Cochabamba car wash

Like most proud car owners the world over, the Cochabambans take pride in their motor vehicles and like to keep them clean. And perhaps the rich western countries could take a coca leaf or two out of their book, because instead of using drinking quality tap water (which they don't have) to clean their cars, they have had to learn to be more resourceful.

The premier car wash here is a highly efficient enterprise on the banks of the river, which also happens to run along side the road. For the deluxe wash you drive up onto a purpose built stone ramp. Then, tubs of water, collected and carried from the river, are used to clean the paintwork of dust and grim, which is never entirely washed away from the city streets and pavements, however hard it rains.

On the Prado it's a similar routine, though here there are no stone ramps; it's a strictly curbside affair, and the tubs of water are collected from the ornamental ponds on the Plaza Colon.

To put it to the test we got two identical cars and placed them side by side in the middle of the Prado. We asked the guys to wash one with bottled drinking water, and the other with the brackish river water.
Result: 99.9% of those we asked could discern no appreciable difference in the quality of the wash.

It´s a sad fact but the main cause of pollution here in the city of eternal spring is from the unregulated exhaust emissions. But when the last Cochabamban gasps his last toxic breath, at least he can take comfort in the knowledge that the beast that killed him wore a clean coat of paint.