Paris, Giselle, Erik, Erik’s friend Edmundo, and I went to the beach this past weekend. The beach was called La Playa Asia. You already know how HOT it was (ha!), so I don’t really need to elaborate any more on that.
While we were there I encountered my first pay-for-toilet experience. It cost about 50 centimos (20-30 cents, I’m guessing) to use the bathroom. There’s a person who always sits at the entrance of the bathroom to collect the money from people who need to use it, and then she gives you a couple squares of toilet paper to use (which you pray is enough! Because if not… well, get creative or something!). The bathroom was very basic and very clean. At that particular location there weren’t any toilet seats but are toilet seats really necessary anyway??? Come on now, really? Nah… I’d take toilet paper over a toilet seat any day.
And then there was one big long strip of faucets all lined up in a row for the sink. And then if you needed the shower it was 1 ½ soles (about 50-60 cents maybe?) and it was outside the bathroom, like an outdoor shower. I haven’t really sensed a huge need for privacy here so far. By that meaning that it’s kind of like being at my house (which is different than most people’s houses I know)… people just walking around in their underwear, etc. Modesty isn’t really the thing. So if you want to use the outdoor shower, get ready to step into the shower, whip off your clothes to hand to a random person, and then walk to the bathroom in your towel.
The only bad thing about the bathroom at the beach was that it closed at 9 pm and didn’t open until the morning, so Giselle and I had to go pee outside near the side of house in the middle of the night. And I tried to get her to walk around the other side of the house for a second so I could go to the bathroom alone, but apparently that was a crazy concept because she kept laughing and asking, “Why? Just go!” and she just stood there watching me. So, yeah… well, when you gotta go, you gotta go… no matter who’s watching I guess.
Here at the house the bathroom is also nice, but basic. The sink is pretty comparable to ours at home. The toilet is smaller, but it does have a little toilet seat. You can’t throw toilet paper into the toilet here (just like in Brazil. I’m not sure how it is in other countries); you have to throw it in the trash can. If you forget and drop it into the toilet, be prepared to fish it out because it will definitely stop up the toilet.
The shower is comparable to a small, tiled, stand-up shower in the U.S. To use the hot water you have to press a button on the top of the shower head & there’s electric wires running across the length of the bathroom. Most of the time we have warm water here.
That’s all I can think to report on with the bathrooms… J
