Hace Frio!

Our apartment is a beautifully furnished place facing the valley and a forest. It’s really nice to look out and see in the morning. Also as I mentioned, Ecuador is a place of consistent climate. It is between 45-80 degrees every day. It gets cold at night. The sun is strong and warms things up in the day. It’s fantastic. In fact, the weather is so fantastic there are no heating or cooling units in the whole country as far as I can see. In our hotel there was no heater and no air conditioner. In all of the apartments we’ve visited or shopped for there were no temperature controls. However these things combine for a hurdle Shannon and I have to get over. The sun rises behind the forest, which means we don’t get sunlight into our apartment until about 9am. The sun is then over our apartment and therefore cannot heat it up by 12:30. This results in chilly temperatures inside most of the day.

This hasn’t been too big of an issue as we bought some space heaters and the consistency has given us an idea of what to expect every day. However, it becomes a BIG problem when one of your two gas tanks runs out; specifically the one that controls the hot water in the house. Also, Shannon is having to do her hair using the heater.

For the past three days and counting, Shannon and I have had no hot water for showers. On day one that means we’re going to bed smelling a little ripe. On day two that means we are going to take cold showers which consist of standing in the corner of the shower shivering and having your teeth shatter like the Crypt Keeper until you work up the nerve on the count of three to jump in to the cold water and as quickly as possible, rinse yourself off. That sucked. A lot. By day three we were a bit wiser and took our tiny pot and tiny pan that the previous owner left in our kitchen and boiled some water using the remaining working gas tank that is attached to the stove. We then transported the water in a bowl to the shower, repeated the shiver jump and followed it up with a warm washcloth and tiny salad bowl of warm water rinse. It’s getting better, but we need a long term solution immediately. Yet another adjustment we need to make as we cope with living in a new country where things work a bit differently.

UPDATE: I thought I solved the problem when I had a conversation with our security guard, Jorge Lopez (yes our security guard’s name is George Lopez) and we discussed the water issue. He told me if I gave him $3.50, and unlocked our outdoor storage bodega, he would pay for a new one when the truck came and he would install it for us. Shannon and I came home very excited for the prospect of hot showers only to find that our old tank was still in the bodega. We hope think that Jorge simply did not see a delivery truck today and that they will come by on Monday with gas for hot water. In the meantime, it’s going to be a long cold weekend.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: It’s Monday night. Still no hot water…