There are a number of companies that sell water in door-to-door in Mérida. I’m partial to “Cristal” brand as I find it has the best flavour. So I bought two 5-gallon jugs of it when I moved here and figured that it shouldn’t be that hard to get a truck to come and replace them with full ones once a week.

Slight hiccup, I haven’t seen a single Cristal truck in my neighbourhood (despite there being numerous Cristal water sellers) and a Google search turned up nothing.

Driving in a different part of town the other day, I finally saw an elusive Cristal truck! I made a mental note of the very easy to remember number and called them up. Turns out that that was a national number and I got caught in a phone loop that was hard to make sense of. But I did figure out who makes Cristal water (Bepensa). A quick Google search for that made me realise that the Coca-Cola trucks running around the neighbourhood have Cristal water. So I decided to flag one down next time I saw one near my house.

But Bepensa also had an email address so I decided to try that, explaining that I’ve been trying to get water delivery and giving my address and phone number.

Well, just minutes after I posted my last post, I saw a red truck with bottles go by my house. I would never have seen it if the exterior office door hadn’t been open. I was fumbling to put on sandals to go chase after it when my phone rang. It was the guys in the truck trying to find me! I’m amazed by how hard of a time people have finding my house when my street is so clearly marked and there is a plaque with my address by the door.

Anyway, after confirming my address and what my house looks like, at the guy’s suggestion I went to the street with an empty jug. There, I saw the red truck somewhere down the next block with a guy standing by it talking to me on the phone. 🙂 I waved him down and he drove backwards all the way back to me!

He said that he comes by my house every Monday and Thursday around four like clockwork. So with my having one nearly full jug now and a brand new one, I should be just fine with a once a week delivery of one jug as I go about 10 to 11 days on two jugs depending on how much I’m cooking. I therefore asked them to stop on Thursdays and told them that I’m home working and it’s guaranteed that I’ll be home. Perfect. I also got a number and name in case I won’t be home or that I need Monday delivery as well.

My current water routine has been this:

-Convince the garage doors to open;

-Squeeze Moya out of her parking bay;

-Convince the garage doors to close (was advised to not leave them open even just going on a quick run);

-Drive about eight blocks to get to the Extra convenience two blocks away (dang one ways);

-Wait for the gal at the convenience store to wait on me;

-Drive two blocks home;

-Convince the garage doors to open;

-Squeeze Moya back into her bay (harder when I approach from that direction);

-Convince the garage doors to close.

Cost of the water that way: 26 pesos.

Cost of the water to have a guy drop it at my curb: 28 pesos. That’s what I’d call a no-brainer.

So there’s another thing sorted only because I’m not terrified of the phone anymore. I think I’m doing quite nicely at getting myself settled in. 🙂