After having done a ton of research before the move, moving to Mexico is still a new and exciting adventure.
Especially when neither of us speaks Spanish. We’ve done several months of online Spanish during lockdown, but you build a vocabulary at best with no one to practice with.
Navigating everyday tasks online and in-person is another step forward and a learning experience, to say the least.
Water, Water Everywhere
Clean drinkable water in Mexico is a must, especially here in the Yucatan.
Despite what you may hear about the drinking water, the issues are usually created because your body is not used to the extremely high mineral content. Actually, many older pipes in colonial cities don’t help much.
So, you wash with tap water but drink bottled or purified water.
And, especially compared to the USA, bottled water is cheap! But, you use a lot of water! We keep a water bottle in the bathroom and another we use for cooking, making Jamaica tea, and making ice cubes. And especially in May here in the Yucatan, you drink a TON of water because it was 100 F our first week here.
Carrying Water
While our Airbnb host graciously stocked us up with quite a few 5-liter bottles of water, they went quickly.
So, for the first week, we’d stop by the local Super Aki Supermarket on our way back from the Mercado or dinner and pick up one or two bottles. This is definitely a task best done early in the morning or later in the evening. Walking even six or seven blocks in the mid-day heat is no fun.
You learn very quickly to stock up and to find another resource.
They Deliver Everything Here!
Following the ex-pat groups online, we learned that in Merida, there is a guy, or girl, who delivers just about everything!
There’s a fish guy who delivers straight from the fishermen to Merida a few times a week and a woman on the coast who delivers homemade gourmet ice cream and sorbet – and even offers several vegan options.
But, more on those later when we actually get delivery and try the products.
Our Airbnb host recommended a delivery company Bepensa who delivers ‘agua purificada’ and Coca-Cola products and juices in a variety of sizes!
That’s the easy part!
Placing An Order
Two days ago, we went to the company website, clicked Translate to English on my browser, and we’re off to the races.
However, the options were to call – we don’t speak Spanish well enough to carry on a rapid phone conversation. Or to do online chat. So armed with our trusty iTranslate app, we filled out the chatbox, then translated the nice woman’s response. We began the chat by telling her in advance that we were novice Spanish speakers and were using a translation app.
She was very kind and patient, as it seemed like it took forever for us to decode her message and formulate a reply. Having given her Mark’s name, Whatsapp number, and our street address, she confirmed that someone would stop by in 24 to 48 hours.
Two Days Later
Today, our doorbell rang at our Airbnb. As we don’t really know anyone here, and we were approaching 48 hours. It must have been the water guy!
Two young guys, probably in their late 20s, in very official shirts, wearing their required facemasks, were at our door with a small commercial water delivery vehicle parked across the street.
We figured out how the system works between our broken Spanish and our use of smartphone translation apps.
Today we got two 20-liter garrafons of purified water; he stops by on Mondays and Thursdays, checks to see if you need water, and walks it to the front door.
The Cost of Water
The supermarket’s 5-liter bottles of purified water cost about 34 pesos or $1.68 US – WAY less than we’d pay for just a 20-ounce bottle in a US convenience store.
Today’s delivery of the 20-liter bottles came to 230 pesos ($11.36 US) for two bottles. Most of that cost was the deposit on the bottles as the next delivery is 35 pesos a bottle!
This is a considerable saving over the already affordable supermarket water price, and it’s delivered to our door!
Conquering the online chat and conversation with the delivery guy was a small victory. Having home delivery of water is priceless.
Well done!! Nothing ventured = Nothing Ventured 😄
Jajaja! Thanks, Laurie, we needed that!
Living the life. Very interesting on how you’re navigating the great divide (language).
For us, it’s baby steps. We did an online app to learn some vocabulary and are chugging along every day with basic sentences. It’s good to know that locals understand most of what we say. Soon we’ll take some small group Spanish classes to improve communication and grammar.