la estufa

This is the estufa. I love it, despite its dangers, for the fact that it is the only heat source in apartment. It consists of a metal structure about two feet tall which houses a tank of some sort of flammable liquid gas (looks like a propane tank to me, but I don't really know.) A hose delivers the gas to a place at the bottom of the metal screen, where it is ignited. There is a strange sort of filter-type insert within the estufa that seems to absorb the flame from the pilot and burns extremely slowly, emitting heat. It really doesn't put out that much heat; you have to be standing right next to it to really feel anything. After you leave it on for a few hours, the room temperature becomes bearable, although it's far from being toasty. You can't leave it burning all night, because there is a risk of poisoning from the gas. When the tank is low, you can really smell the gas. For the same reason, you really shouldn't use it in an enclosed space, so it sits most of the time in the hallway of the apartment. The study-abroad program gave us air monitors which sound the alarm if the gas leaks. So far, mine has never beeped, so I suppose our estufa is working properly.

In other news, the rain finally came. It rained for almost 48 hours straight. The downside to this is that Santiago's streets do not have storm drains.

Oh, and I would never attempt to bribe a carabinero. They're very honest and uncorrupted.