COSTA RICA LIVING XIV
Water, Water, Everywhere… but Not Today
This week marks the end of my 90-day tourist visa here. To renew it, we ex-pats make “border runs,” some to Panama, some to Nicaragua. This time I’m headed back to the States for a few days, and on my return, I’ll be granted the right to stay in my new home for another 90 days.
This is the way we ex-pats roll while we wait for the bureaucracy to process our applications for residency. I’m counting on being granted residency as a pensionado, which simply means I’m in a class of retired people on a fixed income.
Meanwhile, I’ve bought a cute little house, I’m planting a garden, and I adopted a sweet mutt to keep me company — all indications that I plan to stay here for the duration.
Everything works fine here… until it doesn’t
Every ex-pat here knows that the electricity is going to shut down now and then, usually for no particular reason. It happens. We all have solar panels to keep our devices charged and flashlights, candles, or other emergency lighting. Just. In. Case.
When the lights go out, that’s the time to listen to the jungle noises, to sit outdoors and feel the soft breeze on our faces, to have conversations (!), or — in my case — to eat that last bit of ice cream before it melts.
¡No problema!
But when the water stops flowing, that’s a whole ‘nother smoke.
- Yay! I don’t have to do the dishes tonight!
- My dog Cassie gets the last bit of Britta-filtered water left in the fridge.
- There’s one flush remaining in the tank. Pooping in the jungle is a last resort because… well, spiders and snakes.
- My dog has to have a bath before I take her to the dog sitter in two days. Stinky hairy doggies with muddy feet do not get to stay with my sitter!
- I have to have a bath sooner rather than later. I’ve been gardening all afternoon, and it shows. Stinky hairy girls with muddy feet do not get to slip between clean sheets tonight.
- Thank the gods I did laundry this morning. At least I’ll be able to pack clean underwear for my trip.
The previous owners of my casita were prepared for this. Alberto had connected a 55-gallon drum to city water (therefore always full), which he piped into the bathroom, and into the work sink in the back porch. In the tiny bathroom, there were two uglinesses of PVC piping coming through the open window, one pipe for the shower and one for the toilet. It was a horror to behold.
Moreover, open windows adjacent to the jungle give me the willies, especially at night, so I had Chito remove and replace them with screens. In the process, the emergency PVC pipe poking through had to go. In the photo above, the arrow points to the severed water line that once supplied the shower and toilet when water was cut off. Alas.
The good news is that Cassie and I won’t die of thirst. The bad news is that the water in that drum isn’t accessible until I seal the open end of that cut pipe. This will be a job for tomorrow, after a visit to the hardware store.
The other good news is that I have friends down the road a bit who probably won’t mind letting me rinse off if my water doesn’t come back on soon. I’ll definitely need a shower before I get on that plane! No one will be complaining about wearing a mask.
¡La Pura Vida!
Life is simpler here. And for everything that has gone “wrong” since I arrived, my Tico friends just say, “Don’t worry. There’s a solution for everything.”
Exactly. But probably just not today.
For more adventures, check these out! Thanks for joining me on this wild ride!