I was embarrassed by the hot tears that wouldn’t stop running down my face, but I found the castellers–a group of people making a human tower–incredibly moving and inspiring. It didn’t help that the music accompanying the video was a play-on-the-heartstrings kind of song with quiet, trembling vocals that crescendoed.

Members of the Castellers de Vilafranca

I’ve thought about that video often in the ensuing months, and have watched it more than once from my home in New York. Each time I saw the castellers, I experienced a feeling of pride–a pride I appreciated and honored, even though it didn’t belong to me.

**
This week, on the #CatalunyaExperience blog trip, I was finally able to identify what other elements of the castellers’ traditions touched me so deeply. As our group received instructions from members of the Castellers de Vilafranca, I realized that almost anyone can participate in building castells, regardless of their age, size, or level of physical fitness. In castell-building, every willing casteller is needed, because each lends something in particular to the overall structure. Without diversity, the castell could not be built. There are few physical activities done in groups where the same applies.

The other elements of castell building that had moved me so deeply–but had been elusive to explain until I experienced being part of a castell myself–were the importance of communication and trust, and the expansiveness of potential we possess when we work in a team. As I climbed onto the back of one of the castellers and slowly, clumsily made my way into a standing position on his shoulders, I felt a brief flicker of fear: Would he drop me? Would the people on the ground catch me if I fell?

"Do I trust myself?"

That’s a heavy thing to think about when you’re looking for footing on top of another human being who is holding you up.

**
The castellers who form teams like Castellers de Vilafranca train regularly. They build daring and dangerous towers nine or ten stories high. They are hundreds in number; to build towers that tall, the base alone may be composed of 500 people. But even with so many people, they communicate clearly and efficiently. Could we do the same in our small team as we tried to build just a one story tower?

Iain had quickly been deemed the most adept among us at the castell building enterprise, and he was selected to be the first standing member of our castell. The lithe, thin, agile female member of Castellers de Vilafranca who had come to train us would then climb on his shoulders, and voila, our modest castell would be complete.

When you’re on the base of the human tower, your job is so specific and the need for focus is so great that you can’t possibly get the panoramic view of what’s happening above you. So as the pro casteller came tumbling down and the sturdier Iain came right after her, it was neither possible nor necessary to determine what had happened or why; it was just critical to react immediately to make sure neither one hit the concrete.

Our arms extended before our brains could command them to do so, and our hands clutched and then cradled whatever part of their bodies had fallen into them. When we were certain we wouldn’t drop him, we righted Iain and set him back with both feet on the ground. I don’t remember us talking about any of the actoins;’ we just did them because they had to be done. Though we wouldn’t attempt a second tower, the lesson was not lost on me, and I know I’ll be thinking about the powerful metaphors of the castellers for a long, long time.
**
To learn more about the traditions of the castellers, click here.

The Castellers de Vilafranca will be in New York City in June. When the dates and times are posted, I’ll publish them here and on twitter.

Each city that hosts the Volvo Ocean Race has a two-week long celebration that accompanies the event. Starting several days before the teams are expected in port (in Miami, the celebration started on May 6), the Race Village opens to the public, offering lots of free activities for kids and adults.

If you’re in Miami–or plan to be before May 20– the Downtown Race Village at Bicentennial Park has a full roster of events, which you can see here. We visited on opening day; here’s what you can expect to see and do:

The Downtown Race Village is located on Biscayne Blvd./US-1

Each team has its own activities; Puma has a bar and live DJ

Puma also has a large play area for kids

Volvo offers the chance to simulate driving various vehicles

Live music plays on the main stage

Team Abu Dhabi's installation is especially cool, with henna artists and falconers

Toloache 82

Though Cinco de Mayo is a widely misunderstood holiday in the US, that doesn’t mean Mexican restaurants will correct their customers’ perceptions; for them, the day commemorating the Battle of Puebla is one of the best days of the year for business. When asked about available reservations for Cinco de Mayo, Julian Medina, chef and owner of six Mexican and Latino-themed restaurants in New York City, shook his head and said, “We’re ‘hasta las manos.’” Then the phone, which had been ringing since the early morning, rang again, with another prospective customer seeking an elusive reservation.

Meanwhile, Medina’s mixologist, Juan Vasquez, was busy getting ready for what’s likely to be the busiest night of his year. Vasquez, who has manned the bar at Toloache 82 since it opened, created two signature cocktails for Cinco de Mayo, both celebrating “only-from-Mexico” ingredients like pulque, horchata, and tequila. The pulque and horchata, he says, come from El Barrio, where Mexican bodegas and groceries sell products that are hard to find elsewhere. Vasquez supplements his bar with some commercial and artisanal tequilas, mezcals, and spirits that are difficult to find elsewhere in the US.

Mixologist Jorge Vasquez preps his bar

Mixologist Jorge Vasquez preps his bar, setting up the ingredients and tools he’ll use to make his Cinco de Mayo signature cocktails, El Pulque de Juarez and El Aguila.

Housemade rimming salts & Jarritos

Part of Vasquez’s prep work involves making sweet and savory salts to rim cocktail glasses. The Jarritos Mexican soda is the ingredient that finishes off El Aguila.

Pulque

Tequila delivery

El Pulque de Juarez

El Aguila

De la Calle

Toloache 82's well-stocked bar

El Pulque de Juarez
Mix 1.5 oz of tequila, 2 oz of horchata, 3/4 oz of simple syrup, 1.5 oz of pulque, and 3/4 oz of Cointreau. Shake well, strain into a glass rimmed with cocoa powder and cinnamon, and serve over finely crushed ice. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

El Aguila
Mix 1.5 oz of tequila, 3/4 oz of St. Germain, 3/4 oz of simple syrup, 1 oz of lime juice. Shake well, strain into a glass rimmed with chile salt, and top off with a splash of mandarin Jarritos.

De la Calle
Mix 2 oz of tequila infused with jalapeno, 2 oz of cucumber puree, 1 oz of fresh lime juice, 1 oz of simple syrup,. Shake, strain, and serve.

Director Lucy Molloy (holding microphone) at Tribeca Film Festival

This year’s Tribeca Film Festival featured the film “Una Noche,” summarized by the festival as follows:

“Fed up with living in poverty while catering to a privileged tourist class, Cuban teens Raul and Elio are tantalized by the idea of fleeing the confines of their broken-down country for a new life in Miami. When Raul is accused of assaulting a foreigner, he has no choice but to escape, but Elio must decide whether his desire for freedom and helping Raul are worth abandoning his beloved twin sister, Lila. Brimming with the nervous energy of Havana’s restless youth and the evocative cinematography of the sun-bleached capital, Una Noche follows one sweltering day, full of hope and fraught with tension, that burns to a shocking climax.”

Director Lucy Molloy, who is not Cuban, spent years living in country to make the film.
I attended the premiere of the film at the Tribeca Film Festival, and was looking forward to interviewing Molloy and several of the actors, who had come from Cuba especially for the occasion. The only problem was… two of the main actors didn’t show up.

In the days following the film festival, days during which “Una Noche” was celebrated for having won several awards, the actors, who had been declared “missing” by the press, reappeared. And the media buzzed with the fact that the actors’ lives were mirroring the characters they played.

You can read more about the defection here.

Cultural group at Tianguis

Last month, Mexico hosted Tianguis Turistico, the country’s most important annual travel trade show. The show is an opportunity for Mexico’s states and the country’s hotels, tour operators, and other industry stakeholders to sell themselves to travelers; it’s also when the country’s tourism board offers an update on progress and previews plans for the coming year.

One of the most important announcements to come out of the 2012 Tianguis was the Secretary of Tourism’s affirmation that Mexico is actively pursuing strategies to increase the number of Latino visitors. “We know that approximately 65% of the [US] Hispanic market is of Mexican descent,” said Subsecretary of Tourism, Rodolfo Lopez Negrete, “so obviously that represents a tremendous opportunity for us.”

The Mexico Tourism Board has been actively reaching out to Mexicans, playing upon sentiments of national identity with the “Mexico Se Siente” campaign. Alluding to lyrics from the popular Luis Miguel song “Mexico en la piel,” the “Mexico Se Siente” video shows Mexicans of all ages having “only in Mexico” experiences, such as placing a candle on a Day of the Dead altar and attending a “danzonera.” The video, which has had nearly 18,000 views on YouTube over the past four months, is one of Mexico Tourism Board’s efforts to kickstart domestic tourism, as well as to invite Mexican Americans to come home for a visit.

Outside the country, the tourism board is actively reaching out to diverse Latino communities in key markets such as New York and Miami. What may be surprising about their strategy, though, is that they are avoiding traditional Spanish-language media in order to attract Latino tourists.

“We know that the younger generation [of Latinos] doesn’t really consult Spanish-language media,” Negrete said in an exclusive interview. “They don’t watch Univision, they don’t watch Telemundo.” Lopez explained that older Hispanics– “the ones who still watch novelas”– are inclined to return to their homeland for a visit and don’t need convincing to do so. But younger Latinos, he says, are aware that their range of choices about where to travel is vast, and the media they consult to make travel decisions are more mainstream… and are often in English. Lopez, who worked in the US as an executive for Latino music labels for more than a decade, referenced his own children as an example: “They grew up watching MTV. They watch Bravo. They don’t buy El Heraldo; they buy The Herald.”

Because they want to reach the younger Latinos who are more mobile and, often, more affluent, Lopez and his colleagues, as well as the tourism board’s marketing and public relations firms, are focused on developing advertisements and outreach strategies that will capture an audience of Latinos who are fully bicultural and typically bilingual, but who consume most of their media in English.

The strategy sounds like a smart one; just the week after Tianguis, the US-based Pew Hispanic Center released data from their 2011 National Survey of Latinos; the survey results provide a comprehensive overview about Latinos’ perceptions of themselves, their values, and the way they consume media. While 82% of Latino adults speak Spanish and 95% think it is important for future generations to speak the language, 87% contend that learning English is also important. Mexico Tourism Board’s strategy for encouraging Hispanics to visit Mexico may foreshadow general marketing trends for reaching Latinos, whose spending power represents more than $1 trillion.

In addition to the emphasis on reaching the Latino market through video, the Mexico Tourism Board aspires to provide travelers with as much travel planning support as possible through mobile platforms. Recognizing that Latinos are heavily dependent upon mobile technologies, such as smart phones, Mexico intends to dramatically increase its presence and accessibility in these areas. During Tianguis, Secretary of Tourism Gloria Guevara Manzo unveiled the Atlas Turistico de Mexico, a bilingual guide to the country’s cultural, historic, and scenic sites. Currently available online, the tourism board plans to make the atlas available in app form as well.

Videos, apps, and content and ad placement in English-language media– “We have to speak to Hispanics in a different way when it comes to Mexico. We have a great opportunity to entice them to visit, and we have to speak to them accordingly,” Lopez said. “Hispanics represent the 15th largest economy in the world. Tackling it is one of our goals.”

Sitting by the river in Paramaribo, Suriname

He was quiet, alone, and–seemingly, at least–contemplative, sitting by the river in Paramaribo, Suriname. I stood at a distance so as not to intrude on his thoughts, and depressed the button to take a picture. Though I didn’t know what he was thinking, of course, I identified with the need to just sit down and be quiet and still and stare out at the river’s swift current for a little bit.

Last Tuesday was my final day at Matador, where I’d worked for about five and a half years. It’s a transition that’s been on my mind for a while, and one that, finally, I decided to make, even though I wasn’t entirely sure what was next for me, apart from continued freelance work. I debated with myself for a couple months- Should I? Shouldn’t I? I have a child; jumping out of a job without a Plan B seemed far more irresponsible and impulsive than it was eight or nine years ago when I did it the first time.

Eventually, though, I ran out of excuses. I sent in my resignation, took a deep breath, and stepped out into nothing. And the net appeared- immediately.

There are lots of projects and possibilities I’ve been offered, some of which take me in completely unexpected and exciting directions that will provide new, interesting challenges. And they’re coming together faster than I could have hoped, proof–once again–that when we trust ourselves to know that it’s time to take a risk and welcome the unknown, everything we need appears. As I consider my options and wait for some details to get sorted, I’ve been enjoying spending some much-needed and long-overdue quality time with my family.

I hope you’ll keep following along and stay in touch to keep me up to date about your own projects.
**

See more Suriname photos here.

I’m currently organizing video for Francisco to edit into a coherent whole; in the meantime, I hope you enjoy witnessing the passion of the harpist as much as I did. I think there’s nothing quite so beautiful in the world to watch than a musician in love with his instrument and his song.

The back pillow.

I chalk it up to him having come to the US from Cuba on a boat that was overcrowded with passengers, none of whom had bags.

Now he’s overcompensating for the past. Francisco loves gear.

Whether we’re headed out of town for a two week trip or a 24-hour one, the trunk will always be loaded with bags and doodads, gear and gadgets that we “absolutely need” for our journey.
*
It was the back pillow that I thought would drive us to divorce.

I exaggerate… a bit.

Francisco and I disagree on very little, but the one thing that we can never quite see eye to eye on is what, exactly, is needed for a trip.

I’m of the mind that it’s not necessary to travel heavy. These days, you can find almost anything you need when you’re on the road. And traveling, at its best (in my mind, at least), shows you just how little you actually need.

Francisco, on the other hand, thinks one should be prepared for every possible contingency: hunger, boredom, and a worldwide shortage of batteries, to name a few. And if there’s a pillow that will make your back feel better on a journey (and of course, there is), why not use it?

Between the extremes we each cling to, there’s got to be a happy medium.

We just haven’t found it.
**
So yes, the back pillow.

The trunk is loaded. The back seat is stacked with more bags: a bag of CDs, a cooler with meals (meals, not snacks), another sack of snacks, and camera gear.

It doesn’t help that we’ve been sent a pile of gear to review: bags–suitcases, backpacks, and dry bags for camera bodies and lenses; several pairs of shoes each; a jacket each; some clothing; and a pair of expensive sunglasses. “Are you sure you want to give those to me?” I asked the gear rep when she said she was mailing me a pair. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t buy expensive sunglasses because I sit on them or lose them. $10 is my limit.

She sent them anyway.

Now, they’re nestled carefully inside the little compartment above the rearview mirror, the one that is in cars these days, intended for this express purpose: to hold expensive sunglasses with polarized lenses.* By the end of the trip, I will make the begrudging admission (spoiler alert: one of many such admissions) that you get what you pay for; in other words, if you buy $189 sunglasses, you get a $189 experience, rather than the headache that the $10 pair of sunglasses inevitably causes.^

He shuts the trunk, puts Mariel in the car seat, hands me a canteen of coffee, and stands outside the car, taking mental inventory. “Be right back,” he says, disappearing to look for one more thing we just have to have to make the journey bearable.

He returns with the inflatable back pillow.

The back pillow arrived in the mail, along with the dry bags. From the get-go it seemed–to me, at least–one of those supremely superfluous items, the kind of thing that would be sold in an in-flight catalog like SkyMall. I scoffed at it, even though I have back problems. Francisco turned it over and over in his hands like a treasure. He promptly blew it up and then plopped into our office chair, sandwiching the pillow behind his back. The long, drawn-out “Ahhh” and his contented smile (a little too immediate, I thought; don’t these things take time to really test out?) assured me that it would not be easy to hit the road without yet another addition to the ever-growing gear pile.
**
We finally leave New York at 3:20 PM, the worst possible time to make a getaway through the Lincoln or Holland Tunnels. I contemplate mentioning this, but think better of it. Why start a 12-hour road trip with a snide comment to your husband intended to make him feel guilty about how long it took to pack the car… especially when he spent half the day cooking the meal that splits space between the cooler and a hot-cold bag?
**
The 12-hour road trip turns into two days, both coming and going.

The idea was to save money by driving rather than flying, and each night, as we pull into a hotel parking lot, my mental adding machine stutters, ticking up costs.

And each night, Francisco unpacks the car as carefully as he has packed it, convinced that leaving anything in the car will invite thieves.

Even the back pillow.
**
On the way home, we stop at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. It is a cold, wet day; I should take off my TOMS, Francisco advises, and put on my new boots. And I have choices! There are two pairs of boots in the back seat just for me! I grumble and pull on SmartWool socks and the taller boots, a pair of Ahnu Maderas. My feet stay warm and dry and when we get back into the car, Francisco looks at me and says, “Aren’t you glad I brought your boots?”

“Yes,” I mutter, barely audible. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch him smiling.
**
I can not change him and don’t want to… really. Though I haven’t changed my own packing style, I let him keep his style. It makes him happy and, more often than not, we do end up using most of the gear he packs for the journey.

Even the back pillow.
**
The Schwietert-Collazo List of Essential Road Trip Gear%
-Eddie Bauer First Ascent Microtherm Down Shirt:
Though marketed as a shirt, I’ve used this as a jacket all winter, and I adore it; it rolls up super tight, taking up little space in a backpack or suitcase. It’s great for wicking wind and water it zips all the way up the neck, providing total coverage. -Julie

-Ahnu Madera boots:
As noted above, these keep feet warm but breathing, and are easy to get on and off quickly (the laces are really just for show). -Julie

-Men’s and Women’s Teva Forge Pro Winter Mid WP Boots:
These say “winter,” but we both think these are year-round boots that are sturdy for hiking and general rural outdoor use. They’re waterproof– a feature we’ve tested in the Catskills. They also clean off pretty easily. -Francisco

Klean Kanteen Insulated

-Hummingbird Dry Bags:
As we’ve upgraded our camera gear, we’ve come to realize how critical dry bags are, especially in the parts of the world where Julie travels- humid, tropical, wet climates. The WideMouth Carry On is huge–40 L–but great for lots of gear that needs to be protected; it also rolls up quickly and carries on the shoulder easily. Julie is not in love with the Travel Pak, which, she says, doesn’t have the same intuitive design. -Francisco

-Hummingbird Lumbar Pillow:
Even Julie has to admit that this little pillow is wonderful. -Francisco

–
*I don’t even know what “polarized” lenses mean, but the glasses give everything a glossy shimmer, like looking at the world through a thin, rainbow colored film.

^An observation that is an exception to my recent post about luxury not being all it’s cracked up to be. When it comes to gear, the theory does not always hold.

%Note: Most, but not all, of this gear was given to us for free, for review. We like all of it… a lot and have used these items on multiple road trips of varying lengths since November 2011. There’s only one item (and it’s not listed above because it’s definitely NOT essential, and it’s a bamboo water bottle, which is heavy, hard to use, and does not keep hot drinks hot. We don’t get any commission at all from the sale of items that are linked to in this post.

View of Zurich

3:00 PM:
Arrive–finally– at Zurich International Airport after missing a flight from Amsterdam because your train from Centraal Station to Schipol got delayed by a track fire. Try not to feel annoyed you had to pay for a new ticket. Try not to feel annoyed you missed a culinary walking tour.

Notice that your route to baggage claim leads you directly through a duty-free shop– no bypass possible; you are temporarily enshrouded in clouds of perfume and cologne, walking a gantlet of chocolate and watches. Buy nothing; keep walking.

3:20 PM:
Pick up your bags and consider tweeting that European cities are more civilized than American cities simply because they don’t charge for luggage carts in the airport. At home, you always struggle with your bags because you’re too cheap to pay $5 for a cart just to make the trip from baggage claim to the taxi. You’d rather pull a muscle.

3:25 PM:
Head to the airport’s Service Center to pick up a ZurichCard, an all-in-one transportation card, museum visitor’s pass, and restaurant/shopping discount card. Since you’re only here for one day, get the 24-hour card for 20 CHF (there is also a 72-hour card for 40 CHF should you decide to stick around a couple days).

4:00 PM:
Take the train from the airport to Zurich HB, the city’s main station; haul luggage a few blocks and check in at Hotel Glockenhof. You wouldn’t stay here if you weren’t on the tourist board’s dime because, as a writer, you couldn’t afford it at 330 CHF/night (though you note it’s 100 francs cheaper on weekends). You’d Google “budget travel Zurich” or ask around to see if you have a friend of a friend who’d be happy to host you. It’s only one night.

But since you’re not footing the bill, you check in on foursquare and instantly become the Mayor of the Glockenhof before going to your room and wasting no time testing your personal Nescafe machine, spreading out brochures and maps on the bed, and making your game plan, which starts like this: “Take an aimless walk.”

5:00 PM:
Cross the river and pass church spires, climbing the cobblestone streets until you wander into the Occupy movement’s camp. Take photos of the tipi, the pig made out of sheets and wood, painted with “Too Pig To Fail” on its side, and the “UBS, I did it again” sign inked on cardboard, a dual reference, strangely, to Britney Spears and to Swiss bank, UBS, recipient of a bail-out. Think about adding the photos to your set of Occupy pictures from three countries. Post one on Facebook for your mom, who marched with a small Occupy group in the southern US, only for her to post back: “When are you going to stop taking photos and write something about it?”

6:00 PM:
Use your ZurichPass for free entry to the Design Museum (Museum Fur Gestaltung). [Note: Museum is open until 8 pm on Wedesday; it closes at 5 PM Tuesday and Thursday-Sunday]. Go through an exhibit about global high-rises quickly but with great interest; mind makes screenshot-type mental notes based on key words from curator’s text: “sustainable urbanism”; “symbolic height”; “extracts land from the sky”; “brutalist pragmatism.” Think about impossibility of fully “getting” a place when we don’t live there. Think about possibility of fully getting a place when we do live there.

7:20 PM:
Meet Elizabeth, the guide who was supposed to take you on the culinary walking tour, for dinner at Zurich’s oldest vegetarian restaurant, Hiltl. She tells you you can graze at the Indian buffet on the first floor or eat from the a la carte menu; you choose the latter, asking for a vegetable au gratin. Notice Hiltl’s advertisements: a menagerie of carnivores with rabbit teeth, and think there’s something about this that’s a little bit brilliant.

9:00 PM:
Leave Hiltl, en route to Peclard, which is the kind of place Willy Wonka would run if he was urbane and chic but still eccentric. Decide you’ll sit in the “Salon Rouge,” where an Asian woman is playing piano, an older white man is playing saxophone, and an Argentinean opera tenor is alternating turns at the mic with the very tall Swiss waiter, who swings by your table between numbers to ask which dessert you want. Wonder how they all got here. Wonder what their stories are.

11:30 PM:
Return to hotel. Write. Read. Plan for remaining hours in the city. Turn on TV; realize that every channel is in a language you don’t understand, and wonder whether that’s better or worse when you were just looking for white noise.

8:15 AM:
Realize you missed Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 playing right around the corner last night. You were told that the venue, Kaufleuten, is a restaurant, bar, and “culture club” for Zurich’s creative class. “Madonna likes to visit,” a guide told you, and you realized you were supposed to be impressed.

9:00 AM:
Eat muesli and a luxemburgerli at Sprungli. Feel dreadfully underdressed as you watch Swiss matriarchs glide into the upper floor’s restaurant in furs, with little dogs tucked under their arms. Wonder how the Colombian immigrant seated at the table next to you, interviewing for a waiter job, feels when he sees the women, how he feels when the manager tells him the average salary is 3500 CHF a month, more if he makes good tips.

Coffee at Sprungli

10:00 AM:
Head to Zurich West and walk through Viadukt, a market and series of shops built under an old viaduct. Visit Freitag’s shop, inside a series of containers from transfer trucks, and climb to the top container for a view of the city. Walk to Spheres, a cafe/bookstore. Buy a postcard for your two year old daughter and a book of Ai Wei Wei’s blog entries… in English. Snap two iPhone photos of friends’ books and send them across the twitterverse. See jazz club, Moods, and the whole arts complex and feel regret you won’t be here longer.

1:00 PM:
Buy a bag of hot, roasted chestnuts, the first you’ve ever eaten. Decide these are your new favorite snack. Later, you’ll try them at home in New York and they won’t taste remotely the same and you’ll feel annoyed and nostalgic and, at the same time, strangely pleased that you can’t replicate the experience.

1:12 PM:
Buy your husband a watch–the official timepiece of the Swiss Railway–and think he will be sufficiently impressed. When he puts it on for the first time, it will catch on his coat, breaking a part called the “stem and crown.” You will send it off for repairs, which will cost half the price of the watch itself. When it comes back, the stem and crown will be different and you’ll mention this to the shopkeeper, who will tell you “It doesn’t matter; it’s the same manufacturer.”

2:00 PM:
Spend your last hour in Zurich at the Kunsthaus Museum and feel dizzied by the number of works you want to see before you have to leave. Skip “Monet, Miro, Matisse” and go for artists who are more obscure to you. Feel wonder and thanks for pieces you’ve never seen, for seeing new themes in works from eras you thought were fairly staid. Take photos using instagram.

Plan to come back.

$1,800. That’s more than the monthly rent for my apartment in New York City.

Though it’s true, the view from my apartment isn’t quite as good as this:

A $900-a-night view.

I let the tap run for five minutes, seven, and then I give up. “Maybe it’s solar,” I think to myself, looking for any excuse that will let me forgive this five-star hotel that has the cajones to charge up to $1,800 per night. I jump under the cold, needling stream of water and shower as quickly as I can. When I get out, I realize there are no slippers.
*
There are other things. When I wake up in the middle of the night, I can’t read the clock; its display is not lit. Also, its radio doesn’t work. When I take to twitter and christen an admittedly acerbic hashtag– “#luxeisntalwaysbetter”– the hotel chain’s resident tweeter responds with an overly polite “What can we do to improve your stay?” When I refrain from saying “Get me a personal butler who’ll heat some water and pour it over me” and say instead, “Just explain why there’s no hot water,” there’s no response. I lick my pencil and make another black mark.
*
I can stay in almost any type of lodging.

In the past six months alone, I’ve slept on two buses, in mid-level chain hotels, bed and breakfasts, boutique hotels, hotels in nearly every star category, and a tent. I can be comfortable in any of them and I don’t compare them against one another; each is evaluated only against its own description: what it holds out as a promise to its guests.

The-five star places always fail.

What are guests paying for when they pay $900-$1,800 a night for a room?

The idea that somehow, they are more valuable. The idea, quite simply, that they can.
*