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Aggrey Rwetsiba, a Ugandan delegate to the UN’s biodiversity summit in Colombia, finds himself in unusual accommodations: a motel normally destined for trysts, with rooms featuring sex swings\u00a0and stripper poles.<\/p>\n
Like other visitors to the Colombian city, his hotel booking fell through, and Rwetsiba had to make last-minute arrangements.<\/p>\n
With traditional hotels bursting at the seams, hourly rate motels came to the rescue of stranded delegates like himself.<\/p>\n
Showing AFP around his room in the Motel Deseos (Desires), the delegate points to the\u00a0big double bed, walk-in shower and an unusual feature: a ceiling mirror.<\/p>\n
Some of his clothes are draped on hangers from the shower screen, others are folded up in a small cubicle with one door inside the room and another that opens on the hallway.<\/p>\n
Usually rented out for a few hours at a time, there are no wardrobes in the rooms. And the double-doored cubicle is for staff to pass drinks to guests seeking seclusion.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure whether I’ve got the full understanding of what a motel should be, but I have seen some unique features… Like the mirror on the ceiling. I have never seen (that) in a hotel,” Rwetsiba told AFP.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to the lone wall socket next to the bed, rather than by the table where he needs to power his laptop.<\/p>\n
“So the setup is quite different,” he said. “I have never seen a hotel with each room having a parking yard,” each enclosed, with a private door leading straight into the room.<\/p>\n
– Bursting at the seams –<\/p>\n
Motel Deseos manager Diana Echeverry proudly showed AFP around the facility, with 40 rooms spread over two floors, and one wing set aside for a dozen COP16 delegates.<\/p>\n
In the rest of the building, rooms feature such amenities as Jacuzzis, “kama sutra” loungers and dance poles.<\/p>\n
“We have adapted our establishment a little in order to be able to host the guests of COP16 and foreigners,” Echeverry told AFP.<\/p>\n
Contacted at short notice by local authorities, she said, the motel quickly worked out a daily rate — 150,000 Colombian pesos (about $35) per night — and introduced a breakfast service.<\/p>\n
Room prices usually range from 65,000 to 100,000 pesos for three hours.<\/p>\n
Staff also “took out the love swings, ‘love machines,’ Kama Sutra chairs and left the rooms without those kinds of items,” said Echeverry.<\/p>\n
The biodiversity summit has been good for business, she added.<\/p>\n
“It has ensured that the (delegates’) rooms are occupied during those days and… the remaining rooms now rotate much more to meet the demands of our usual guests.”<\/p>\n
Cali Mayor Alejandro Eder told reporters this week the city’s hotels were “100 percent” full, with Airbnbs, houses and apartments also rented out.<\/p>\n
Initial expectations had been for between 12,000 and 15,000 people to attend the COP16, but in the end, there were closer to 23,000 registered delegates, said Eder.<\/p>\n
According to Cali’s Chamber of Commerce, there are 166 registered motels in the city — more than anywhere else in Colombia.<\/p>\n
Like elsewhere in Latin America, motels are generally places go to for a few private hours with a lover.<\/p>\n
In Cali, they boast names such as “Kama Sutra,” “Cupido” and “Extasis.”<\/p>\n
Delighted with the amenities at Motel Deseos, Rwetsiba said he informed other colleagues, and there were now five Ugandan delegates in rooms “more comfortable” than many traditional hotels.<\/p>\n
“It’s… spacious. That’s why we are here. We are not complaining,” he said with a big smile.<\/p>\n
“We are all happy.”<\/p>\n
mlr\/acb<\/p>\n<\/div>\n