Thirst

Have you ever considered living without the convenience of free-flowing water? I can imagine that this is how a majority of the world currently lives and it has been my reality along with the entire town of Boquete´s for the last three days. The first thing you may notice after waking up on the day the water pressure has subsided to a mere trickle, is that you will be unable to quench your thirst and thus clear your mouth from the last eight hours of slumber. It then may occur to you as you empty your bladder of the previous night´s excesses that you have but one flush left in the toilet, a valuable flush indeed considering the current state of your bowels. The first day is perhaps the easiest, as you still carry faith that water pressure will be restored. However, upon waking up on the second day and realizing that only a gurgle remains in your faucet – you may begin to have doubts as to your abilities to survive in the waterless confines of your house.

As it turns out, in Panama they like to build water mains out of PVC piping, not exactly the strongest material to invest a city´s water supply in, and to top it off they bury the pipes under what remains of a randomly placed system of sidewalks. Now it all seems to be coming together as to why some streets have beautifully paved concrete walkways, while others seem to start and stop in five meter increments… and others still are just a jumble of concrete blocks best navigated on all fours.

The only solution for now is patience, 2 gallor water jugs from the local store, showers using a pot and cup and the aforementioned jug of water, and praying to God every night that they patch up whatever hole busted in their plastic piping with some extra strong super glue…preferably before my next bowel movement.

Here´s a miniature scorpion I found in my bed, crushed by the likes of my nocturnal tossing: