you are indeed struck, there’s the relatively new antibiotic that’s specially targeted at traveler’s diarrhea: rifaxim, or Xifaxan®. Maybe get some from your doctor before you travel; forewarned is forearmed, as they say.