Bathrooms in South America

If there is one thing South America has given me a new appreciation for it's our bathrooms back home. Below are just a couple of observations about the bathrooms here:

1. Lack of bathrooms
In Bolivia I came to appreciate the pure existence of bathrooms. Bus don't seem to have a bathroom and if there is one aboard it doesn't work. Instead they will have a stop in the middle of the trip where everyone gets off, but that doesn't mean there is a bathroom at the stop. The bathroom break instead means finding a place somewhere along the street to go and when I say street I mean street. On our way to Uyuni  our bus stopped in the middle of the city and  all you saw was men and woman from the buses lined up along the street to go to the washroom (I won't want to live on that street). In Bolovia we soon learned public urination is quite common and you shouldn't be surprised to see people urinating in the streets. 

2. Working locks
If you do find a bathroom it's not uncommon for the lock not to work. Again this tends to be more common in Bolivia where you are just happy that a bathroom existed, so you didn't mind holding the door.

3. Toilet seats
All across South America, even in more developed Argentina, we have noticed there seems to be a lack of toilet seats in both female and male washrooms. Trevor's theory is that people steal them  but I don't even think they bother adding them.

4. Toilet paper
One of the first things we learned was always carry toilet paper with you. Most public bathrooms don't provide this and in Bolivia some of the hostels don't even provide it.

5. Flushing toilet paper
In South America all toilet paper needs to be tossed in a garbage bin that's beside the toilet. There plumbing can't handle toilet paper. It might sound gross but it actually beats the consequences  of flushing toilet paper, to have it flood the toilet. 

6. Soap
The lack of soap in washrooms was on of the most disturbing things for me because it made me wonder if anyone ever uses soap after going to the washroom. I would say less than 5% of the washrooms we have used actually had soap in them and I don't feel like washing your hands with soaps after using the washroom is a common practice here.

7. Paper towel
Paper towel...what is this?! I can think of maybe 2 bathrooms that had this and it was at really nice restaurants. 

8. Hot water
Water comes in one temperature - COLD. In order to have a hot shower they have to attached this contraption to the shower head that warms the water as it goes through the heater. However electricity and water aren't a good combination and it's not uncommon to get shocked so when you have a hot shower if you don't want to get shocked wear rubber flip flops and don't touch the shower head. Trevor and I have both been shocked and it's something you would rather avoid but still beats a cold shower. Which when staying at hostels is one of the things you need to ask about or you could end up with cold shower.

9. Water pressure
With this water heating contraption it means the less water going through it means hotter water. So if you want to have a really hot shower you have to deal with less water and or you can have more water pressure but colder water.

10. Shower stall
This is something we came to appreciate in Bolivia. They don't actually have a separate stall for the shower instead there is just a shower head right in the middle of your bathroom with a drain on the floor, no shower curtain or anything. The entire bathroom floor and room ends up soaked but you have a squeegee you can  use on the floor so it dries quicker.

11. Bidet
We have noticed that since arriving in Argentina bidets have started showing up in our hostel bathrooms. 

12. Bathroom Standards
My standards of bathroom cleanliness have gone down so much. If I found a bathroom that looked like the typical fast food bathroom back in Canada I would consider that a really good bathroom. Trevor and I get excited when we find a good one and report back to the other that they need to take advantage of this rare thing.