Hand Laundry

                      

When you go abroad, people like to think it’s all a typical tourist lifestyle spending $5 to $10 per load to get your laundry done. It’s just doesn’t go that way for me because I rarely pay to get my laundry done. Not only does it feel like a waste of money, but I like the feeling of accomplishment doing it independently.  It’s important to let immerse yourself into the reality of the culture, which  means no washing machines and dryers. Also, it is about the OCD quality control as I like to make sure things are getting washed properly. My clothes are all different bright colors and I have seen people with a pink tank top that used to be white.

With this said, I cleaned my clothing in Guatemala taking me about 3 hours (average time to do a couple small loads of laundry).  It came out beautifully and smelled extra clean as I put in 2 pounds of detergent. Well let’s just say I put way more in the cleaning bowl than necessary. 

In Belize, I was spoiled getting to use the washing machine and then dried my clothes on the line. My lovely friend charged me half price and let me do it myself-not the procedure at all. With it being my last day and limited time, I was not going to decline that offer.   

Being in Honduras on the island, I spent another 3 hours washing my clothes. I used a big red bucket and I even had a little device that looked like an accordion, which you put detergent on and scrub. Unfortunately no accordion sound, just the sound of my annoying voice singing Enrique Iglesias, “Bailando.” My little Oreo was looking at me like I had lost my marbles.

It was an action packed day so I had my things packed and ready to go. All I needed to do was take my laundry off the line and throw it in with all my clean stuff.  I went to take my pants off the line and they smelled like, “Mildew.” I picked up each item and  it smelled. Oh no” Everything had the smell and it was horrible. There was this weird sewer smell that comes from the drain or faucet and that is exactly what it smelled like.  Of course, these were all my main necessities that I was washing.  I had no time to wash it again and I just had to do something with my stinky laundry. 

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What did I do with the Mildew Laundry one may ask?

I put it in ziplock and plastic bags in my bag and took it to Nicaragua where I had to spent the $10 have the smell washed out in the machine. Perhaps another traveler would have just dealt with it, but the slightest “off smell” and this was definitely “way off.” I had to rewash it. Another 3 hours of doing laundry just was not going to happen.  

Thanks Roatan for the stinky water!