Agua

Because of the lack of treatment of water from the taps in Oaxaca, I buy purified water for drinking and brushing my teeth. Some locals buy huge jugs of water--garrafones--an carry them home, but most wait for a water man to come down the street calling "agua!" and buy garrafones from him. So that is what I do. The guys come down my street about 8 or 8:30 a.m. most every day. When I need water I listen for his cry of "agua!" and I run out to the street and call "un, vidrio". This means I want the garrafon to be of glass, not plastic because the plastic jugs look like they have been around the block and besides, glass looks so cool. The guy goes back to his truck that is parked somewhere around the corner, carries the garrafon into the apartment, removes the empty jug and puts the new jug in the stand. The small 1.5 liter bottle in the photo costs 12 pesos (about 92 cents) and the 20 liter glass garrafon costs 40 pesos (about $3). A plastic garrafon costs only 15 pesos. Today two of us went to the gate asking for vidrio and the guy carried both garrafones at once to our place. What strength.