I awoke in the darkness of a strange room, my head feeling like an army of tiny evil gremlins were beating against the inside of my skull with picks and hammers. As my eyes focused in the dim light, I saw Ritsuko beside me in a peaceful slumber...good, at least one of us survived. I rolled out of bed and onto my knees in front of the nightstand, I could see that it was 1AM. Finding my eyeglasses, I knelt on the floor, thinking of which way it was to the bathroom. The floor felt rough, like I was on rough limestone. I got on my feet, feeling my way around the wall to a door, thankfully remembering that there was a big step up into the bathroom.

Squinting, I turned on the light. My head pounded furiously as my eyes slowly adjusted to the bright light. Wishing that I had unpacked more fully, I opened each compartment of my shaving kit, searching for the bottle of Excedrin Extra Strength that I had packed, knowing that I would need it desperately at least once during our vacation. Ah, finally found it. Shaking out two tablets, I remembered one unpleasant reality of the previous day...the lack of drinking water.

When we checked into the hotel the afternoon before, we hadn’t had any water since we left the airport, so I bought asked the desk clerk for two bottles of water. For the price of 10 pesos each, he gave us two of the smallest bottles of water that I had ever seen with some hoity toity looking label. I was shocked...hell, I didn’t even know they made water bottles that frigging small...must be designer drinking water. I told him that I had understood from the response that I had received to an email inquiry that drinking water was provided to the guests. He told me that there was some water in the dining room on the second floor. When I had gone to the second floor dining room, all I had found was an empty pitcher in which water might have been at one time. At that time, however, even though I was pissed off about the water, I was more interested in seeking beer and food and getting to the beach, so I did not care to pursue the matter. When we returned to the hotel that evening, I met the owner, who graciously welcomed us to the hotel and explained that drinking water is put out with breakfast in the dining room each morning, and that it must have all been gone by the time that we checked in. I told him in my drunken slur that I felt that some drinking water should be provided to us gratis, and to his credit, he gave me 4 more of the little bottles of water.

Fortunately we had purchased a couple of bottles at the bars, so we had the four tiny bottles, plus two larger half full bottles of water. Looking at them sitting on the bathroom counter, my temper began to flare up along with my headache. I swallowed a couple of mouthfuls of water with my two Excedrin and returned to bed. The air conditioner was running very quietly; I could hear the sound of the sea crashing onto the rocks as I went back to sleep.

I awoke again at 4AM, the pain in my head having subsided during my last segment of slumber. My dreams had been muddled, and unrecognizable. I got up and used most of our remaining water to make a half pot of coffee, leaving one of the minuscule bottles unopened in case Ritsuko wanted water when she awoke. I then went to the opposite end of the room and opened the verandah doors. A strong breeze blew the window sheers back into the room, bringing with it the heavy moist delicious taste of the sea. I stood there luxuriating in the feel of the pre dawn air, admiring the cool glow of the moonlight on the beach below. Listening to the sea crashing onto the rocks below, I could smell the aroma from the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee brewing in the bathroom as it gently wafted onto the verandah, mixed with the sea breeze. Sitting in one of the wooden folding chairs on the verandah, I tried to slump down low so I couldn’t see any of the illumination from the security lights in the hotel courtyard. I wished I could douse the artificial light. All it does is obscure the view outside its reach for anyone below. I concentrated away from it, and the unpleasant memory of the water issue, focusing my energy on more positive and beautiful things.

I love the early morning, waiting for the first light in the sky. Walking back in the room to get my first cup of coffee, I noticed for the first time how good the floor felt on my bare feet. The floor tiles at Secreto are made of what appears to be limestone formed with imbedded fossilized shells. This stone is sawn into sheets and cut into tiles. What felt rough on my knees earlier in the morning felt wonderful and warm on the bottom of my bare feet.

Ritsuko was still sleeping very soundly; I decided not to wake her just yet. Sitting back down on the verandah, the eastern sky began to show the first signs of daybreak. In the clear dark sky just above the clouds that were hanging low at the horizon, a pale blue began to appear. I sat transfixed on the sky and the crashing sea as the light shown on the bottoms of distant clouds, and the sky began to shift from pale blue to pink. I went back to bed and gently woke Ritsuko. She opened her eyes and smiled...we laid there in bed, the moist sea breeze enveloping us, the sound of the crashing waves appeasing our hangovers, watching our first sunrise on Isla.

We were both hungry, so we got out of the room seeking food. It was only 6:30AM. Some of the townspeople were on their way to work. We were so happy to see most of them smile at us and return morning salutations as we said “buenos dias” as our eyes met in passing. We walked through town taking a rather circuitous route, taking in all the sights, recognizing some of the places about which we had read, eventually finding Cazuela M&J. We met Pedro, whom we would see for breakfast many more times during out stay. Breakfast was wonderful; eggs, potatoes, fresh orange juice, fresh hot tortillas....mmmmm. What a refreshing way to start the day, with tasty food in the morning sun, cooled by a gentle breeze, watching the cars and motos turning the corner on a lovely brick road. We were in heaven.

On our way back, we stopped in the supermarket across from the plaza, where I was happy to find gallon jugs of water for only 15 pesos each. We bought 3 gallons of water, along with some snack food and walked back to our hotel via the sea wall walk and Playa Media Luna, excited about what wonders we would find on our first full day on the island.