The lights went out in Buenos Aires. Literally.




We had just pulled into an underground parkade at the mall to escape the rain. As the four of us exited the car, Sandra clicked her remote to lock it and turn off the lights. Simultaneously, the lights in the garage went out. It was absolutely pitch black except for one dim light on the ramp. As we huddled around wondering what was going on, the generator kicked in and lights came on.

Sandra punched the button for the elevator but Teddy said we should take the stairs. Wise idea. Halfway up, the lights went out again. “That was a good idea,” said Sandra as we continued on our way up.

To backtrack a bit, after a hot and muggy morning (more about our tour with Sandra later) a deluge of probably biblical proportions hit Buenos Aires just after 2:00 p.m. It started off as a light rain, and because the air conditioning in Sandra’s Fiat mysteriously died just then, we opened the windows to welcome the breeze that was picking up. The few raindrops that ventured into the car were hardly a deterrent to the open window. But then, the skies darkened, the rain increased and so did the wind. Literally, sheets of rain were swept off the huge leafy trees and just poured onto the road, adding to the already thick deluge hammering the cars. The sewer grates couldn’t keep up and every one was boiling over with overflow. One road was partially submerged and it’s only because Sandra was able to make a tight left turn and avoid the deepest part that was submerged that we were able to ford through.

We drove through this for about 10 minutes while the un-airconditioned car tried valiantly to keep the windshield fog free, but it was hard. The heat and the mugginess just coated the windshield and dimmed the visibility. But Sandra obviously had a destination in mind and shortly thereafter we pulled into the aforementioned underground parkade.

The stores we saw appeared to be closed, which was fine since we didn’t go in to shop. Mainly, we wanted a drink. There was a little restaurant open downstairs to which we headed but, we couldn’t order lunch. No power. No matter. We downed two cokes each to slake our thirst and I didn’t even care that it wasn’t diet.

The lights came on shortly thereafter and so we stayed to have a bite. Teddy and I couldn’t read the menu (Spanish) and neither of us wanted to risk a salad (washed in tap water, if washed at all) so we ordered a ham and cheese sandwich. It was awful, but mostly we ordered lunch so that Sandra would. We would have liked to take her to a fancier place for lunch (so we could pay by credit card), which was our plan, but the weather kaiboshed that. They would let us pay in US dollars but wouldn’t give us a good rate so instead, Sandra paid and we gave her the US dollars. She’s going to Washington in February so she can use the dollars.

It was still raining when we left, but the skies were lighter and so was the rain.

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