price of gas is high and going up...

 gasoline is very expensive.

248 pesos a gallon expensive. that's $6.20 a gallon. by american standards, that's expensive.

imagine now, you're in a country with a minimum wage of about 225 dollars a month. , 6.20 a gallon is stretching the purse just a little bit too much. at 6.20 a gallon, nobody would even be able to take public transportation.

and there is a lot of public transportation.

so, what can you do to avoid the gasoline prices?
install a propane gas system in your car. a tank is installed in the trunk - if it's done right, you can have gasoline and propane in the car - but sometimes it's not done right, and you're stuck with just a propane system. 

the system in our car is done well. so well, that the tank is filled through a nozzle next to the gasoline nozzle. in our jeep, we had to open the trunk and they hose connected directly to the tank. 

 when you need to refill, you head to the "gas plant" - not to be confused with a gas "pump". i have the worst luck, and am often stuck waiting in line for ever. it's a pretty masculine environment - and by that i mean, pretty crude.

the pumps are old. and because a gallon of propane costs an odd number of pesos, that sheet of paper has the prices all marked down so that you don't get ripped off. i think it's about 103 pesos a gallon - or about $2.60

 

it's not just cars that need to use propane gas. there is no central gas line for home-gas. some apartment complexes have a gas-system, but it is far more common to have gas tanks in the house (or in cages outside of the house) that need to be refilled when empty. there are plenty of ways to get your tank to the gas plant - you can pay a service that refills your tank on a set schedule; if you have a car, you can take the tank yourself. BUT! if you don't have a car or live in a neighborhood where service is not offered, you can pay a motor-taxi to take your tank to the plant to refill. 

and if you don't want to pay the taxi, just throw the tank into an old stroller and walk yourself over to the plant, refill and walk on home!

(and of course, this blog has been missing a picture of this little lady! she's got a little case of pneumonia going on - you'd never know except for the cough - but otherwise is loving being in the 4 year old classroom)