Waiting for Water

Our beautiful Talavera water dispenser.  I love it.

A fact of life here in our area of sunny Mexico is that unless your home has its own water filtration/purification system, drinking water must come from a garafon.  That's Spanish for those big water bottles placed on office coolers throughout the world.

We were thrilled to discover when we first moved in here that Ciel delivered right to our door, without fail, twice a week, every week.  All we had to do was put the empty bottles outside, and they would come by with full ones.  If we happened to be out when they came, we left the money in the bottle and always returned home to find full garafons waiting for us.  It was a perfect system which rarely failed.

Full water bottles are a beautiful thing.

Then they changed drivers.   Aside from asking us for little favours, such as reheating not one but 2 large pizzas in our microwave, demanding glasses of water and generally rude behaviour, the new drivers were also unreliable.  Regular Monday and Friday deliveries became Fridays only, which turned into every second Friday, or Wednesday afternoon if they felt like showing up.

Not a huge deal for Kevin and I as the garafons are sold at every grocery and convenience store in the bay, but with 3 rooms full and the additional tasks of running a full house, hauling our drinking water home becomes a huge inconvenience.

So, we switched to the other supplier, Santorini.  This caused no end of whining from the Ciel guys, and for many weeks afterward, materialized every Friday and Monday demanding an explanation as to why we did not leave any bottles out for them.

The new delivery system with Santorini also worked great.  For for nearly 3 years, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, they would come by at 11:30 am to exchange empty for full bottles.  I was delirious and once again, our world was perfect.

All good things must come to an end, which happened when they changed their route and began coming by on Tuesdays and Fridays.  This would have been fine, except that they didn't actually get here most Fridays, and Tuesday morning deliveries turned into Tuesday evenings.

Those of you who follow our Facebook Page know that Tuesday is Taco Night here.  We tried leaving money in the bottles as we had before, but either they were not coming or they didn't want to leave full bottles out on the street.  The drivers are really quite nice, and we wanted to keep their service, but even calling the office early on Friday or Tuesday morning did not always result in a delivery.

Rooster, probably dehydrated, waiting for water delivery.

Once again, we were packing our water bottles into the car.   In an effort to combine errands, we would take them with us on Taco Tuesdays and fill them at San Javier, the local water company, on our way to dinner.   But, we don't always go to the same taco stand so, like the water trucks before us,  it was kind of hit and miss.

Eventually, we asked the good people at San Javier Agua Purificada how to get on their delivery list.  I was given a tiny scrap of paper with a name and phone number to call.  Several attempts to call the number proved that it was invalid.   So, Kevin took the scrap of paper back with him on his next water run and a second name and phone number were added to the scrap.

It really was a tiny scrap of paper!

On Tuesday, I called the second number and Enrique said water would be delivered to our door that very day.   I really should know better, but I actually believed him and waited all day for the water to come.  Wednesday morning, I called him again.  He sounded surprised that our order had not been filled and promised to send someone right away.

And he did!!  2 lovely men in a well kept truck filled with water bottles arrived and exchanged 2 empty garafons for 2 full ones.  Again, I was delirious with joy and quite proud of myself for having accomplished this whole ordeal in Spanish.   I was so encouraged that I ventured to arrange with the driver to have him come next Wednesday to repeat the transaction.  He readily agreed and I did cartwheels all the way up the stairs.

Yup, these very same stairs.  You will have to imagine the cartwheel part.

Yesterday was Wednesday and, after putting our garafons on the front step, I passed the morning confident that my arrangement with the driver had been  understood and water would be delivered again this morning.   At 2pm, I called Enrique wondering where the water was.  He said he just sent the truck out, and I should see them in about an hour.   Once it became dark, I gave up waiting and promised myself I would try again tomorrow.

Sigh, no water truck in sight.  

Using the last flicker of hope in my heart, I called Enrique again this morning, Thursday, and   asked him to please deliver water to us.  I again gave him our address and confirmed that yes, they had been here just last week.  He seemed surprised that we would be calling again already.  Perhaps, he assumed that because we are Canadian we subscribe to the " save water drink beer "concept.  Whatever.  Water DID arrive, today, delivered by the very same men who brought it  last week.

Thinking perhaps they misunderstood my original request to regularly deliver water to us, I asked them today if they could arrange to bring water every week.  They looked at me like I had asked them if the sky was blue, and said of course!  So I asked  which day would be most convenient for them to come.  The answer?  Wednesday.

Hope does spring eternal!!  :)