Jacqueline Nunez operates the Evolet Laundry in Todos Santos. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

I never thought I would be that person. You know, the kind who pays someone to wash, dry and fold their laundry. Oh, my, what a luxury.

Doing laundry has never bothered me; that is assuming the machines were at my house. Going to a laundromat, well, that was a nuisance and an education in human behavior that I don’t care to repeat.

In Todos Santos I opted not to do my laundry at my friends’ house. This was because the day I was planning to do a load we didn’t get any water. Yes, that’s a thing in Baja. Water isn’t even delivered to the tinacos every day in every part of town; it was weekly in the last place I stayed. Miss a week and it’s noticeable.

I didn’t do laundry at home that day. I took it to the lavenderia, which was walking distance away. I never thought about doing my own laundry again—at least while I was in Todos Santos. This was too sweet—and cheap—of a deal.

The wash and fold facility has been in the Las Tunas area of Todos Santos for seven years. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

The 7-year-old Evolet Laundry is owned and operated by a local family; the same ones who own the neighboring Cleo’s restaurant. In fact, it’s Cleo and Martine’s daughter, Jacqueline, who is working at the laundromat most days; along with her friend Alisa. (Evolet is Jacqueline’s daughter’s name.)

When Cleo started the business in the kitchen at the restaurant there were two washing machines and one dryer. Today it’s not unusual for the eight washing machines and seven driers to all be going at the same time. It can be that busy. The lights are often off and the two ceiling fans whirling to keep it cool inside.

The laundromat can have water issues just like residents. Maybe that’s why sometimes it took more than a day for my clothes to be ready.

Jacqueline, who runs the business in the Los Tunas area of Todos Santos, said, “There are always problems” with water. Having tinacos out back full of water helps when the flow is interrupted.

How much water is used in a week or month she doesn’t know. She said the wastewater goes into a septic system that later has to be pumped.

Being away from the center of town it makes sense that about 95 percent of customers are gringos.

Bags of clothes line the two walls that are most prominent from the front door. This is the clean laundry. It’s either put in the container the person arrived with or into a white garbage bag.

The price for the service depends on the number of machines it takes. The least I paid was 70 pesos or about $3.45.

Containers full of clean laundry are ready to be picked up. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Everything came back clean, folded and nicely put back into the bag I had delivered it in. It took only a couple trips before they knew my name. When I walked up they knew me without me needing to say who I was, no matter the mask I was wearing.

It’s possible to ask (if you speak Spanish) for items to be line dried, washed by hand, ironed, mended, separated a certain way, or for all shirts or the like to be laundered together.

Jacqueline said it’s easy for her to know whose laundry is whose. Masking tape with the client’s name is put on the washer and dryer, then the bag. She was hesitant to reveal any funny stories, but did say some customers’ intimate objects sometimes end up in the laundry bag by mistake.

One client was sure the bag he was given was not his. The laundromat had unzipped the outer cover of the bedding, and returned it in pieces, so to speak. The customer was still adamant. At the old location, a couple doors down, there were cameras just for this reason. Jacqueline was able to track the transaction on her phone, which she shared with the guy. He was embarrassed to realize he didn’t even know his own laundry.

Until your hostess or concierge in Mexico says it’s OK to flush the toilet paper, assume the garbage can is the place to put soiled toilet paper.

This can take some getting used to for people who for their whole lives have not given any thought to what goes down the toilet. It’s a big deal when there is no municipal sewer system or the septic system isn’t equipped to handle the paper.

In most cases it’s best not to flush toilet paper in Mexico. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Many public and private establishments have signs on the wall in Spanish and sometimes in English saying to use the garbage can. Even if there is no sign, that doesn’t mean you should flush everything. What’s in the garbage can will give you the answer to the flush or not flush paper question. Not all places have a can with a lid. While this may seem unsanitary to add your paper to the pile, the only other possibility is to drip dry—assuming that is an option.

Several large hotels have systems on site that can handle the paper. But don’t assume this is true everywhere. Better to not flush than to have it back up because it won’t just be paper that covers the bathroom floor.

Sometimes it’s the materials used when building the plumbing system that causes problems. The pipe between the toilet and street drain or septic system may not be wide enough to handle the paper. Sometimes the water pressure is not enough to force everything through the pipes.

Many buildings in Mexico are old—lots older than what one finds even on the East Coast of the United States. Not all have been retrofitted to be on the city sewer system, and even if they have been, there could still be infrastructure issues.

Septic systems are often small in Mexico, but they can be retrofitted. If it is large enough and paper has been kept out, it probably won’t ever need to be pumped out. Micro-organisms decompose the solid waste that settles to the bottom of septic systems, so it’s not like it’s sitting there forever piling up.

Another reason so many private septic systems don’t get full is that builders have directed only black water to go into the vault. Grey water, what comes out of sinks (other than one with a disposal), showers, and bath tubs often go onto the property to water plants. This means there is a whole lot less water going into the septic tank compared to a lot of residential properties in the U.S.

Sidewalk configurations in parts of Baja Sur can be confusing. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Walking in Baja can be dangerous. It has nothing to do with the people, but instead everything to do with the infrastructure.

Sidewalks, while they exist, are not built to a uniform scale. It’s a good idea to look down. Sometimes, though, it’s wise to look up because a power pole could be in the middle of the concrete.

It is common for poles to be in a sidewalk. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Sidewalks in Mexico don’t have to conform to any particular standard. Uniformity does not exist because it is usually up to the contractor on the project to build what he wants. This is the opposite of the United States where the Federal Highway Administration regulates sidewalk construction. Some rules in the U.S. include, “(A)dequate width of travel lanes, a buffer from the travel lane, curbing, minimum width, gentle cross-slope [2 percent or less], a buffer to private properties, adequate sight distances around corners and at driveways, shy distances to walls and other structures, a clear path of travel free of street furniture, continuity, a well-maintained condition, ramps at corners, and flat areas across driveways.”

Stairs may suddenly appear on a sidewalk. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Mexico could take a lesson from its northern neighbor. It’s so bad in some places in Baja Sur that walking in the street seems like a safer alternative. Though, based on statistics, Mexico streets are also not welcoming to walkers.

“Roughly 40 people die in traffic each day in Mexico, due to speeding cars, drunk driving, and a lack of traffic law enforcement. Its streets are the seventh deadliest in the world, according to the World Health Organization,” Bloomberg CityLabs reported in 2019.

Danger can presents itself on sidewalks in Baja, like this abrupt drop off. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

With taxpayer dollars being limited, it’s understandable ripping up current sidewalks and replacing them with better ones is not going to happen. Still, it would behoove the Mexican powers that be to put standards in place for new construction or when repairs are being made to roads or the actual sidewalks.

It would be near impossible to use crutches, a walker or wheelchair in parts of Baja because the sidewalks are that difficult to navigate. For the able bodied, they are not something to run on. It might just end with a foot or more drop or be jarring because of the steep dips at the various ingress/egress points.

On a positive note, when in a town these sidewalks make one slow down while walking and take in all the surroundings, so that’s not a bad thing.

Dillon Porter, right, plays Almustafa, while Mehry Eslaminia is Almitra in Teatro Pescadero’s first production. (Image: Provided)

When Broadway went dark, the lights came on at Teatro Pescadero.

Dillon Porter calls it “theater in the intimate, but at a safe distance.”

When he left New York City in March it had nothing to do with escaping. It was a planned trip to Baja California Sur to spend time with his parents and celebrate his birthday. Now he has no date to return to the United States.

The 37-year-old is the director and builder of Teatro Pescadero. The first production—Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet”—opened in early November and will go into at least the first part of January. He and Mehry Eslaminia are the two actors. As the music director, she created original songs for the production.

“We wanted to add music. She has an incredible voice, and she is a much better guitar player than myself,” Porter said. “I think music is very close to poetry, which lends itself to dance. I like to bring some pedestrian movement into every show I make.”

They met on his last night in New York, stayed in touch, and then decided to collaborate on this project. It’s quite a change for Eslaminia as well. Rehearsals had just started for “1776”—what was to be her Broadway debut.

Porter is used to directing large productions with more than 20 people, multiple costume changes, and an audience of more than 1,000 people. Those days are gone for everyone. Though they will return, for now he is content to bring people live performances on a smaller scale.

“When careers get put on hold it’s a large opportunity for the world to slow down and figure out what is important,” Porter said.

Dillon Porter built the theater from material on the land near Pescadero. (Image: Provided)

He writes, sings, acts, directs, is a filmmaker, a teacher, and an art lover. “If I am going to spend time memorizing all these words, they better be worth it,” he said, adding that the words he recites must have meaning to him.

While New York is his permanent address, Baja is in his blood. He went to kindergarten in San Jose del Cabo, and has spent at least three weeks a year in Baja every year. His parents, who hail from Oregon, have had property in the Pescadero-San Pedrito area for years. Last year they divvied up part of the property to their two children. It is on this land that Porter has created the theater.

He built the dome out of palo de arco. Bitter melon has been woven into the wood to make it look a bit like a bird’s nest. The theater in 24 feet in diameter and about 460 square feet, so it easily accommodates social distancing with an audience of six to 10. In “normal” times it could fit 30 people. For this performance, it’s possible multiple groups will be in the theater; all spaced apart from the other groups. This is with everyone’s consent.

Porter is in rehearsals with friends on a musical centered on Bob Dylan. It will be staged outdoors, with people sitting on hay bales. Eight years ago he did a performance about Walt Whitman in the nearby mountains that people have asked him to resurrect.

With the proceeds from this first show he hopes to build more domes on the property of different sizes to allow for others to be able express their artistic selves. Porter envisions (post-COVID) partnering with a university to host a festival of some sort. He’s a huge fan of Burning Man, the annual creative-artistic-cultural gathering in the Nevada desert. He wants it to feel like that without the electronic music; to have a focus on permaculture, zero waste, where writing workshops, poetry slams, and art installations take place, along with other creative forces coming together.

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Deets:

• For tickets, email teatropescadero@gmail.com with the date you would like to attend and the number of people in your group.
• Cost: 500 pesos per person.
• Performances are from 7:45-9 p.m., Wednesday-Sunday.
• Masks are optional.

Four Water Ways Baja cartridges at a home in Baja Sur. (Image: Provided)

“Don’t drink the tap water” has been the mantra in Mexico for years. Water filtration companies have a much different message. They want people in private homes, at restaurants and hotels to be able turn the faucet on and imbibe without regret.

Barbara Manfrediz has been operating Water Ways Baja in Todos Santos for nearly a decade. In that time, she has installed more than 300 filtration systems in Todos Santos, La Paz, Los Cabos and La Ventana.

“I call them cartridges because they do so much more than filter out contaminants,” Manfrediz said of her product. “Each cartridge is in a specific order and does a different job.”

While the transplant from the United States worked in the legal profession prior to moving to Baja Sur, her education is in science. What led Manfrediz to the world of water was realizing she was enjoying all the wonderful local food, but the water was an issue. She made it her mission to fix the problem. She worked for another company prior to going out on her own.

Before opening Water Ways Baja, she did research, which led her to Charles F. “Chubb” Michaud. He is a world-renowned authority on water quality. He is her mentor and No. 1 consultant.

“I found out the only ethical way to treat water was to test it first,” Manfrediz said. This meant collecting water from all the public sources she would be working with. “We tested for over 100 contaminants. Based on the water tests we have specified technology to take care of that water.”

While she follows the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, sometimes she is even more strict. In La Ventana, on the East Cape, the water has high concentrations of arsenic. Manfrediz uses a complex system to ensure what comes out of the tap has no measurable amount of arsenic. The EPA allows some.

“I believe the reason our water tastes so good is because of the minerals. In the U.S. they remove the minerals,” Manfrediz said.

She admits her business model would not work in the United States because she refuses to conform to a one-size fits all approach. Each customer of Water Ways Baja has a specifically designed system based on their town and where they are on that city’s water line.

It’s a small operation with Manfrediz, her husband as marketing guru (a new website was just launched), a plumber, technician, and officer manager. Customer service, she said, is one of their strong points.

Water purification systems start at $500 and go into the thousands of dollars depending on the size of the property. Maintenance is required once a year, with inspection of the cartridges by the company. It can cost about $150 a year for replacement cartridges for an average home in Todos Santos.

What the customer gets is the knowledge that they can drink from every tap connected to the system. No need to schlep into town to fill a 5-gallon jug.  No need to worry about cooking with “good” or “bad” water. It’s all good. Plus, the lime scale build-up in the shower is much less with this “good” water. For restaurants it means not having to serve bottled water and for hotel guests to be able to turn on the tap without worry.

For those needing to refill a personal water bottle, A Granel in Todos Santos and Mini Super Munchies in Pescadero have stations set up by Water Ways Baja.

The company donated the water system to the Palapa Learning Center in Todos Santos, which includes free maintenance forever.

Water Ways Baja is a member of the Water Quality Association, the International Water Association, and the American Water Works Association. With technology evolving and water itself always changing, Manfrediz said it’s important to stay at the forefront to know how best to serve current and future customers.