Saturday, November 07, 2009

Blackouts

We are supposed to be in our "rainy" season now and so far it has been dry, dry, dry. Normally it will rain in the afternoon and then clear up again. According to correspondents the drought which has hit the Andes region is the worst in four decades. As a result, the country has been rationing electricity. Ecuador depends heavily on hydro power to produce electricity. The hydroelectric plant located in the eastern part of the country has been forced to halve its average production because of the drought. Since the rationing of electricity began last week, we lose power around 11 AM and are back up and running around 3 or 4 PM in the afternoon. Sometimes the power goes off at night, so we have candles ready to use. To say the least it is an "inconvenience" but we are adjusting our schedule around the power outages. That's part of life in a third world country!


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