New Local Company for Agua Pura
ByIn previous posts I’ve mentioned that we have garrafons (sp?) of pure water delivered to our house by Salvavidas. They charge 16Q for this service and usually deliver twice a week. Expats have mentioned to me their suspicion that some drivers just fill up the bottles from any random faucet and then sell it as pure and therefore pocket the money.
I don’t know if that’s true, but we’ve had enough problems over the months to wonder if some of that might be going on. It was therefore with great pleasure that I learned from Rudy of a local alternative to Salvavidas. The company is named Hunapu, and they are on 7th Avenida Norte. I visited them an learned that they have a very sophisticated filtering method on-site and they thoroughly wash each bottle. Customers can watch this entire process, so if you want, you can take a bottle in, watch them wash it for you and then fill it up from what appears to be a reverse-osmosis or UV process. (Maybe someone more knowledgeable can educate me).
In addition to being a local small business AND showing off their cleaning and filtering systems, they’re cheaper than Salvavidas. If you bring your bottle in, they’ll fill it up for only 8Q, and they’re delivering for only 10Q. That’s a 40% savings my friends, and pays for two nights out a month for the Wife!
If you want to contact Hunapu, I have two phone numbers: 4578.7710 and 5301.8249. Please tell them you heard about them from Don Marco at GuateLiving.com
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3 Comments
June 6th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
I’ve been buying Salvavidas water for over six years and have never had a problem. There is a clear plastic seal that must be removed and then the blue cap which is also sealed. The bottle also has a serial number and an expiration date clearly printed on it. The expiration date is within three months. I’ve never heard of this before. What I have heard of is the people that buy the water for their business and then refill the bottles with the tap water. A customer asks if there is bottled water and yes there is water in the bottle that’s been refilled a hundred times.
No matter where I buy something, I always check to see if it is sealed properly and the expiration date. I’ve noticed that the stores do not remove products here that are WELL beyond their shelf life.
June 6th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Margaret, if you watch these trucks closely, you’ll see they have the plastic caps, sheets of plastic wrap and butane bottles with them. They can slap those things on in just a few seconds. I first saw this in Mexico, walking down a street and a guy in a back alley sealing all the bottles. I’ve never seen it here, but to save some money and support a local entrepreneur, that’s a easy decision for me.
May 3rd, 2010 at 9:23 am
[...] major retailers in the city), and they are delivered by the firms themselves. We have water delivered twice a week at a cost of 10 quetzales (about $1.20) each. We’ve had no epidemics drinking this water, [...]