Super Bodega Raymond

Most people reading this may not understand the significance of drinkable water. The idea has taken on a new meaning for us, living in a country where you can't drink the tap water. There is a sign outside the Junta (the office where we are taking pictures) that provides a daily reminder. Watch out for that Leptospirosis. Not a good thing. Of course it's also bad to walk barefoot through cow pies, but it's the water issue that is more relevant to us. By the way, if you click on these pictures, they get much bigger and you can read the sign.

We have an interesting method for getting water. It comes out of this bottle. You put a pitcher under the little spout and then pump up and down a bunch on the blue cap on the top. It takes about 60 pumps or so to fill a 2 quart pitcher, depending on how empty or full the bottle is. Pumping pushes air inside, which puts pressure on the water and forces it up the blue tube and out the spout. We have come to appreciate clean tap water a little more.

It's a five gallon bottle, but that doesn't last very long when this is our only source of clean water. Eventually the bottle goes empty. So we have learned to have a few extra bottles on hand. We have six, and as soon as we have four empties it is time to go to the well. Actually, we don't go to a well. I don't really know where the water comes from. I'm not sure I want to know. When we asked the missionaries who used to live here how to get more water, they referred us to the card in the kitchen drawer.

On the back of the card are the words, "Ask for Richard." Now, if you were calling Super Bodega Raymond, why would you ask for Richard? But I'm used to this sort of thing, so I called the number and asked for "Richard". In Spanish, of course. The response was not very clear on the somewhat tinny sounding cell phone, but basically there was no one there named Richard. I was on my own. So, I explained the nature of our concern to a couple of different people before I finally talked to someone who understood about water. Oh, yes, we can do that. It will cost you 260 pesos. We'll be right over. And to our great surprise about five minutes later there was a buzz from the phone handset next to our front door. Now, as it happens, we had no idea how to respond to the buzzer, so I went down the elevator to let the guy in. There was nobody there. So, I came back up and here was this guy carrying two forty pound bottles of water up the stairs. I explained to him about the elevator and eventually we were left with four full bottles in place of the four empties that the guy carried away with him. It should come as no surprise to anyone who has spent any time here that, of course, he carried the four bottles on his "moto". I'm not sure how such a thing is done. One of these days we'll have to get downstairs early so we can see him drive up.

If you look closely at the card you will see that Super Bodega Raymond is detrás de Macdonald. Well, we've driven past McDonalds many times, but it took some time before we finally found Super Bodega Raymond. I'm not sure we've met Raymond yet. I suppose I should ask, but it never really seemed appropriate. And what constitutes a Super Bodega as opposed to your average every day Bodega is not yet clear to me. 

McDonald's sits at the bottom of a sort of parking lot that connects Ave. Bolívar with José Contreras, two one way streets that we drive on all the time. We live on Bolívar. Anyway, if you walk up to the top of the parking lot and take a left, you will likely run into Super Bodega Raymond, if you are paying attention.

 A clue that you have arrived is the stack of lovely Planeta Azul water bottles next to a sign that says Super Bodega Raymond and advertises Embutidos, Sandwich, Picaderas, y más. You can get cold beer, Loto tickets and los mejores jugos de la zona, y todo tipo de batidas. 

The guy out front is not Raymond. I asked. But he was very friendly. I presume the "motos" out front are Raymond's delivery vehicles. Some day we'll verify that. 

I'm guessing they don't usually have a very up-scale clientele, but it is a reasonably nice sort of place inside. We didn't see any cockroaches, and they have a TV. Probably cable. I don't think either of these guys is Raymond. Or Richard.

Although I'm not yet sure I'd have them make me a sandwich, I'm sure it's the place I'd go if I wanted to buy a Loto ticket. And they deliver really good water. It makes really clear ice cubes that pop out of the ice trays so easily you don't even have to twist them. 

One of these days, I suppose I'll have to go in when there's nobody outside and see what happens if I say Richard sent me. There's probably a stairway hidden behind the cooler.