Escape From Las Peñitas

Perhaps I overstayed my welcome in Las Peñitas, but my last day and evening there weren't so fine for my privileged and pampered norteamericano posterior.

I still don't know if the electric company was busy doing repairs, as someone informed me, or if the incident was part of a "routine" rolling blackout, but at around 3.00 p.m. Thursday the power went out in the entire village, just as I was returning to my airconditioned room for a nap and some much needed refuge from a very hot day.

By 6.00 p.m. I started to worry a bit because dusk was fast approaching with its attendant swarms of nasty mosquitos, but my informant assured me that the power would be on "by 7.00."  How did she know this?  "We called them and they said they were doing repairs" but that the power would soon return.

Before the black of night descended completely I took a walk around only to discover that everyone else was suffering from the mosquitos as much as I, but further down the road a couple places had gasoline operated generators.  One of these places was the $50 hotel I mentioned several posts ago, the Suyapa Beach, which had mysteriously doubled its rates from Lonely Planet's last edition of 2-3 years ago.

I was torn about bailing from my $30 room at Barca de Oro and moving to a place that I felt barely justified the cost, so I walked back to my place to wait for 7.00.  And then I waited til 8.00.

By then, the Barca de Oro had provided a few candles but not much else.  Apparently there was only one flashlight in the house for use by the staff who were still doing okay business with their excellent restaurant.  I felt kind of sorry for them because they seemed a little embarrassed, but under the circumstances I was feeling a bit more sorry for myself!  I couldn't even take a shower by then because there was no way to see anything in the bathroom.  (I was their only guest in the hotel side of the business.)

Finally I headed back to the Suyapa Beach to see if they had a room.  It turns out they had one room left, with no TV, but at least it was airconditioned and I'd be able to get a shower.  Why was the hotel full that night?  Because it was hosting a private party, either a wedding or a birthday, complete with loud disco music for everyone's enjoyment!  The music continued, to my relief, only til 12.30 a.m. And by then, though I'm not 100% certain, I believe the electricity finally returned to the rest of the village.

There was a time not too long ago when I would've ridden out such a "crisis" and "gone with the flow" and suffered whatever it took to get through the night.  But there also was a time, not so long ago, when I stayed in dorms when traveling, or crashed on people's couches, or didn't own a car or a bank account or even a credit card.

These days are a little different from the past:  let's just say that I won't stay in dorms anymore because I can afford more comfortable alternatives.  And owning a credit card is definitely convenient whenever such an "emergency" disrupts the best laid plans. . .