Me: "So why do you offer a discount for people who walk in without a reservation?"
Owhnn: "Well its less work for us, plus its more like real travelling... You know, when you get to a place and you find out they messed up your reservation and there's no more room and you don't know where you're going to sleep... I mean that's when your real adventure begins, right?"
My surprise continued as Owhnn gave me a tour around the amazingly unique Everglades International Hostel, complete with giant gecko pizza oven and fresh-water swimming hole tapped from an underground river. The garden was lush with overloaded avocado trees and a sign announced "Breakfast: free, all-you-can-eat pancakes". It seemed like a veritable paradise compared to the aggressive urban sprawl that lay just outside the hostel walls.
As I wandered around between the rope-swings, waterfalls and tree-houses, a book lying on a shaded table caught my eye: "Homework: Handbuilt Shelter" by Lloyd Kahn. It was a compendium of owner-built housing projects - all uniquely, intricately and sometimes chaotically crafted - a lot like the hostel and garden I was exploring. Not yet willing to believe that a lack of forward planning could land me in a such a nice place, I opened it and read the first page. Strangely it seemed Owhnn's seat-of-the-pants reservation philosophy was reflected in Kahn's advice to potential amateur home builders: "A tip: if you're not sure what to do, start!"
