traffic-jam-up.

there is all kinds of construction going on in santiago - there are roads torn up everywhere, buildings going up, drainage pipes lining avenues - it's a little overkill.

 it usually takes 25 minutes to and from work, except during rush hour. today, i sat in a car for an hour. and the driver took tons of detours to avoid the insane traffic. i can't even imagine the route without traffic-avoiding short cuts without smoke coming out of my ears.

santiago needs this construction. the roads have been a mess and forget about getting anywhere when it rains. main thoroughfares turn into rivers - probably rivers deeper and longer than the real river Yaque that runs in the city.

but this construction can not be more poorly planned than it has been. the workers start at morning rush hour, take breaks and continue at the mid-day rush and then again in the evening. and i don't even want to get started on the ridiculous "engineer-worker" ratio. it seems there are always too many chefs in the kitchen when it comes to road construction here.

in november, they re-asphalted a pretty important stretch of road, under the "underpass" and in front of some big businesses. it took days of horrid tapones, traffic-jams that backed up traffic for way more time than necessary. same problems - work at the horas picas when everyone is in transit and either not enough workers, or too many engineers.

notice how they're all just standing on the corner. one guy has a shovel.
please don't misread this - i know that this is construction everywhere. but it's frustrating nonetheless.

sometimes people think that we don't have heavy equipment for construction. it exists. really.

look how close that car is to the roller. they almost crashed - mostly it was the car's fault for being too far into the construction lane.

these guys stood on the corner for a good 25 minutes. seriously. like there wasn't any work to be done, or traffic tied up for DAYS.