Speaking of Water

It’s a recurring theme in my life here in Buenos Aires – water. First, you must drink a lot of water in order to stay healthy, happy and sane. Some say a liter a day, others two or maybe even more (1). The good news is that you (me, or most all except for the most finicky of foreigners) can drink plain ole Argentine tap water. I’m drinking tap water right now as I write this in fact.

Also there is the concept of hot water to bathe in, something that isn’t as simple as it might sound. In older homes here in Buenos Aires the plumbing is a bit different than we have back in the states or maybe in Europe. Instead of hot water tanks they use hot water heaters, a big medieval sort of device usually on the wall in the kitchen or next to the bathroom. When the hot water handle is turned to the on position flames ignite from below and then it heats the water on demand. But as soon as you turn the cold on, it thinks that you are done with the hot water and turns its self off. In the case of a house with older plumbing, the length of the pipes has more control over the temperature of the water than you do (2).

‘They come for the water’ is another one of my favorite themes. In short (and this is purely speculative at this point for lack of time to do further research) major multinational corporations are buying up all of the land in the arid Chaco desert in the northeast of Argentina, host to the largest reserve of fresh underground water in the world.

And then, for example, there are the shrines of water to La Difunta Correa (3) that you see along side of all major highways here in Argentina. She is ‘almost’ a saint, protecting traveling Argentines and they pay homage to her by leaving full bottles of water for her along side the road. Word has it that applications have been submitted to the Vatican to have her become a full fledged and official saint but I’m really not to sure on how this process works. Apparently they are waiting to see if the miracles that she has performed from her grave come true (4).

1 – Lars from Norway who I met up in Barreal and is a professional mountain climbing guide told me that as you ascend big mountains you must drink one extra liter of water per ever thousands meters. At the top of Mercedario which I had intended to attempt to climb in a mere two weeks that is almost seven liters of water per day, which he then said is almost impossible. Flavoring the water with something like powdered Gatorade is key.

2 - For those of you that don’t know I moved last week from Piso Compartido into a much more modern and more functional apartment with Arnaud, the French guy who now lives in Switzerland. For the same price I now get remote control AC (which most Argentines can’t believe that we don’t have in the states), a double wide balcony, a telephone which allows me to call out to cell phones, a brand new and CLEAN kitchen AND a shower which not only has rock star pressure perfectly controlled HOT water! And to further digress, Lee who still lives in Piso Compartido told us last night during our weekly photo crew dinner that he actually burned his head in the shower last week and then had to stand under the cold water for another five minutes to cool it off. My solution, in case you were wondering how I managed to not burn my head for more than two months was to simply take cold showers. Actually I would jump in as the water temperature was rising to hot and then jump back out as to not completely scald myself and then do the final rinse in cold water.

3 – Named after Dolinda Correa, the story begins to differ from there. My favorite version albeit short is this. Dolinda’s husband way back in Argentina history was sent off to fight against some invading forces (or perhaps amongst internal warring factions) in the northern province of La Rioja and when he didn’t return home after some spell of time, Dolinda and her small baby set out to look for him, carrying as much food and water as she could. Leaving the city of San Juan on foot, she encountered a harsh barren desert and shortly thereafter met her demise. Some days later (some say a few, others up to a month) some renegade gauchos (or some type of undefined cowboys) found her dead (difunta in Spanish) but miraculously the baby boy was still alive, sucking on her breast. Danny Palmerlee’s Lonely Planet description is more accurate and more eloquently written than mine so for more information refer to page 314 of the 5th edition 2005 Lonely Planet Argentina country guide.


4 – Ironically I met the son of the lawyer for the Vatican yesterday on Avenida Santa Fe. Tommy told me ‘that guy’s got a LOT of money!’