Laundry

My hope was that we’d be able to make it to Thompson’s Bakery for breakfast this morning.  Sadly, that didn’t happen because one of us (not me - I was up at 5 am) didn’t get up until almost 9:30.  What the heck?  I checked in on him a couple of times just to make sure he was breathing.

Oh well, with four hours to kill I got a lot done this morning.  I watched the sun rise, drank two French presses of coffee, shared a banana with a couple of iguanas, read, and did some laundry.

Sunrise @ 5:45 am.  Beautiful!

When we booked this VRBO, we were very excited to know that there was a washing machine on site.  We like to pack for a week and wash clothes along the way.  Unfortunately, Mike was quick to tell us upon arrival that it doesn’t work.  As you know, I’m skeptical that anything Mike says is true, but I can live without a washer.  I just channel my inner Laura Ingalls Wilder and live like a pioneer.  Well, except for the part where I used the Tide Pods I brought from home, rather than having made my own soap from ash and lye. 

Speaking of soap, I’m going to take a moment get up on my Tide Pod box and demand that, if any of you are still traveling with cotton clothes, you please stop it right now.  Seriously – Eddie Bauer makes a whole line of clothing branded Travex ^® (both men & women’s) and it will change your life.  Not only is it some of the most comfortable stuff you’ll wear, it dries fast.  That’s good for lots of reasons in hot, humid environments.   I own at least one of almost everything, and every color of many pieces.  Despite his joy in poking fun at what he calls my “Eddie Bauer habit”, even Andrew has made his way over to the Travex ^® side of the fence. 

Ok, I’m stepping off the box and back to the laundry…

You may remember that I mentioned our new friends at the Utila Bike Rental and Laundry Service.  I’ll confess that there are several laundry services in town.  I suspect that, for the bargain price of about $5/load, you could have your clothes washed, dried and returned to you in a nicely folded pile.  I’ll then follow that confession with another…I have laundry issues.  Ok, yes – I have a lot of issues.  Laundry, however, is pretty high up on the list of the top 5. There are very strict rules that must be followed for optimal laundry success.  Sorting, stain treatment, water temperature, type of detergent, fabric softener and other additives, and dryer versus line drying are all critical factors.  One wrong move and…  Ok, fine.  I don’t actually knows what would happen because I always follow the laundry rules.  I’m sure it’s bad, however.  Giving my laundry to a complete stranger with an unknown familiarity and/or regard for the rules is out of the question.  I don’t even let Andrew wash my clothes – especially since I discovered early on that he sorts loads according to which hemisphere of the body it went on, rather than by color and/or fabric.  Who does that?

So, while there is no working washer, and using a service is out of the question, there is a perfectly good sink with a built in drain board and I have a large supply of Tide Pods!  It doesn’t take long to soak, wash, rinse and hang everything.  I even did a second load with the sheets (once Andrew vacated them).  Is there anything more beautiful than carefully laundered clothes drying on a clothesline?  I think not! 

The washer...

...and the dryer. 

Second dryer in the sun.  They aren't our sheets so I'm less worried about fading.  :)