From Dry to Drenched, Our Final Well in Bolivia
On Halloween, we finished a well near San Julian that we had begun a week earlier, the Monday before we left for Antofagasta. This is our last well, our eighth well, in Bolivia.
We drilled the well for free, for an outgoing farmer whose left arm is crippled and whose father passed away last year. According to a neighbor, he was crippled because someone accidentally shot him in the head. He lives alone as a quidante (a keeper or steward) of a property, but he also has his own field which he rents out to others to plant.
Since he lives near the previous well we did in San Julian, the cursed two-week well, we thought it might take a few days to finish. We finished that day, 150 feet in two days altogether.
The rig's quick descent surprised us all. It was like setting off on a roadtrip from LA to NYC, and after a few hours, seeing signs for Nashville.
Even after our pipe popped off and set us fishing it out for a couple of hours. We drilled well into the dark and finished the well.
Allan returned that day with Don Teofilo. The two of them had stayed in Antofagasta for a while, Don Teofilo to make sure the water club knew what they were doing, and Allan to test whether he was ready to be out on his own in the field. And McGee returned from Santa Cruz, where he had spent his day off. (We took off Tuesday, the day before Halloween). And Meghan was with us, so we finished with a complete team.
The next day, we went to develop the well, to flush out the mud and so forth to get water, but storms blew in and kept us from finishing. The storms continued the next day, and the next day, and the next. The dry season seems to have finished off as quickly as our last well.
The rains have continued till now (Sunday). So we spent the remainder of our week making pumps in the workshop here at San Julian. Our welding has improved, meaning that we can make the metal melt in more or less the right places, meaning that our workshop is not yet in flames.
Hopefully this coming week the weather will clear up enough for us to be able to install a pump at the farmer's well.
We drilled the well for free, for an outgoing farmer whose left arm is crippled and whose father passed away last year. According to a neighbor, he was crippled because someone accidentally shot him in the head. He lives alone as a quidante (a keeper or steward) of a property, but he also has his own field which he rents out to others to plant.
Since he lives near the previous well we did in San Julian, the cursed two-week well, we thought it might take a few days to finish. We finished that day, 150 feet in two days altogether.
The rig's quick descent surprised us all. It was like setting off on a roadtrip from LA to NYC, and after a few hours, seeing signs for Nashville.
Even after our pipe popped off and set us fishing it out for a couple of hours. We drilled well into the dark and finished the well.
Allan returned that day with Don Teofilo. The two of them had stayed in Antofagasta for a while, Don Teofilo to make sure the water club knew what they were doing, and Allan to test whether he was ready to be out on his own in the field. And McGee returned from Santa Cruz, where he had spent his day off. (We took off Tuesday, the day before Halloween). And Meghan was with us, so we finished with a complete team.
The next day, we went to develop the well, to flush out the mud and so forth to get water, but storms blew in and kept us from finishing. The storms continued the next day, and the next day, and the next. The dry season seems to have finished off as quickly as our last well.
The rains have continued till now (Sunday). So we spent the remainder of our week making pumps in the workshop here at San Julian. Our welding has improved, meaning that we can make the metal melt in more or less the right places, meaning that our workshop is not yet in flames.
Hopefully this coming week the weather will clear up enough for us to be able to install a pump at the farmer's well.
posted by El Peregrino at
8:16 PM
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