Walking

First, I will say that there are no real developments across the street. There are still people living there, but if they are coming or going, I haven't seen it. Our landlord warned us when we moved in that we shouldn't get involved with them, as there was a woman there who was "muy loco". And there hasn't been any reason for us to get involved, except that now we are curious about what is going on.

Anyhow, I spent a good part of the day trying to find some place in Cuenca that might stock large-diameter [say 24", or here 600 mm] plastic pipe, such as might be used for a main sewer line, but without luck. I wanted to use pieces about six feet long as individual tanks for a slow-rate sand filter, but since I have not been able to find any, I have decided that the most practical option is to build the tanks out of concrete blocks and paint them with a waterproof paint. Without the paint, the blocks would leak like a sieve.

So this evening I sat down and sketched up a plan for the filter. I think I have it fairly well laid out, but I don't know whether or not we will be able to get it built before we have to come back. If not, I will have to be a lot more specific about how to put together all the parts, and then how to get it up and running and maintain it. I still have three weeks, so we shall see.

I probably walked 3-4 miles this morning, checking out a few places that were not practical to visit by bus. It was mostly cloudy, with the temperature in the sixties, which made it ideal for walking. Tonight I am tired, which is a good feeling. In the course of my walk, I saw this cactus in blossom along the edge of a corn patch.Another thing that is common here, but different from the US, is that there are a LOT of concrete manhole covers. There are also some of iron, but the concrete ones outnumber the iron ones by at least 20:1. Iron mostly seems to be used in high-traffic areas where the concrete would not last as well.