Holy S#^t!

Yuck, yuck, yuck!

What started as a relatively benign problem became a major pain in the arse this week. You see, since I’ve arrived, we’ve had a recurring problem with the toilet in our casita. It would intermittently block up, but after a few days, it would seem to correct itself and return to normal. However, by late last week it was stopped up more often than not. By Tuesday, it was a goner. It became apparent we would have to take action.

On Thursday, we put our guys to work finding a solution. However, this was much more complicated than we had anticipated. After initial inspection, we surmised that the problem was in the plumbing, which consists of a vast array of PVC pipes buried underground throughout the grounds. No one knew where the pipes led or where the clog was in the pipes. The only solution was a blind hunt.

The guys began at the source and dug until they found pipe. They then extrapolated from their location to a point the pipe might logically continue. (This, of course, was complicated because the pipes are connected by a number of 90-degree elbow joints.) Then they dug. Sometimes, they found pipe; sometimes, they didn’t. When they did find pipe, they banged on it to see if it was hollow or full.

On the first day, they were making great progress. They were following the pipe and in one exploratory hole found two pipes. The guessed one was fresh water and one was our sewer. As they dug further to determine which was which, they dug a little too hard and struck a live one.


You should have seen Miguel’s face when the water started squirting 12 feet in the air. He didn’t know which pipe he had ruptured and was scared to find out. It turned out to be fresh water, which was good for Miguel, but bad for us. We now had a 12-foot spurt that was draining our entire water supply for the casita, the main lodge, and the staff house.

So our priorities immediately changed. Now we had to cut off the water supply. Another blind hunt ensued as the guys ran around the grounds shutting off miscellaneous water valves (which are all tucked inside PVC pipes with small wooden lids that just barely protrude from the ground) trying to find the right one. We couldn’t find it. Finally, we called in Tie-Tie, our general mechanic and excellent problem-solver. He eventually found the correct valve hidden underneath a rock. (I have no idea why.) They turned off the water, fixed the pipe, and started digging more holes.

We resigned ourselves to using the facilities in the restaurant, 82 steps down at the bottom of the property near the water.

So ended Day 1.

Day 2 eventually ended in success. After rupturing two more water pipes, the guys located the blockage. It was directly beneath a run of sidewalk about 15 feet long. Ugh! They ended up digging holes on each end, cutting the sewer pipe, and shoving a length of narrower PVC through the pipe until the stoppage cleared. Then they fixed the pipe, filled all the many holes back in, and sprinkled bleach around to cut the horrid smell. Then they restored our water.

Last night, I was excited to have a toilet again. Before bed, I happily trotted to our bathroom where I promptly discovered a tarantula on the bathroom floor. But that’s another story …