Lost in the Andes

We are getting settled into the new casa and I thought it might be fun to send out some pictures I took in the neighborhood.   Our street is about twenty or thirty houses surrounded by other small developments, vineyards and olive groves.

Most of our neighbors use gas or electric powered mowers,  This neighbor 5 houses down uses an oat powered mower.

The weather has been awsome and we eat outside most days.  There have been a couple of evenings with light rain.

 At Sunset looking East from my observation tower this weather rolled in with rain about midnight.

I haven't been running as much as when we lived in the casita.  It came with a gardener but at this casa I am the gardener and get lots of exercise.  But when I do run I pass by this olive grove about a half kilometer away and break one of the ten commandments about not coveting your neighnors possesions.

This is the hardware store at the end of the street  where I frequently make a fool of myself trying to say something simple like I need a broom. (Necisito escoba)

  This Century(ies) old mansion on the main street that intersects our street looks like something stright from "Gone With the Wind" 

We live in the desert.  You’d never guess it by looking at all the beautiful trees, vines, flowers, and lush plant life.  Of course all that greenery needs water.  And for those of you who know me, you know the only thing I love more than ice is WATER!

We just moved into a new home in October.  The jardin (yard) is supposed to be watered once every 8 days by the acequias, or irrigation canals, and we can use the hose or sprinklers on the other days.  The house has two water tanks.  The bottom one fills with water from the street, then a pump is supposed to take that water up to the top one, allowing us to have a steady water pressure in the house.  The water here is full of minerals, so we also buy water to drink.  So just like anytime a family moves to a new place there are kinks to be worked out.  Our kinks for the past several weeks have been with the water or lack thereof. 

Mark worked diligently to get the acequias mucked out after months of neglect so the water would flow in the right direction to water the jardin of grass with all the roses, plum trees, and palm trees.  He even talked to the Tomero in charge of opening and closing the gates on the acequias.   So on the first Friday Mark was ready.  The water started flowing and he quickly realized the problems with the acequias and our front porch got a nice watering.  Ok, well my engineer got out his tools, levels and shovels and string and such, and got to work to improve the flow before the next Saturday.  The Tomero told him it would be between 9:30 -10:00 in the morning so Mark got up early, put on his boots and was ready.   For some reason, we didn’t get a drop that day.  The canals in front of our house were flowing with water so we knew our neighbors got their allotment, but none came through our gate.  Mark continued working  steadily on leveling the water ways so he’d be ready Sunday of the following week.  Yep, ….another dry run.   OK, the next week on Monday we were ready with a translator to talk to the Tomero.  We even had his phone number.  The number was always busy, and not a drop again.  Well now we had to go up the ladder of authority so we called the owner of the house.  He told us something about how the gate is actually in our neighbor’s yard and gave us the neighbor’s name and phone number so we could check with him.  Our Neighbor said he had the same problem so he suggested that Mark go with him to the Municipal office where the irrigation system is managed.  The two of them went and our neighbor told the man at the front desk how this poor norteamericano needed his water and that the Tomero needed to do something about it.  The Tomero’s superintendent  said he would drive out that afternoon and then go to the neighbor’s house at 3:00 pm and let him know what was going on.  Oh did we tell you that everything shuts down from about 1:30 to 4:30 in the afternoons for lunch and siesta?  Did we really think a municipal worker was really going to work through his lunch and siesta break???  Well our neighbor came over at 6:00 pm to say he had not seen or heard from him.  Mark is continuing to water the yard, moving the sprinkler every few minutes all day long.

So the grass is looking better, but for some reason, we couldn’t take a shower, flush a toilet, or wash our hands because we didn’t have water coming into the house.  We called the owner again and this time we had a plumber at our house within a few hours.  He and his crew of two other men came, two of them climbed up into the tower for the tanks, and the master plumber came and told us to wait 2 hours and it would be fine.  He didn’t think it had anything to do with the floats or valves, as Mark suggested, and if this didn’t fix the problem he’d call an electrician.  Miracle of miracles, within just  5 minutes of his departure we had water pressure again.  YEAH!  Unfortunately the problem returned within a couple of days as our yard was getting greener we had less and less water in the house.  The plumber had to be called again and after his third visit he said it was time for the electrician because it must be the pump.  Again my engineer got out the tools and thought it through and figured out the problem and replaced the valve and floats just like he told the plumber on his first visit.  Silly norteamericano, what does he know about water tanks and valves and floats?  Why he can’t even speak Spanish!   The good news is our grass is continuing to look greener and we can take showers and wash clothes to our hearts content.

There is a wonderful service here.  Trucks come to your door and deliver water and sparkling water or soda as they call it here.  Our street has regular deliveries every Wednesday and Saturday, except when the Sodero (delivery man) who works Saturdays forgets to stop.  We drink a little over 12 liters of water every 3 or 4 days so we need at least 24 liters a week.  We drink soda with most of our meals so we go through about 6 to 9 liters a week of that.  Last Sunday we decided to have a few friends over, so I set the bottles out on the porch Saturday and waited to get our next supply.  Yes, I had to get ready and make a lot of clear clean ice cubes for the cook-out and since we were planning to sit outside we would need a lot of water for everyone.  I’m sure by now you’ve guessed that he didn’t come.  We got a translator to call the company and ask them to please bring more water and they said OK they would send someone over later in the afternoon.  No water Saturday, Sunday, or Monday when the translator called again.  Oh no problem, more would be delivered that afternoon.  Well we didn’t see the water man until the “regular” time at 9:30 Wednesday morning.  I went ahead and got an extra supply so we would be set for a dry run, but I think we were all so thirsty by then we started going through more than we ever have.

We don’t know if the acequias will run this Wednesday or not, or if the water man will come, but we have a greener yard, the washer is going, and I am about to take a shower.  Even with our little misadventures I am still very happy to be this side of the equator with my engineer and new friends.  Y’all come see us and I’ll pour you a tall glass of water.