Everything was fine until about a year ago when someone rang my door bell. The man had a clip board and a contract of some kind. I could not understand a word he said, but told him I was not the owner and I was not signing anything and closed the door. A few days later another man showed up with the same clip board. This time I asked the guy at the fish taco stand to translate for me. He seemed confused too, but said it had something to do with the sewer connection. I agreed to take it to the owners lawyer to figure out. A week later, the lawyer called me and asked me to bring in a copy of my paid water bill. No problem as I pay several months in advance so I do not have to go to the water company every other month.
The following month, my bill was twice as much. There was an additional charge at the bottom. I took it to the lawyer who said that the water rates had gone up. I did not believe him and asked several friends of mine to look at the bill. No one had ever seen the charge before. Of course usually the landlord pays the water bill, but not in my case. Water is only about 150 pesos every two months, so since my rent is cheap, I did not mind. However I still wanted to know what this charge was all about. Finally I got a Mexican friend of mine to drive me to the water company. The nice lady behind the desk explained that the charge was for connecting to the City sewer system (did not know they had one) and the cost was spread out over one year. It had never been paid before. When I told her that I did not understand she said, "But you signed the contract" No! I did not sign the contract and I am not the owner. "Oh" she said, "You should not be paying it" Armed with this information I went back to the lawyer who played dumb again. He claims not to understand or speak a word of English, but I do not believe that either. I gave up. They have agreed not to increase my rent and extra charge is only about $10.00 a month
When I first moved here, I noticed that the water pressure was awful. This is when I met Saul who was sort of the maintenance man for the building. He sighed and shrugged and said that the previous tenant had stolen the pressure valve and the landlady (whom I have never seen) refused to pay for a new one. I had Saul install one. There are two water tanks on my neighbors roof. This is how I found out which tank held my water. You can see the hole in the wall where the pressure valve was placed. I can only see the top of the tanks. A few nights ago I am sitting up under my cabana when black bird perched on the rim. The next thing I saw was him diving into the tank and taking a bath!! I could not believe my eyes. My ladder was not tall enough to see into the tank but high enough that I could feel the edge and sure enough the top was gone. We had a pretty big storm about a week before and the I guess the top blew off.
Of course the next day I called my trusted Saul (I have no idea what I would do without him). He brought a tall ladder and confirmed that the lid was gone, but he did spot it on my neighbors roof. He also told me that there were bugs and leaves floating in the water and he could see dirt in the bottom. Now I do not drink it, but I do use it to bath in, wash dishes and brush my teeth. This was not good.
He did tell me that the tank is only a reserve for when the City water is not working. I am not sure if I believe him or not. He said that first he had to fetch the lid off the neighbors roof, then the tank would have to be drained and the tank cleaned. He told me to start watering all my plants and shut off the water from the street.
It started to rain, Mind you it has not rained in a week, but the Gods decided that this afternoon was a good time to rain. So there I am up on my deck in a rain storm watering my plants. This must have looked very strange to anyone watching from below. But then my Mexican neighbors think of me as the "crazy American" anyway. Who but a crazy person would spend so much money remodeling a rented apartment?? Not to mention the forest of palm trees I have hauled in (nine so far). With the City water turned off as well as the pressure valve the hose was little more than a drip. It was taking hours, so Saul left promising to come back later
When the hose stopped running, the tank was not empty. Saul had me crawl up and look at it. The bottom had several inches of brown gunk. Saul told me that all tank have that and it was normal. Not for me, it was not normal. I told him I wanted it cleaned and flushed out. He had to scoop the water up with a plastic bowl and dump it into my bucket. Then I went up the ladder and carried the bucket down where I could dump it into the roof drain. This too went on for a long time, After he had scooped all that he could he rinsed it and then I gave him a towel to further clean it. I was able to shower and was pleased that the water came out clear. I still ran it for sometime before getting into it. For a while I think I will brush my teeth with bottled water. All the taps seem to spurt out clear clean water, so everything is back to normal (Well ! Normal for Mexico) but I still think I will not drink the water.
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