Water, Water EVERYWHERE, But Nothing Left to Drink!

As my time in Guatemala is beginning to end, I realized I haven´t posted much about Guatemala itself.  So I am going to be doing a bunch of posts about random things here in the country.  The first being the weather and the water!

 When I came here I packed lots of short sleeved shirts and capri´s, thinking it is what I would live in (Guatemala is closer to the equator, so it should be warmer, right?)  I was so wrong!  The only time I wear capri´s is when we are traveling (we have been to some truly hot places!) but any time I am home in Patzicía I am in long pants, a short sleeved shirt, a sweater, and for most of the day a jacket.  I sleep in sweats and can´t drag myself out of my warm bed each morning! It is really pretty ideal temperature for me.  Not freezing (except for a few cold spells we´ve had) and I am not dying of heat.  I would take the cold over the heat any day, so I have enjoyed skipping some of the intense warmth back home while I have been here. 

Guatemala is known as ¨The Land of Eternal Spring¨, and that is really what it is like - spring all the time!  It rains CONSTANTLY.  In the month I have been here we have had around 4 days where it hasn´t rained.  Most days it rains in the late afternoon or the night, but a few days it has rained the entire day.  On our 10 day backpacking trip it rained every single day, but it was while we were sleeping so it worked out perfectly!  I am not use to this much water!  I use my rain jacket and my backpack cover all the time as I try to stay dry coming and going to school. 

You would think that with so much rain, water would be at a surplus. It is not.  Our water goes out pretty constantly.  Our first day of school we woke up to no water, so we went without showers.  We have learned if you want a shower you better take it before 6:00 AM, or you are out of luck! Sometimes it comes back on pretty quick, other times it is our for a while.  You never know when it will go out and how long it will be gone for!

Of course we can not drink water from the tap, or even use it to brush our teeth.  We use a big jug that we fill our smaller water bottles from whenever we are home, and it lasts us about a week.  I was worried about having to spend all my money on water when we were traveling (I drink A LOT of water!) but Krista introduced em to this little gem:

Bagged water!  You buy it at almost any little tienda, it is what the Guatemalan´s use!  Where a bottle of water costs between 50 cents and a dollar (depending where you are), these bags cost between 6 and 12 cents each.  It takes about two to fill up a water bottle (because even though the natives drink it from the bag, I prefer it in a bottle!)  Even though bottled water is not expensive it really adds up, so I have learned to love these things!  I do look forward to being able to drink from the tap and not think twice about brushing my teeth, though!