Learning to cope without running water

Throughout my travels, I have occasionally had to cope without running water. While I knew intellectually that this was a daily reality for billions of people on the planet, it was never part of my reality growing up in the suburbs of one of Canada’s largest cities.

The first time I experienced a lack of running water was on a trip to Guatemala in November 2013. I was staying for a few weeks in Antigua, a popular town about an hour from Guatemala City. I was staying with a local family in a relatively nice house in the centre of the town. One day, I woke up to find that we couldn’t take a shower that morning and all the public toilets had been closed.

I learned throughout the day that the city’s running water would periodically shut off. In fact, one restaurant with a private water tank took advantage of the business opportunity and began charging nearly $2 U.S. to use their bathroom. At the time I found the experience extremely frustrating — mostly because I have the tendency to use the bathroom multiple times throughout the day, but by the evening running water had returned and I promptly forgot about.

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My next experience living without running water was on a trip to Colombia in December 2015 and January 2016. I had the chance to travel to Colombia’s La Guajira desert to film a video project. The desert’s barren landscape runs along Colombia’s northern tip — even running alongside the Caribbean Sea in places, including backpacker hotspot Cabo de la Vela.

For my trip, I spent four days going through the desert in a jeep. I was travelling with three Colombians and a Spaniard. One of the Colombians, a member of the Wayuu people, acted as our guide – directing us through desert roads, and translating from the local language to Spanish as we came across indigenous settlements.

I will discuss the trip in another post, but for this post the thing I will say stood out to me the most, was the day our guide took us to the top of a sand dune near her childhood village of Puerto Estrella. There she pointed at a large section of dried mud and explained that until recently the area had been a freshwater lake: the main source of water for the community. Now, the area hadn’t seen rain in more than two years, so it had dried up.

Later that night, as we stayed at her cousin’s house, I went into their bathroom to find all the regular fixtures in place, but all the pipes disconnected. Instead, the family collected water from a well and stored it in a large plastic drum. That moment made me realize the devastating effect that climate change was having on the area. Up until recently the family had enjoyed all the conveniences of modern life – a flushing toilet, washing machine, regular running water for showers. Now, their lives had returned back to the way their grandparents had lived: pumping water and using a bucket of water for daily needs.

I have read about similar situations happening in many places around the world. I hope one day to document it. Unfortunately, my Spanish was not good enough at the time to engage in a thorough discussion with my host family about the realities of their life. But one day I hope to return.

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My most recent experience was during a visit to an Ameridian village in Guyana. Within the village, each home has its own water pump to access a well. Every morning, they go out and pump water into a bucket for showers, washing dishes or cooking. Drinking water comes from a tank of collected rain water passed through a carbon filter.

As I pumped water every morning for my bucket cold shower, I got through by thinking about how great it would feel when I returned to the city with my hot shower in my apartment.

I’m sharing these experiences because they stuck with me and remind me how precious water is. Unfortunately, I used to have the bad habit of wasting water with half-hour long hot showers. Nowadays, I try to limit my consumption. I’m hoping these experiences help you do the same.

Weekend at the Lake

I’ve meant to write this post for a few days, but haven’t had much time with Internet. I’m writing this at the Bagel Barn just off the central square in Antigua. I’m writing this on my iPhone so please ignore any errors.

I spent the weekend al Lago, which is what the locals call Lago Atitlan or Lake Atitlan. The lake is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. It’s in a basin in the middle of about 5 different volcanoes and is extremely peaceful.

My journey to the Lake started at about 7:30 Saturday morning, when I left my home-stay and walked to a local bakery that also organizes shuttles to the lake. The shuttles are white vans that can sit up to 14 people even though there are only 12 seats. Fortunately we only had 10 people in the van so everyone had a seat. We quickly realized though that seatbelts were wishful thinking. We managed to get the shuttle for 130 Quetzales each for the return trip, so about $15.50 USD or $7.25 each way.

The ride to the lake was uneventful but quite slow. About 3 hours later we were there.
There are about 25 little towns or pueblos around the lake and the shuttle dropped us off at the largest, Panajachal or “Pana”. From there we had to take a water taxi across the lake to our hostel in the town of Santa Cruz called La Iguana Perdida or The Lost Iguana. We haggled with three different drivers and eventually got the ride for 10 Q. each (about $1.25 USD).

I would highly recommend the hostel. It was one of the most beautiful and cheapest I have ever stayed in. It was organized as a bunch of individual cabins and a main house right next to the lake. There were several options for rooms, but we decided on El Castillo, the castle, also known as the treehouse. The cabin was open-air and about 3 meters off the ground. It had a roof but only two walls and no electricity. While it might not normally be my first choice of accommodation… I figured, why not? The room cost 35 Q. each or about $4.50 USD. (In case you are wondering a room with doors, walls and electricity was only 10 Q. more so about $5.50 USD).

After we got checked in, a group of six of us decided to go kayaking on the lake. I hadn’t been kayaking since I was 10 years old and it was a great experience. Though I was tired by the end of the hour.

After kayaking we had some beers and chips and guacamole before eating a buffet BBQ dinner provided by the hostel. (All you could eat for 65 Q. or about $8 USD). After dinner we played some pool before taking candles to our room and getting ready for bed. The hostel provided about a dozen extra blankets in the room and I was very warm all night. I will admit I was a bit worried about bug bites overnight, but when I woke up the next morning, I was fine.

Sunday, we are breakfast and checked out and then took the water taxi back to Pana. Our plan for the day was to visit the nature reserve that had real wild monkeys and coatis that we could feed. After a quick stop at the market for bananas, we took a five-minutes tuk-tuk ride to the reserve. A tuk-tuk is kind of like a covered motorcycle with a back seat or maybe more like a golf cart with only one wheel in the front. It is meant to fit two or three people, but we had five people on the way back. (A friend in Antigua said he fit 6 people in a tuk-tuk one time).

The nature reserve was lovely and true to its word, we were able to feed monkeys and coatis. We also went for a hike up to a waterfall and across about a dozen suspended bridges. One of my friends was terrified of the bridges and almost had a panic attack each time we had to cross.

Around 4 pm we were picked up by the same driver for the ride back to Antigua. The driver took a different route back and it featured a LOT of sharp turns high up in the mountains on extremely narrow roads. At one point we could see that the road was gone, perhaps destroyed by a landslide, so the driver had to go around. He drove down a short bank, across a shallow river and back up the other side. We were very happy when we were back in Antigua.

Staying safe in Guatemala

Before I came to Guatemala several people and especially my parents told me that Guatemala is extremely dangerous and I shouldn’t go.

The Canadian government tells Canadian travellers to exercise a high degree of caution because of violence, roadblocks, strikes and demonstrations that happen periodically. It also mentions that Guatemala has one of the highest rates of violent crimes in Latin America.

I have been in the country close to a week now, and even though that isn’t much time, I have picked up a few tips to staying safe.

First of all, the Canadian (and probably American) government websites say never to travel on the local public buses called Chicken Buses… this is something I do every day to get to my placement in another city. The chicken bus only costs 3.50 Quetzales (about $0.45), and often I’m the only none local person on the bus. (Though I have run into other volunteers periodically). I’m glad that this is the way that I have to get to work, because it gives me a better idea of what  it’s really like to live her. But I still do several things to stay safe – I always make sure I have nearly exact change for the fare and I put it in my pocket before I get on the bus, so that I’m not routing through my bag inside. If I don’t have exact change, I make sure I never give them more than 10 Quetzales because I don’t want to show too much money. I also don’t bring more than about 60 Quetzales with me to my placement (about $7.80) and leave my passport, iPhone and camera at home. I carry a small bag and keep it on my lap and I keep my head up and stay aware of my surroundings…. so far I have had no problems.

When taking a chicken bus, there is a helper who hops on and off frequently, often before the bus comes to a full stop. Just tell him where you want to go and you’re good to go.

Secondly, I never walk alone at night… (anytime after about 7:30 p.m.). When I do go out, I again make sure I only have the bare minimum with me and keep my bag out of sight.

Another hazard in Antigua at least is trying to cross the roads. There are no traffic lights and stop signs are treated as a suggestion, but as long as you have about 15 metres between you and the car, there is time to cross… because the cars cannot travel quickly on the cobblestone. Watch out for motorcycles and scooters though… they never stop.

Most of these tips are common sense… but when I’m walking around, I’m shocked by how often I see tourists with huge cameras around their necks gawking at buildings with their bags unattended. They’re just making themselves a super easy target for robbery.

Wandering around Antigua, Guatemala

Here are some photos I have taken over the first few days of my trip

Settling in to life in Antigua, Guatemala

It’s hard to believe that I have only been in the country a few days; I have done so many things since I arrived on Sunday.

My first taste of life in Guatemala was getting a handle on “Guatemala time” at the airport. My flight arrived half an hour early and I was excited about the idea of having much of the day to myself. I was on the flight with another girl who is volunteering here with me and we made it through customs without any problems. We found the driver right away and were excited to get on our way. But the driver told us he was still waiting for another flight at it would be “veinte minutos” (twenty minutes). As I mentioned, our flight had arrived early, so we figured it would be no problem, but 30 minutes later there was still no flight. We asked the driver again and was old “cinco minutos” (five minutes). Finally, about 20 minutes later two more girls showed up. We were a bit upset that 20 minutes, was actually 50 minutes, but thought that maybe their flight was delayed and brushed it off. Then the driver said we were actually still waiting for another flight. When I asked how long it was and he said again “cinco minutos” I replied back “actually five minutes or is it more like 30?” He assured me that it was actually five minutes. Of course it wasn’t. A full hour later, the other girl showed up and we were finally on our way.

I’m staying in a house with about 10 other volunteers and managed by a “Host mom” named Mary. We eat all our meals together at 7 a.m., noon and 6 p.m. The food is good, but it involves a LOT of carbs. Yesterday our lunch was chicken with both rice and potatoes on our plate, and dinner was spaghetti with leftover potatoes and bread.

In the mornings, I am taking Spanish lessons one-on-one with an instructor. I’m learning a lot and I feel confident speaking with shop keepers and my host mom in Spanish.

In the afternoons, I take a “chicken bus” to my volunteer placement in another town about a 25-minute drive away. The buses are super old school buses that are painted in outrageous colours and the ride is extremely bumpy!!! Chicken buses are how Guatemalans get around and there are only ever locals on the trip with me. I don’t ever take anything valuable with me and keep my bag in my lap, so I feel relatively safe.

My placement is at an after school program for under privileged kids in the town of San Antonio Aguas Calientes. (San Antonio Hot Springs… though I’ve been told the hot springs dried up a long time ago.) It is summer vacation now, and while I’m supposed to be teaching the kids English… they’re not very interested in learning much. Mainly I just speak to them in English while they play their games and try to get them to understand and say a few words back.

The kids all come from poor backgrounds and get a hot meal at the program as well as tutoring services to help with their schooling. Their school fees (about $100 US) are paid for by international sponsors. The kids are nice enough and I’m actually learning a bit of Spanish from them. They are writing letters to their sponsors for Christmas and wanted me to translate them into English, so I worked with the kids to try to understand words that I didn’t know and I think it also helped their English.

Tonight I am doing a free salsa lesson (and snacking on guacamole) and then going out to dinner for Indian food with my house. There are some volunteers who have never had Indian food before, so it should be fun.