WARM BEER and NAVY SHOWERS
Originally Published the Week of July 18, 2022 in Western Outdoor Publications
Understandably, we got a lot of folks from chilly and wet places like Alaska, Montana, Washington, etc. coming to Baja to fish.
Over the years, when I’m trying to entice folks to sign up with us to fish here in Baja with our fishing fleet in La Paz, I laughingly tease by saying,
“The only snow and ice you’ll see down here will be inside the rim of your margarita glass or in your cooler chilling down your beer!”
Well, I may just have to put the brakes on that for a bit. Hopefully, it’s not an omen of the future, but I have to admit I’m nervous.
This past week, reports started coming in from various spots in Baja as well as the central Mexican mainland that there’s a water shortage and water restrictions.
Yes, it’s pretty common to hear in the U.S. about drought conditions that have been on-going for way-too-man-years. The Colorado River and Lake Mead are drying up and at historic lows. Lakes in California are turning to mudholes.
But, you don’t hear about it much in Mexico. Or, at least you don’t think about it a whole lot.
But, beyond the golf courses and the sculpted swimming pools and the new construction condos and hotels…hey! It’s a huge desert out there.
Yup. A big old desert full of cactus and scrub and arid land devoid of water.
All this tourist construction is a fantasy that we’ve artificially managed to use beating back the fact that there are a zillion square miles of parched desert outside the nearby gates.
And the desert is just a dripping-faucet-turn-away from roaring back in a big way.
This past week, areas of Mexico started reporting not just a shortage of water, but actually running out’ve water. Right. Nothing coming out’ve the pipes.
We started getting inklings of what was happening about a month ago. We have a small convenience store here in La Paz attached to our restaurant. We stock the usual, beers, water, sodas and other beverages for retail purchases .
Several popular beverages made on the mainland could no longer be obtained. Apparently, those areas had no water to produce the beverages!
Because of water restrictions, the factory could not produce any of it’s bottled waters.
This past week, more bad news.
Emergency water had to be trucked into various areas of Mexico as reservoirs, wells and underground aquafers literally tapped out.
Here in La Paz where we live and several other areas of Baja, various neighborhoods were without water for several days.
Water is distributed a little differently down here.
If you’ve ever been down to Baja, you’ll often notice big plastic cisterns on top of rooftops. At our restaurant, we have three 1100 liters plastic cisterns on our roof.
These cisterns look like giant black or tan-colored tubes.
Water only comes from the city, 3 or 4 times a week.
The city turns on the water. It’s come in from a little pipe smaller than the diameter of your typical garden hose. Little more than a running drop.
Consequently, everyone has cisterns to collect as much water as possible for usage until the next time the city turns on the water. That might be 2 or 3 days.
Well, this past week, the city didn’t have any water to turn on.
Businesses like hotels and restaurants, need water for normal things like hotel showers, cooking and restrooms. That’s a lot of water use.
Swimming pools could not be filled. Ice houses that produce bags of purified ice for fishing, retail stores, bars and others did not have any water to make ice.
There was a huge” run” on ice deliveries as businesses started to hoard ice not knowing when there would be ice available again. It reminded me of the toilet paper hoarding two years ago in the U.S.
At our restaurant, we jammed several freezers full of ice bags.
When you have a tourist economy, having ice to chill beer and make margaritas is kinda important. Maybe moreso in Mexico where cold beer and icy cocktails are part and parcel to the whole marketing scheme.
Tourists like to brush their teeth and take showers too. A good thing to have.
“Navy showers” where you rinse…turn off the water…soap up…then rinse off aren’t exactly folks’ idea of a vacation shower.
There’s a lot of finger-pointing going on if you read the local newspapers.
Current politicians and bureaucrats are blaming former politicians and bureaucrats for not seeing the warning signs. Accusing each other of not improving the ancient water-producing infrastructure like pipes and wells that are now breaking down or weren’t adequate to begin with.
It’s kinda hard to “wash your hands” of the issue when nothing is literally coming out’ve the tap.
Stay tuned!
That’s my story
Jonathan
That's My Story 