Thursday, April 12, 2007

The price for a nice, hot shower

when i checked into the first hotel in Antigua, i thought this place recommended by many people on thorntree is just okay. The room is decent but the shared bathroom is not that clean. Two days later they had to move us to another hotel due to availability (it was semana santa week, everywhere is booked!), i realized it is actually pretty good. the second hotel has bathroom inside the room. however the "main" showerhead spills out only cold water, there is a small, subsidiary showerhead that has hot water coming out. the problem is, it´s pointing at an angle that if i were 6"2 i can probably wash the top of my head. the rubber hose that the small showerhead connects to is somewhat adjustable. but it eventually shift back to its original angel due to the nature of the rubber. so i have about ten seconds between each adjustment to have nice, hot water splashed on me. i was too tired to care, sucked it up and went to bed. Later we moved to the guesthouse of our spanish school, the showerhead is also one of a kind (by now i think the first hotel is really, really nice). There is only one tap, if it´s turned slightly counterclockwise (about one degree, no more, no less), it "drizzles" out some nice hot water. but the showerhead is shooting in such wide angles that at any location, i can only receive about 3-4 water streams. it took FOREVER.
normally i wouldn´t care, but since we are staying here for two weeks, the thought of not having a nice, hot shower for that long is not very cheering (and did i mention it´s cold in antigua at night?)
well, there´s a chinese proverb that says "solutions are come up with by people". i noticed there´s a spa near the school, i walked in and inquired the possibility of ¨purchasing¨ hot shower there. Though not usually the kind of service they offer, they kindly offered me a "package" of three hot showers for 100 quetzales. i thought it is well worth it. now i am refreshed after a nice, long,hot shower, about to finish writing this entry, go have some dinner and watch NHL playoff (yes, Antigua is very, very Americanized, or in their language, gringofied).

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