After an eventful week in Mexico City and an incredibly bumpy flight, we made it to San Cristobal. Despite a poor first impression via my bedroom situation in the villa (it’s not as bad as I originally thought it would be), I have been pleasantly surprised with how much I like this small town. The weather is perfect most days, there is a nice balance of nice restaurants serving a wide array of food and hole in the wall type places serving some of the best traditional Mexican food I’ve ever had. The chicken tinga quesadillas from Dely Quesadilla are incredible. I’ve gone twice already and I will definitely go a lot more while I’m here.
The big part of last week were the visits to Cantaro Azul. It was interesting to hear about how the went about developing the product to filter and sanitize the water in various rural communities, starting in Baja California and expanding all over the country. They faced a ton of challenges when ensuring that the device “Mesita Azul” would actually be used on a consistent bases. In comparison to the product we saw from Isla Urbana, it definitely seems more versatile. They recognize that different parts of the country have a higher prevalence of different contaminants and pathogens so they give their users access to tests for things that are actually relevant to them. While the devices are different, they used similar methods to implement their products and keep people using them. Both groups used interactive games and activities to educate users about the importance of clean water. In addition, they both made sure to make the devices as user friendly as possible as they learned people will often forget about the device and fall back on old habits if they don’t. This is probably the biggest part of ensuring your product actually gets use.
Evolution of Mesita Azul from Cantaro Azul
Mesita Azul
Also this isn’t really related to the trip or the course, but I finally broke the 100 kilo snatch barrier I’ve been working at for the last few months by hitting a 102kg PR.