The Mañanifesto
If you have been to Marfa or places like it, you may have experienced Mañana. Mañana cannot generally be found in cities with more than one stoplight. Mañana doesn’t care about email or normal hours of operation. Mañana recognizes that we can’t all have everything we want at any given moment, like peaches in January or cell phone reception in West Texas. Mañana is the anticipation that it might happen today, and it might just as likely not, and really either way it’s not that big of a deal. The key to Mañana lies somewhere in the unspecified future. It holds the great promise of hope.
El Cosmico is at the center of this exodus from a world of urgency, and flies its Mañana flag proudly. This is not to be understood as irreverence for timeliness and progress. We believe in those things too. But life gets busy. The way you thought things would go just aren’t the way they end up. Maybe the pack rats have chewed the phone lines. Best intentions are waylaid. But it seems like sometimes the only way to make something really amazing is through a steady balance of kicking the dirt around and napping. This is what we do.
The good news: eventually mañana arrives. The tomorrows of our dreams become the todays of our reality. Our tomorrow has come, and El Cosmico is proudly open for business. We know that mañana continues to promise new magic, and we see good things just over the horizon. But for now we’re happy to sit back in the hammock and celebrate today. We hope to see you soon at El Cosmico.
Dolce Far Niente: Sweet Do Nothing
We are aware of a fascination with doing nothing that burns among us like a small rebellion inside our workweek souls. It has tangible representations in the hammock, the smell of last night’s campfire smoke in your jean jacket, a rucksack. It has been named: dolce far niente, siesta, walkabout, bum. It is the culture of hippies and surfers and ascetics and its presence in a people tends to have a direct correlation to contact with the natural elements. It is not to be confused with lazy – it is the liberation from an obsession with productivity. It is a revolutionary act rather than a dereliction of duty. It is a declaration of total freedom to say “now, I do nothing for a little while.”
We the people of El Cosmico would like to believe that we can achieve this occasional freedom together. We offer simple, unique accommodations that promote sitting on porches, naps and other moments of non-action. We have a hammock grove. Our trailers feature discreet outdoor bathing opportunities because we believe that everyone should have the chance to be naked outside once in a while without fear. We limit the reach of our wireless internet to our lobby HQ to give our guests the opportunity to be disconnected from technology when they want to. For our campers, whom we believe have a unique understanding of this notion of temporary freedom we seek to attain, we offer several bath houses with solar and traditional showers as well as an outdoor communal kitchen to supplement your nomadic experience. Our lobby lounge offers an indoor/outdoor place for intrepid travelers to come together to share stories and a beer.
Marfa and the Big Bend Region provide the optimal backdrop upon which to practice this drop-out experiment. Strangely, the vast landscape of the high plains desert gives a sense of being adrift on an endless sea. The expanse of the night sky has a tendency to stun and bewilder. There is rumor of mystical dancing lights nearby, the source of some speculation. Within an hour’s drive lies an Apache watering hole turned public swim club – you find it by looking for the cottonwood trees that tell of water underground. The Big Bend state and national parks offer a range of beautiful opportunities to experience the nature of the region. Marfa is an active cattle ranching town and cowboy sightings are frequent. It also happens to double as an international arts Mecca, so if you feel like doing something, we rent bikes and it’s an easy flat ride to the various galleries and the famed Chinati Institute. When the call to action beckons, El Cosmico also offers a variety of happenings that afford the opportunity to get your hands dirty and create. We recommend both in appropriate doses.
Take the long open road. Turn at the blinking four-way light. Welcome to El Cosmico.