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One room is German, decorated with a swastika on the wall and a Schumacher relief on the ceiling. Another is Cuban, with a soft pillow on Fidel Castro’s lap. Then there is the Fifty Shades of Grey room, a place for multiple couples. And in the American room sits Osama Bin Laden and George W. Bush in the middle of a never-ending game of chess. Welcome to Kiss Me, Latin America’s biggest themed motel.
Situated right smack bang in the middle of the city of Cali, Colombia, Kiss Me is nowhere near your ordinary motel–not even by Latin American standards. With a mammoth-sized Venus overlooking the city and Michael Jackson statues in the company of unicorns guarding its entrance, this motel undoubtedly leaves every single passerby in awe. And as if the extravagant façade wasn’t already enough, inside you will find a surreal set of 185 themed rooms, from ancient Egyptian pyramids to arctic caves, from underwater worlds to tornadoes. You can basically travel the world, time and space without ever leaving Cali again.
This motel in Latin America is not about accommodation. It’s not the US style motor hotel you see along Route 66. Here, rooms are rented out by the hour, at any hour (besides Good Friday), and the purpose is clear: sex. However, motels are not to be confused with brothels, as most people go to them with their own partners, lovers or friends. And as many Latinos live at home until they’re in their 30s, motels also serve for young couples as the perfect getaway for that wild banging they would rather their parents not know about.
While each room is wildly unique they all share a few commonalities: a king size bed and a television for watching porn. In addition to these, some rooms come with a jacuzzi, some with a Turkish bath, and the VIP’s come with both. The biggest rooms are the seven multiples, which are rented out for a minimum of four people and a maximum of sixty. Although often, the multiples are not always used for orgies, but sometimes also for afterparties on a Saturday night with electronic music, cannabis and cocaine. All rooms are rented out for a minimum of four hours and a maximum of 12 hours.
Since the 1980s, the culture of motels has been very vibrant in Cali and there’s definitely a market for it: the motel hosts around 180 to 200 couples per day during the week, and about 400 couples per day during weekends. “After a party it’s always a good time for some motel action, especially if you don’t live alone”, says Mario, a regular at Kiss Me, who, according to his own words, only comes to the motel with his girlfriend. Whereas newcomers are shown pictures of the rooms on arrival, Mario and his girlfriend already know exactly what to ask for. “I’ve been here around ten times and love the rooms on the sixth floor, the ice caves”, Mario says. “From where they are situated, there’s an amazing view over the whole city,” he elaborates.
Even though Mario may come to Kiss Me exclusively with his partner, Ceneida Benítez, the chief of the cleaning staff, believes 80% of the visitors are cheating couples. “We don’t have any official statistics of our visitors, yet it’s clear that many people come with their lovers, some in trios, some with prostitutes”, she plainly explains. The owner, Dom Humberto Villegas, however, sees even this in a positive light: “The only thing I know is that sex is so good that there are people who have a commitment, but they meet up with someone else they like. And well, have a good time for 2–3 hours”. Still, he thinks even married couples should come to Kiss Me to avoid falling into what he calls “sexual laziness”. Villegas is an elegant man in his 60s, with twinkling eyes, a soft voice, black hair pulled attentively and the apparent confidence to sit in front of his own oversized portrait. “What I wanted to achieve is an environment where you’re not just seeing a country, but also feeling it through everything you do in here,” he explains, sitting comfortably on a dark leather sofa in his penthouse apartment atop the business. “The motel is filled with replicas of famous pieces of architecture and art, different traditions and peoples,” he says as he points to the French room with a reconstruction of the Eiffel Tower on top of a bed. “Not every Colombian has the possibility to go to France, so why not bring France to them here, to their very own city?”
From his impeccable choice of words, it’s easy to assume this isn’t the first time Villegas has defended the reasons behind having a motel. “Sex, in Latin America, is very hidden, very conservative,” he begins as I ask him how he came up with the idea of a themed motel in the first place. “Although sex is nothing but a physical and affective necessity needed for recreation, people still think of it as something extremely sinful,”, he explains with a smile. This is why, when still only a teenager, he decided to do something extraordinary to make it visible. “What I wanted was to create a place for sex which would be different and crazy, breaking all those Catholic taboos through humor and art.” And let’s hand it to him–in this respect, he definitely has succeeded.
It took Villegas 22 years to turn his dream into a reality. As the son and grandson of farmers, he worked tirelessly for over two decades to earn what he needed to open his achieve his lofty aspirations. It wasn’t until the year 1989 that he finally gave birth to his first themed motel, Condoricosas, which quickly became known all throughout the city of Cali. The theme of the motel was the Condorito (The Little Condor), a popular Chilean comic figure and the entrepreneur’s nickname —given to him by his friends for his prominent, beak-like nose. “From early on, people loved the idea of a themed motel”, Villegas recalls and he thrived off fulfilling their fantasies. Thirteen years later, in 2002, Kiss Me, was opened.
One scan of his own penthouse atop the motel—adorned with a stuffed pet dog and a life-size soccer player’s statue—and you know that Kiss Me is a clear reflection of his personal (somewhat bizarre) aesthetic. “If I didn’t love the decoration of my motel, why on earth would I be the owner of such a place?” Initially, all rooms were designed by Villegas himself with his two friends–self-taught artists and sculptors with bizarre ideas and a strong passion for creating something out of the ordinary. Together the trio concepted stories like what can be seen in the U.S. room—Bin Laden playing chess with Bush in front of the statue of liberty and two Boeing airplanes. “It’s a metaphorical room,” Villegas explains. “We wanted to make a point that if the United States doesn’t respect international laws, like they haven’t done in the past, there shall always be incidents like 9/11.”
A room that the owner himself is particularly proud of is the Kiss Me Clinic, a blue room with doctor’s instruments hanging from the walls and a big brown cross on top of a bed. This space was inspired by a real-life incident. “In a surgery room at a local hospital, the nurses and doctors set up a party with drinks and everything in the late-night hours. Someone filmed the whole incident and put it on social media. Can you imagine the scandal,” Villegas chuckles. “A place meant for saving lives, all of a sudden converted into the scene for booze and dance, just had to become a room at Kiss Me.”
Although no one surveys what happens within the rooms, there are some “sex codes of honor” which are expected to be respected. With this, Villegas refers to things done inside the rooms. “For example, in some rooms there’s a roulette with different positions for making love,” he describes. “So, if people play the roulette, they should execute the position that comes out.” Anything goes at Kiss Me.