Widowmakers

In Honduras (and I assume in other Latin American countries as well) hot water is not common.  Most of the time there is a hot water handle on a sink, but nothing comes out. 

The same goes for showers, unless you have an electric shower head, called a widowmaker.  A widowmaker heats up the water before it comes out.  Electricity is required to pump the water to the shower and to heat it.

Without electricity you can take a shower with water from an above-ground cistern.  A cistern is a large tank that catches rain water and holds it for later.  It usually sits above the house so that it can flow straight down inside without the use of electricity.  During the day the water is heated by the sun, making a shower warm, but not hot.  It's good to have a cistern when the electricity goes out, but once the cistern is dry, there is no more water until the next rain.