Backpacking South America

If you read our Christmas post you would know that we are in Rivera, Uruguay and spent the holidays with friends.  It was a wonderful week (plus one day) and a perfect place to regroup and recharge for the road that lies ahead.

It wasn’t your typical Christmas.  We woke up to 80 degree weather, managed to make some good Brazilian coffee, just in time for the electricity to shut off.  No, we didn’t have a turkey in the oven, nor were we without heat, but we were down a few fans, a breeze and a refrigerator holding food for 14 people (5 of us and 9 guests).  We banned anyone from opening the fridge until the electricity switched back on – as a power outage wasn’t uncommon.   Please keep in mind, Rivera is on the “frontier,” that is that it is on the border with Brasil.

We had good brazilian coffee and food.  We decided to just wait this out.  We were told the electricity goes out during a storm, but there had been no storm.  So, we just waited, sipped coffee, hoping the electricity would kick back on any minute.

As we sat around the table eating breakfast and enjoying one another’s company, Emily eventually woke up and joined us.  We immediately gave her the run down and banned her from opening the fridge until we absolutely needed to, and then we strangely looked at her wet head and asked if she took a cold shower.  She gave us an unusual look and asked what was wrong with us; her shower was warm and we were not without electricity. (The hot water in the shower is generated by electricity…).

We proceeded to sheepishly rejoice, wondering how long the electricity had been back on for.  After a little work here and there, we found that the electricity only worked in three rooms in the house; two bedrooms and the bathroom.  We were still in a bind in the kitchen and refrigerator.

This is Christmas day and chances were pretty slim that we were going to be able to get an electrician over to the house to resolve the problem, but we did try – unsuccessful.  Finally, I had the idea that we could string a serious of short extension cords from the front of the house to the kitchen to plug in the fridge – success!  We saved Christmas!

It wasn’t turkey dinner, but it was a feast.  We prepared 7 pounds of meat, countless vegetables and fresh pineapple for shish kabobs.  Jared manned the parrilla.  He quickly melted to a sweaty mess.  Between the 90 degree temperature, humidity and hovering over the red hot coals, he did his best to prepare the main course to perfection.

Dessert was an assortment of Alfahores.  After the guests left and cleanup was done, we retired to the back patio to enjoy the evening and a delicious bottle of Don David Malbec, sitting by candlelight (because we still had no electricity in the back of the house) and celebrated a job well done.