Hello friends and family, we miss you all and hope everyone is enjoying their holiday. It's been a while since our last update but we've been busy with Banana Dang in its first month of infancy.It's been very hard work; no sugar coating here.
We see it in our hands—calluses and all—as we put in 15 hour days with 2 hours of cleaning every night. But what a good month it's been. Working at Banana Dang is a bit like working at "Cheers." It feels like we've opened our home to all walks of life: some stay for 2-3 hours, others take their drinks to go. Regardless, we've met so many people from locals, tourists, to other business owners/workers and can even call a few "regulars" friends (Spike, Patty, John, David...)!
One of our very first customers, Spike, visited us at least twice a day in our first month. Spike is an "old school" surfer whose style is relaxed, controlled yet radical. Check out his moves in the photo as he surfed "Steps" about 5 minutes away from us. He is a big inspiration and we look forward to seeing him again.
In our first month, we've noticed that our best seller is the Vietnamese Iced Coffee, followed by PC use and Lattes, French Press Coffee, "Eggspresso" (eggs steamed with the espresso wand, served on a toasted bagel Panini-style) and "Dang Berry" smoothie (strawberries, banana, vanilla + honey blended with soy). The organic teas, Thai Iced Tea and Chai Latte have also been HITS!Marketing-wise, we joined the Tourism Association of Rincon and placed an ad in local paper El Coqui. Our Banana Dang T-shirts have also been selling well so we will soon open a CafePress store to push other merchandise.
Life here is rich and rewarding. There are no stop lights in Rincon and horses ride by every day. It's a life not driven by material goods, but by the sheer joy of serving a good cup of coffee and surfing beautiful waves. We can only take one day off a week to surf and recoop, but that day is fully enjoyed.Hopefully, we can write more often.
Feliz Navidad, Mario + T2
