No matter how hard we try, we always need something we didn’t bring. The big surprise on this trip (so far) was Flores. Everything looked great, but when Dale and Jerry inspected the Ozonator, only two of the four bulbs were energized. “Wow, never seen two burned out Ozone Bulbs before!” After some expert troubleshooting we discovered that it wasn’t the bulbs at all but we had a defective ballast transformer. We have never carried spare ballasts before, and we certainly could not buy one of these in the high sierra of Ecuador. Well, just another lesson learned.
Then, at Jipongato, our Operator Moises, said when we arrived, “Did my friends bring us some water-based O-ring lubricant?” Oooops! We have never carried water-based lubricant jelly before. How does an indigenous mountain-man know what a “water based O-ring lubricant” is??? After a lengthy “Bull Pen” session, we came up with a plan. Oh, why didn’t we pack some “water based O-ring lubricant”?
At Promesa Divina, our operator Jonathon Guaman, asked, “Why is water backing up into my Ozonator?”. After a quick look, we noticed that this installation by Agua Viva pre-dated the addition of a manual shutoff valves in the Ozonator tubing which prevents this phenomenon.
Well, it is always something. When we return to the United States we will have some work to do to get all of these parts to our friends in Ecuador. There is no doubt Agua Viva is a work-in-progress. We are always humbled by this simple truth. In a third world country we must not strive for perfection.
However, great successes can be had outside of a perfect world. If you don’t believe it, just follow us around for a while.
