Mexican Toilets

Here is the toilet, sink, and tub in a room at Hotel Isabela, a great place to stay in Mexico City.

Yes, this picture makes it look like an abbatoir. We hadn't just slaughtered a bull in here, honest. My US$ 10 camera was leaking a bit of light.

Hotel Isabel
Isabel la Catolica No. 63
Mexico, DF, 06000
Mexico
+1-55-18-12-13 y +1-55-18-12-17

This is the toilet, shower, and sink in a room at Motel Paraíso, a great place to stay in Tecate.
Hotel Paraíso
Calle Aldrete 83
Tecate, Baja California del Norte
+1-665-654-1716

And talk about clean! The bathroom was a bit stark, but it was very clean. Even the air — a very pungent waxy block of air freshener hung from a hook above the bathroom vanity. It fumigated the bathroom, and also the bedroom if you forgot to keep the bathroom door closed.

This is the shower and sink in a room at Motel Plaza Fiesta in Ensenada.
It's at Avenida López Mateos 542, +52-(646)-178-2715.

Also see Leon Trotsky's toilet, in Mexico City. I have an entire page featuring his toilet, tub, and hot-water heater.

Also see my non-toiletological pictures from Mexico.

Rose George's The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters is a fascinating description of sanitation conditions around the world. "2.6 billion people don't have sanitation. [....] Four in ten people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket, or box. [....] Poor sanitation, bad hygiene, and unsafe water — usually unsafe because it has fecal particles in it — cause one in ten of the world's illnesses. [....] Diarrhea — nearly 90 percent of which is caused by fecally contaminated food or water — kills a child every fifteen seconds. The number of children who have died from diarrhea in the last decade [1998-2008] exceeds the total number of people killed by armed conflict since the Second World War.

In September 2009, Morna Gregory and Sian James published a book titled Toilets of the World. It's pretty much the same theme that you find here — photographs and commentary on other people's plumbing.

The Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet, by Julie Horan, contends that civilization began with the toilet.

Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing, edited by Laura Noren and Harvey Molotch, has essays by anthropologists, sociologists, and architects on the importance of the toilet, especially for urban dwellers.

Latrinae Et Foricae: Toilets in the Roman World describes the toilets of the Roman Empire from Iberia to Syria, and from North Africa to Hadrian's Wall in Britannia.

Toilets, Bathtubs, Sinks, and Sewers: A History of the Bathroom, explains the history of personal cleanliness and hygiene to children in grades 5-8.

If you're not bored yet, you might be interested in (or at least tolerate):

• Travel suggestions
• To Bob's main site