34 JULY 2026 WorldWide Drilling Resource® by Gary Bartholomew, Stephen Lingenfelter, and Tim Rasmussen, submitted by Gary Bartholomew A couple years ago, we mentioned a village not far from the border of Belize, called Buenos Aires (Good Air). There are about 200 people among the 60 or so families who live there. The village has some altitude and it is probably breezy there, hence the name. There may be good air, but there was no good water. The job of bringing good, clean water to the village has been a long and difficult process that started in 2022, when villagers sent word to Water for Life and asked for help. In response, we sent one of our workers to assess the situation and see if there was a suitable location for a well. The report came back and it was not encouraging. We are used to bad roads in Guatemala, but the way to get to this village could not bear the dignity of being called a road. It was mile after mile of a narrow, winding track through the jungle; up steep hills, around big trees, and down into deep holes filled with water and rock. It seemed likely that a large vehicle like our trucks could get stuck at any place. There was no way we could get one of our rigs into the village. When we reported this to the people of the village, they took the news as if they expected it. They smiled and told us they would not give up and said they would get a dozer and have a road built. “We have to have the water,” they said. We have heard such promises before from desperate villages, and frankly, doubted whether this could be accomplished. Things like roads move very slowly in Guatemala. About a year later, we got a call from the administrator of the municipality. The village had prevailed upon the municipality and been successful. The administrator let us know he had worked hard to get the road ready for the villagers. He was full of pride about the good news. “I told you we would make a road and now I have. Please come again and bring these people the water. They are waiting,” he said. Before the well was finished, we would wish the road had been the only obstacle our team would encounter! Again, we sent our man out there and sure enough, there was now a decent road to the village. We could certainly get a rig to the village now. We did the paperwork and put the village on the schedule. Finally, the day came when one of our cable rigs made the trek to the village. The folks in the village were excited and happy to see the equipment arrive. They had high hopes that in a few weeks they would have clean, safe water. The rig was set up in a suitable place and the slow process of cable drilling began. They slowly went deeper and deeper without finding any water, but they did find many caverns. They lost part of a bailer to a cavern in this hole and sent down a magnet to try and get the part, but the magnet snagged on something. After working on it for a while, they decided they could not get the parts or magnet out so made the hard decision to abandon the hole. Next month, we’ll finish the tale of Buenos Aires. If you would like to help, contact Gary Bartholomew at 509-939-1941. Gary Gary Bartholomew may be contacted via e-mail to michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com WTR Booth 501
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