It was a stormy night yesterday, heavy rain, thunders and lightning out the window. I was doing some homework when all of a sudden lights went out, lamps, tv, phone, everything but my laptop running on batteries.
<<previous
next >>
Dim, pale, whiteish light iluminating my living room, plus the flashing of the occasional lightning. Walking with my laptop as a torch I reached candles and lighted them with a BIC lighter I found in the kitchen.
The first thing I wanted to check out was if was the only unhappy left in the darkness, so I looked out of my sixth floor window to check on the rest of the appartments. To my surprise not only the building lights were out, but also the whole neighborhood, even street, and traffic lights. Some one had pulled the plug on the whole city.
I couldn't help to think that it was the perfect time for thugs to break havoc, and that my girlfriend was about to come back. With the help of cell phones communication was established and worries dismissed.
The blackout lasted around half an hour, no major incidents where reported. Later local news informed on tv about a huge blackout that affected the whole south side of the country. Apparently the source was one or more lightnings that fell on the lines.
This is not usual in Uruguay. Not at all. ...
5 comments:
Hello Gabo, greetings from Dubai, UAE. I am from El Salvador and have been living as an expat in the Middle East for a bit more than 3 yrs, 90% of that time working for an IT company.
I started reading your blog, from the intro post to the latest one a few minutes ago, I was searching information about living in UY as I am exploring some job opportunities in the IT industry there, therefore, my wife (Colombian) and I are weighing the pros/cons of moving out of UAE and go back to Latin America. I would like to ask you if it is ok if I send you a few questions in a near future in order to gather some more information.
Thank you and congratulations for a nice blog.
Sure, no problem, send the questions to fromuruguay[at]gmail.com,
cheers,
gabo
Hi, Gabo,
Your account of the blackout at first was almost romantic in some ways. It sounds like a incident similar to that happened in New York last year.
I like lightning storms. I'm glad to hear that communication could be established even though the power was out.
I think that was the tail of a large storm that the last part of the Paraná River basin and the Río de la Plata (direction NW-SE) Did you have hail?
We had an awful lot...
Hola Gabo,
My wife and I just returned from Uruguay. We will be back. We were in Punta del Este at Hotel La Bluette on the night of the storm. Our rental car had a dead battery. We were awaiting help from the rental car company. We were going to dinner.
Before the car rep arrived, the storm broke. It was intense like a monsoon rain. The hotel, all other buildings, all street lights out. The poor guy changed batteries in the glare of his headlights. We headed off in the dark in search of a restaurant.
We only got off course twice. Not bad for first time ever driving this direction. There seemed to be power in some of the town. We stopped at the first restaurant we found open.
It turned out to specialize in seafood and was quite a nice place. The dishes were well presented and acceptable, the wine wonderful, the service friendly. We ate as well as possible on this stormy night in Uruguay.
Post a Comment