Running Out of Gas in Rural Uruguay

“I’m someone that has difficulty doing the small things. It’s not that I’m not detail oriented … maybe I’m not detail oriented, but I like to think I am instead focused on the larger picture. On what truly matters, yes?

One challenge that this way of viewing the world presents is monitoring the amount of gasoline (petrol) that my vehicle has. Now, I understand that most people can do this effortlessly but I’m not one of them. As such, I have run out of gas multiple times in life. I am familiar with the circumstance.

I live in the Interior of Uruguay and I have run out of gas.

To put this in perspective for those who are unfamiliar with Uruguay, you would be well served to search “light pollution map” online. You will find the entirety of India is lit up as if it were outlined on a map. Europe is not surprisingly also with very few areas lacking light pollution. You will notice that night skies have a variety of darkness. Do you notice Uruguay? It’s difficult outside the capitol city on the southern coast. Uruguay lacks light pollution and rewards the citizens in the Interior with a night sky that dazzles, however, it also means that few people live there which is what’s relevant for this post. It was a chilly night, proper winter for here in Uruguay, when my 1993 Toyota 4runner in rust-free condition as we don’t have snow nor a need to salt the roads sputtered and slowed. I had run out of diesel. Not an unknown circumstance for me, but the first time it had happened in Uruguay.

This was along Ruta 8, a major north-south corridor that carries trade from Brasil but for those imagining a highway in the West, it is a two lane road that is more than sufficient for the amount of traffic it handles here in the Interior. The last gas station was 10 miles back and the weather less than ideal so I reluctantly stood next to my vehicle with a thumb extending hoping that I would be able to avoid the walk. The next series of cars quickly approached and passed by as I assumed they would and I came to grips with the walk ahead of me. There are much worse situations in life and I reminded myself that I was experiencing something novel. As I started walking, the entire situation having taken less than five minutes, a car came rolling up with it’s blinkers on. They were in the northbound lane as I had been and I was surprised that they arrived instantly being the first car to approach.

When I came up to the car, the gentleman described that he had been in the series of cars to pass and needed to proceed to a spot where he could turn around safely. He described that often drove at night being from Artigas in the north and living in Montevideo for work and he remarked that the frigid temperatures surely would make it unconscionable to leave a driver stranded. Keep in mind that a heavy jacket was all that was needed in a place where encountering frost in the morning is considered an extreme temperature.  I traveled with him to the closest down, those 10 miles back, and he dropped me at the gas station. The taxi we called (I used Southern Shelter to help me find one) was already there waiting with a can and just needed to know how much diesel we wanted to purchase. 

For those unfamiliar with diesel vehicles, me included, when they run out of gas with the engine running the fuel filter is then empty and unlike a gasoline vehicle the process is more complicated than simply adding fuel and turning the key. I was unaware of this, but my taxi driver wasn’t and as I held the phone for light he manually primed the fuel filter. After a couple attempts the vehicle started and I was again on my trip home deeper into the Interior but with an increased appreciation for the people of this fantastic country.

Marco.