Waiting For La Pipa

Cuernavaca is known as the “City of Eternal Spring” because of its year-round warm climate. Many Mexicans come here from Mexico City on the weekends to enjoy the pleasant temperatures and escape the big-city commotion. Similarly, Vince and I chose Cuernavaca as our home for the month because of its weather and proximity to Mexico City.

So far, Cuernavaca is working out well for us. Our apartment is big, bright, and airy. It has three bedrooms, one and a half baths, a good-sized living room, a small kitchen, and a big dining room that opens onto a large balcony. The balcony overlooks the courtyard below that is filled with tropical plants and well-established trees. Vince has set up his makeshift office on the balcony and enjoys the greenery and serenade of a variety of birds that come to feed and “frolic” in the trees every day. It’s a pleasant work environment for him.

While Vince is his office, I’m either working on my writing on the dining room table or exercising in one of the spare bedrooms. We brought some resistance bands with handles as a travelling substitute for our weights at home. I’ve been following a short routine on YouTube as well as continuing the group session with my online trainer twice a week. The resistance bands don’t work nearly as well as what I’m used to but they’re better than nothing. I looked for hand weights at the Woolworths down the street but they didn’t have the caliber that I wanted. Besides, I didn’t want to invest in equipment that I would probably be leaving behind. So the bands will have to do for now.

We’ve shopped for other items at Woolworths since we arrived. We love our spacious apartment, but its ill-equipped kitchen has been a disappointment. Clearly the owner of our apartment has been catering to mostly weekend guests because there was very little cooking equipment in the kitchen when we arrived. There was a set of dishes and some cups and glasses, but the cabinets were empty except for a blender, a frying pan, a coffeemaker, and a leftover bottle of vegetable oil. We bought a cheap saucepan and dishpan at Woolworths and went to a nearby supermercado to pick up grocery staples as well as dish soap and laundry detergent. We found a supermarket that we can walk to that allows us to continue to keep the kitchen stocked with essentials. Since we don’t cook every day, we can get by with fewer groceries.

Our apartment also lacks a washer and dryer. We haven’t seen any laundromats nearby, so we’ve been handwashing our dirty clothes instead. Vince bought some strong cord and a bag of clothespins and set up a clothesline out on the balcony. Handwashing a few items of clothes a day has become part of our morning routine.

We weren’t able to do our laundry routine one morning last week when we woke up and discovered that there was no running water in the apartment. Vince sent a text to the landlord who lives in the building. As we were considering places to buy a large container of water, he let us know that the water was running again.

But not for long. The next day, I exercised and showered while Vince worked. Afterwards, we went for a long walk. When we returned, we realized that there was no running water again. Vince notified the landlord and inquired if this was a common occurrence. He assured us that it was not, and let us know that he had ordered “a pipa” that would be arriving later in the evening or possibly early the next morning. A pipa? To us, a pipa is a pipe. Did a pipe need to be replaced? What did he mean that a pipa was going to be arriving? Was someone also arriving to install it?

The pipa did not arrive that evening. When we still had no running water the following morning, Vince and I decided to buy a large container of water from the little store down the street. We grabbed a cloth shopping bag, walked down two flights of stairs, and approached the front gate of our building. There was a couple waiting outside the gate. As we passed them, we realized that they were looking at a large water tank truck parked down the street. We turned around to ask them if they lived in the building and if they knew what was going on with the pipa. The man, Mario, introduced himself and explained that he was in charge of maintenance. He was waiting for the pipa to arrive at our building. Our landlord, Francisco, had ordered the pipa to come and fill the cisterns located in our courtyard. Oh, the pipa was the water truck! Now we understood!

We stood for a while and chatted with Mario and his wife Paula. Then we left to buy the oversized bottle of water to fill the dispenser in our kitchen. When we returned, the pipa had arrived and the driver was dragging a large hose into the courtyard. Francisco was monitoring the process. We stopped to chat with him and ask a few questions about the apartment. How do we dispose of our garbage? (Put it outside our door and Mario will pick it up) Will new garbage bags be supplied? (Yes) When and how often will the apartment be cleaned? (Weekly) Will sheets and towels be regularly replaced with clean ones? (Yes) Will the water dispenser be filled on a regular basis? (Yes)

Eventually I left and went back up to the apartment, but Vince stayed to help with the hoses and continue chatting with everyone. He had just learned a whole new set of Spanish vocabulary words around water, the pipa, and the apartment and wanted to put the words to good use. I enjoyed watching him from our balcony and thought about how the pipa had led us to meet our neighbors, have an extended conversation in Spanish, and become part of the community in our building. We were starting to settle into Cuernavaca.