It was an extra-dark and unusually stormy night.

Image via WikipediaTonight we hung out with some friends at Noah and Nicholas' apartment in Recoleta. Their building, and the one next to theirs, had lost power for the third time in as many days, so we sat huddled around a laptop, watching James Bond in the dark and praying the battery would last long enough for us to finish the movie.

By the time we were ready to go, it had started storming. I think this may be only the second time it has rained in the two months we've been in Buenos Aires.

The rain let up a bit, and we decided to walk the fifteen blocks to our apartment. We were almost home, when the rain started coming down harder. No matter! We weren't going to wuss out and take a taxi at this point! That would just be silly.
OR WOULD IT???
We reached Avenida 9 de Julio, the WIDEST STREET IN THE WORLD,* and hesitated. While crossing its 16 lanes of traffic, we would be completely unsheltered and vulnerable! And no one ever makes it across 9 de Julio in one traffic light cycle. You always get stuck on the median. (Wikipedia confirms this: "Crossing the avenue at street level often requires a few minutes, as all intersections have traffic lights. Under normal walking speed, it takes pedestrians normally two to three green lights to cross it.")

Dinah looked at the rain-slicked street and her expression hardened into one of grim resolve. "Okay," she said, striding purposefully to the curb. "We're doing this." That's how it came to pass that the Juergens sisters became perhaps the first American tourists to cross all 16 lanes of Avenida 9 de Julio in one traffic light cycle, in the dark, in the rain, and in slippery shoes. It was, as Nell put it, the "Olympics of street crossing."
*Okay, so I'm not really sure if it's the widest street in the world, but somebody told me that once, and I hope that it's true so that I can say I've run across the widest street in the world.