No "Room" for Negociation

When deciding on a place to stay in Roatan, I actually did something I almost never do... I booked ahead.

That's right I booked a hostel ahead of time because I knew the exact amount of time I would stay on the island minus people asking me to stay longer.  The hostel had excellent reviews and the location was perfect. 

Although, the thing with booking ahead is that you have little or no flexibility to move.
It seemed to be a permanent decision for me.  The owner was lovely-from New Mexico and married a local Honduran guy producing two beautiful boys.  She was amazingly cool, but very serious about prices and they were set a bit higher than they needed to be. 

When I arrived, the house looked more than a few years old. It was located at the top of the hill near on a dirt road with lots of rocks. It reminded me of a house in Mulholland drive in Los Angeles. There were three girls sitting in the front porch welcoming me inside and asking 20 questions.  There sat this little house with 4 "rooms" upstairs and 2 rooms downstairs, I had been assigned a little room on the top floor. Well, little is an understatement as it was the size of a prison cell. Keep in mind I am used to being spoiled as I make friends with owners and receive the big room at a low, discounted rate(Perk of strongly connecting with others and being nice).  

While I tried to ask about some other rooms, she offered my the large guesthouse back near the pool for $40 dollars a night.  It had a total of six different beds, a living room, kitchen area, and high ceilings. Being aware of my budget, I was thinking to myself,
 "Take a bigger room and just eat bananas or take a prison cell room for $15 and eat like a queen." 

It was clear that there was no room for negotiation with her (no room..haha), therefore I accepted the small room. The small room, which was above the common area where all the girls sit and talk.  That was the worst part about it's location. It was 2 weeks there and I had to use my decorating abilities to turn it into a home.  It seemed nice being next to mini library, but a girl was always sitting there and it felt tight with two people.   

You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes then you might find-you get what you need. Song

Suicide Shower

This sounds so awful that I almost did not even want to write it as a post, but this is the Guatemalan terminology...

Coming back to the hostel chosen by my American friend. I had to face the reality.  The reality was that it was time for me to take a shower. It was time to take a shower in the hostel that I did not read reviews on or first do a thorough investigation on.  The time had come to walk in and see my fate....(All Animation sounds in place)

Instead of taking the plunge alone, my American friend decided to escort me into the bathroom.  There was a towel underneath the sink on the floor that was dripping wet, the toilet was relatively clean, and then their was the shower.  She slowly opened up the curtain and there it was "the suicide shower."  The sound of a horror movie was ringing through my head.

There was the shower head with  blue and white wires hanging from it and some paint chipping off the wall. The shower head was actually the least of it. It was the tub that was 9 feet deep and looked like a grave.  It was as if you were going to take a shower and then you were going to lay down and die.  After of about 1 minute of her explaining why there needs to be wires for heat, I quickly walked out of the bathroom and into the room.

  I guess it was more messy than clean, but with that being my first hostel bathroom after a long while- it was No Bueno!  If she was trying to scare me out of taking it shower it definitely worked. I couldn't believe this woman who was in her 60s would actually take a shower in something like that-it was kind of mind boggling.  Even if all the showers in Guatemala have wires hanging, they can still be spotless clean?

After that bathroom investigation, I decided to investigate all the different bathrooms within the hostel.  I found one decent one on the top floor, but even for me to use that one it really took a big push! I was sitting in the room obsessively reorganizing my bag to avoid taking a shower.  There were six girls upstairs and they were all using that shower. The one downstairs is only made for that one room, which makes it cleaned less.  More rooms using the bathroom=more likely it will be cleaned. Well. clearly that does not really apply in this hostel.  

To end this suicide saga, I took a shower in the upstairs bathroom, which was not a 9ft tub and had only a few wires hanging out. 

No suicide friends-still ALIVE:)