Not in Hot Water
Day 001 – July 23, 2011
As promised at the end of this post (previously on Sin Polaris), here is the story of our first shower in Lima, Peru.
NOTE: The following story is rated “G” for all audience members
When preparing to get our three children ready for their morning wash, I inspected the showers and using the little Spanish I do have at my command, I grabbed the knob labelled “C” and turned it clockwise.
For you see, dear reader, I was using my smarts and I knew that “C” stood for caliente, which is Spanish for “hot”. A few minutes later, I was not feeling as smart as the water that issued forth from the shower nozzle was still as cold as a polar bear’s nose.
‘Twas only then that I noticed that the other knob in the shower in my boys’ bathroom was labelled “H”. Sigh!
Yes, even though I was in a Spanish-speaking country, the faucet knobs were still labelled using the English “H” for “hot” and “C” for “cold”. A quick counter-clockswise turn of the “C” handle and a similarly quick clockwise turn of the “H” knob…
…still provided absolutely no hot water even after five minutes of wishing really hard to the Agua Fairy.
Liquid of an Arctic origin was likewise only issuing forth from my daughter’s showerhead and all seemed destined for a frigid showery morning until we quickly discovered that the shower in the master bathroom provided water that registered above 20 degrees (and in honor of our host country, I am using the metric temperature scale named for Anders Celsius…for a conversion, go here).
One shower…five people…this promised to be a long stay in Peru if this matter was not resolved soon. Sigh redux!
BONUS PICTURES…
Since we are on the subjects of bathrooms and because I am an American living abroad, please let me be the 3,336,126th person to joke about the type of water closet hardware found in most parts of the world, but not in the USA…the bidet.
It's a planter...
...or a stylish magazine rack...
...or perhaps a refreshing fountain.
Trust me folks, the jokes don’t get any better.
Posted on August 30, 2011, in Difference, Peru and tagged bidet, caliente, cold, difference, frio, hot, Peru, shower, water. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
We have two taps on our bathroom sink. The “H” tap is completely non-functional and actually has a spider living inside it.
Our “H” taps in our kids’ bathroom were also completely usesless for a while, but that is a story for a later post. Thanks for reading and replying.
Pingback: Starting the Day on a Roll « Sin Polaris
Pingback: Necessary Things Come in Small Pouches « Sin Polaris
Pingback: When All Else Fails, Switch Labels « Sin Polaris
Pingback: Bottled Heat « Sin Polaris