Rio de San Telmo

So we have been having this crazy weather here in Buenos Aires the last few weeks. It has been so crazy that even Mommy all the way back in California emailed me to ask if i was ok (like normal i got back to here 18 hours later a new record) On Monday we had a downpour during the meeting that lead to us all going home quite soaked. No one wanted to leave the hall since i was raining sideways. And the fact that a good number of people had forgotten their umbrellas (myself included) only managed to make the problem worse. Thankfully for me and Jon we live two blocks from the subway so we were atleast able to make it home with dry underwear. Some of the others did not make out so well. The three Colorado guys when they got near to their apartment in Palermo, had to take off their shoes and roll up their suit pants past their knees to walk through the streets to get home. Their dry cleaners also flooded causing it to close for repairs leaving them without their laundry for about 5 days.

If Monday was a downpour, then Friday was a Monsoon compressed down into about 3 hours. The city here recorded 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) of rain in only one hour. Needless to say that caused many parts of the city to shut down (Think of 3 feet of snow in that amount of time). All and all we came out ok by us. In other parts of the city the fire engines were driving around with little boats tied to their bumpers so that the could pick people up In some spots the water level in the streets was above the waist of a normal person. This little video i managed to capture on my roommates camera (remember mine got nabbed – see earlier blog entry for details). It shows how at the peak of the rain storm, our street was transformed into a ranging torrent. The water level in the middle of the street was about up to my knees; so im guessing maybe 2 feet? During this time no cars or buses were able to drive up our street because of the water. You will see my feet in this video standing on the edge of a ledge, that is the step that leads into our building. Even though we are on the second floor the thought that the building was about to start flooding was quite sobering.

However as fast as the river formed, did it also abate. Within a span of 10 mins the street completely drained and was back to normal for the rest of the storm. So some may say that it was a bad

day, flooding, missed service, and we were without power for most of the day, and half of the next day. But we managed to make the best of it. Me and Jon walked down the street…i mean river to the corner and got some beer, our buddy Bret joined us after work as he could not get home on the subway, and we simply sat down and enjoyed the show.