¡La playa!

It is an interesting task to get food poisoning miles away from any running water or a roll of toilet paper. And there I was, at four in the morning, squatting under a palm tree and a full moon on a deserted beach in northern Veracruz. But there is a first for everything, and for all firsts there must also be a last: I no longer plan on eating cheap fish from street restaurants in the Caribbean.

By the time the sun rose (and trust me, with numerous early-morning trips outside I had seen its advance), a few chewable mint-flavored imodiums had cured me and I was ready for the days adventures. 

And our days were full of adventures. Mostly though, we lay on cots in the sun, taking in our luck at having arrived in such a beautiful place. When we got too hot (or too sunburned), we dived in the ocean, letting the current pull us toward the lagoon. The joke, of course, was that two of the guys I had come with had to return to the city. After all that travel one of them left in the morning. The other, however, missed his bus, and it would take him two days to get out of town. It was just as well--much better to be stuck at the beach that have Spring Break '09 in Tuxpan.