When I first arrived in Catemaco, I spent several weeks trying to locate a washing machine service for my clothes. The thought of having my 30 dollar shirts rubbed between 2 stones in a contaminated lagoon simply did not feel good to my inner skin.
Shortly thereafter I found a human washing machine, who began using my personal waters and rocks to wash my clothes and who was considerably less expensive than the mechanical provider.
More shortly thereafter I splurged and bought one of those single tub electronic washer/dryer combinations for a mega amount of pesos, as my contribution to the Mexican ecology and the profit line of Walmart.
My human washing machine fell in love with the electronic monster and forfeited her cleaning time to watching the spin cycle. -- So I fired her.
The next 2 human attendants never did discover the vagaries of a proper wash and also went on their way. I now have an apparent graduate of a Mexican Technological Institute manning (womening) my machine and am living happily clean for the moment.
Meanwhile, a recent extended walk around beautiful downtown Catemaco exposed eight (8) new machine based lavanderias (laundries), ranging from 2 to 6 machines. And, would you believe it?, there is a dry cleaner only 30 minutes away.
