El Apagón
As I approach the last several days of my adventures, I’ve decided that there’s no better time than now to reminisce and remind myself of some of the strangely wonderful moments I’ve experienced. I keep meaning to write a post about the blackout that occurred here about 10 days after I arrived. However, I didn’t get around to looking up the word for blackout in Spanish (apagón) until last night. Now that I’m equipped with the proper vocab and feeling nostalgic, I can tell you about the night that almost all of Ecuador shut down.
A lightning bolt hit a main power generator at an electrical plant outside of Quito at about 5:30pm one night. The entire country is only about the size of the state of Colorado and this particular plant happened to supply power to about 85% of the residences with electricity. When the power went out, except for several large office building and hotels, the entire city went dark. All of the traffic lights, stores, and street lamps were out just as the sun began to set on the city. I was waiting for a ride home from a bus station but with the combination of lack of lights and the already atrocious traffic situation in the city, all of the streets were gridlocked. I walked several blocks to find my host mom in her car and we waited along the same 5 yard stretch for about 2 hours. Drivers were abandoning their cars in the streets, shop owners were standing outside of their darkened tiendas and there was utter chaos as people waited for an explanation. It was as if the city had decided to go to sleep early, but all of the people were still wide awake.
I asked my host mom if this sort of thing happens regularly in Quito and she said that it had never happened before in the 50 years she has lived here. She said it was sort of like a welcome to Ecuador present for all of the foreign students who had arrived for the semester. I did my homework by candlelight that night at our dining room table in Quito. I remember feeling pretty freaked out by the whole thing and wondering how it was possible that a whole country could derive power from the same generator. It’s sort of like questioning how I could hitch a ride with an unknown family friend hundreds of miles from Quito, or how there could only be one road to each major city, or only six continents on the globe. I never truly received answers to any of these queries, but in retrospect, such things don’t seem so strange.
The power situation has been fine since that incident, although if possible, I think the traffic may have gotten worse since I’ve arrived. I am positive that anytime the power goes out in my home in New York or anywhere else I happen to be, for the rest of my life I will be propelled back to that one night, when I first moved to Ecuador for five months and complete darkness swept over my new home. Some things, like blackouts and mudslides are temporary, but if you’re lucky, some things stick with you forever.
Saludos todos,
Ariel