Ven a Colombia y Pierde Tu Ropa

I live in a hotel. To say the least it is an assorted, unique and quaint community. You have Colombians that have lived in Bellavista for years. Foreigners who stay for an extended period of time. People are always moving in and out. It is a fantastic way to meet new friends and learn about different places.

Now sit back and picture a one bedroom, one bathroom studio/apartment with a tiny, little kitchen. That's where I live with my best friend Lani. It is ample space seeing that we are very busy and active people. The only downfall to the living situation was how expensive it was to have clothing cleaned.

Before I knew what I was doing I was telling her about my expertise in washing clothes. I immediately offered to wash her clothing. She was literally putting me up in her place for two months for next to nothing. The least I could do was wash her clothing. Lani kept insisting that it was not necessary, but I quickly reassured her that it was not a big deal! All I needed was some laundry detergent and water.

A week went by and I woke up one morning with an urge to wash clothes! So I took our bag of dirty laundry and walked to the back of the hotel. I had to shuffle and scoot my way around miscellaneous tools, buckets and rusty gadgets to reach the sink where I would be cleaning our clothing.

As I approached the laundry area, I had this feeling that this might not go exactly as I had planned. The hotel staff was bustling about with baskets of sheets, towels and guests laundry. With the language barrier I was sure that I had misunderstood the directions that I had been given the night before from my friend Manon. This could not possibly be the right place! I was about to turn around and head back to the room when one of the maids from the hotel motioned for me to come join her.

Manon

Hesitantly, I stumbled over with my bag of laundry trailing behind me. Before I could stop her she was giving me the prime location to wash our clothing. I knew that it would be rude to leave now, but I had an inkling that I might be in the way and washing clothing for eternity. I emptied our bag of pants, shirts, bras and underwear into the sink and got to work.

Time seemed to pass quickly. However, I was very conscious of the eyes that were on me. My method seemed to be 100 times slower than every other women around me. Despite being completely in the way of their work, I know that I had thoroughly entertained them for the day. It was not until an hour later that I realized how long I had been at the sink. Lani came looking for the key to the room and could not help but smirk at my appearance.

I was dripping in sweat and had no clue how to efficiently wash clothing by hand. She chuckled a little and said, "I will have lunch waiting for you in the room." I was thrilled, gave her a quick little nod and proceeded to continue to laboriously scrub our clothing. With the thought of lunch lingering in my head I managed to finish rather quickly. I gave the ladies a nice smile and than proceed to squeak out, "Gracias." Next I hung the clothing on the line and raced back to the room for lunch.

Dusk was nearing and I knew that I had to get back to take the clothing off the line. Manon had warned me that if I left clothing overnight it was sometimes taken. But I was on my game and knew that I was alright because it was not yet dark. As I walked back to the clothesline I began to compliment myself. Only to find that one of my sports bras ($16.00) and a pair of my underwear ($5.00) had been snagged off the line. I was a little disappointed, but managed to let it go and was glad it had not been Lani's clothing. I headed back to the room to tell her of my findings.

About 10 days later, I decided that I would do laundry again. This time I thought I might try washing our clothes in the shower because I did not want to be in the way of the staff. It went surprisingly well and before long all of our laundry was clean. I throw it in a cloth bag and headed out to the clothesline. I decided that if I hung the clothes earlier, they would dry before the sun had begun to dip into the horizon.

Again I was mistaken. This time with the sun shining firsiouly on the clothesline, I realized that two of our shirts had been stolen. The first one was a new black shirt ($9.98) that I had just bought before coming to Colombia and the second one was Lani's favorite black shirt ($15.00) that her sister had given her. I found this to be rather amusing and all I could really do was laugh.

Within in minutes I realized how naive I had been. I invite you all to come to Colombia and let me do your laundry. You will lose your clothes ("Ven a Colombia y Pierde Tu Ropa"). So if you come to Colombia and let me do your laundry it averages out to be about $22.99 a load. Lani was paying about $15.00 a load. So in the end I was the more expensive service. All in all things are on the up and up. We now have clothesline in our room.

Until next time,

Megan