The Great Power Outage in Chile

This story is also available in Spanish.

It was around mid-day, when I was sitting in my room. I was readying my backpack to go outside for a walk. I wanted to take some photos in Santiago before heading down south towards Patagonia.

I was staying in Barrio Dieciocho ("District 18"). Close to "La Moneda", the presidential palace in the center of Santiago. My room didn't have any windows. No natural light. Only the lightbulb, which would soon leave me in the dark after a strange but heavy "click", followed by the sound of the fan in my room winding down and coming to a halt. Silence, the kind without any buzzing.

Went down to the reception to confirm that the power was gone in the hotel too. "Probably just a local thing", I thought, and started the walk around the city with my camera around my shoulder.

First impressions

The first thing I noticed was that some of the street lights were not working. Some were. Shops seemed mostly closed – for a Tuesday. I didn't think too much of it. "Could just be this district", I thought. Happens.

When I was walking around a corner, I passed two men. My ears overheard one of them saying:

"They should just give out the ice cream for free at this point."

The point where I realized: This is something bigger

As I approched "Avenida Alameda", one of the main avenues of Santiago, things changed.

The metro was out of service. There were a lot of people, walking on the street. Cars honking. Bus after bus, many of them labeled with "Apoyo Metro" (replacing the Metro), which was probably the most emblematic line of that day for me.

Without street lights, some of the crossings on this avenue were quite chaotic. Cars were honking to get permission to pass, some of them were continuously honking while YOLOing through the crowds, saying "Enough of this, here I come."

Enter the night, enter the power

At night time, bars / restaurants (which would still be open), were using candles.

Between 10 and 11 PM, the power returned to parts of the city. Little stores were opening up. People were lining up to get some food.

About 11 PM, I returned to my hotel, as there was a state of emergency and a curfew in place. Power still hadn't returned to that district yet, but I went to my room anyway. I was tired.

I was lying on my bed ready to fall asleep, when it "clicked" yet again: Turning on the fan, and lighting up the room. The power had returned to my room.