Tela Beach: The Long, Quiet Vacation

As the road reached the mountains, a stream was taken on for its shoulder. The mountains was where the women were seen working and even bathing. Clothes were laid upon the rocks and strewn along the edges of the stream. Tiny huts were nearby, and there was much shade in these parts.

The bus and the Humvee stopped at a restaurant on the edge of a mountain pass. Inside, the small restaurant became overrun. Soldiers, dressed in formal civilian clothes, ordered seafood and French fries and cold concoctions masquerading in heavy old glass Coke bottles. All of this they could afford. Within a day and a night, they were all rich.

Hours later, they finally arrived at Tela, a small beach town on the Caribbean coast. The bus pulled in to the resort on the outskirts of the city limits and stopped. The men and the luggage methodically made their way off the bus and formed a line that led inside a one story glass building and stopped in the front desk lobby. Only a few men could fit in the lobby, but it had air conditioning. The men outside waited in line, with the sun rising and the humidity trapped in their clothes. The line moved and the men got rooms. Some weeks ahead, the stay was planned out with the resort, and there were plenty of available rooms this time of year. Some men got their own rooms all to themselves, but others shared rooms and so saved money. Everyone paid with Lempiras.

All of the men went straightaway to their rooms, all with the exception of Sergeant Gott. He headed directly for the resort's cantina—the cantina was situated on the side of the restaurant, not far from the pool. There, at the cantina bar, with his luggage by his feet, he ordered a lime margarita. He looked around the place a good deal before and after he got his first drink. He had a hard time staying on his wicker bar stool, and he talked to the waitress but she did not speak any English, to him. After she went in back, he peered around the bamboo stalks so as to get a glimpse of whoever was at the pool. No one was there yet.

Ross, though, was at the other end of the property. He found the door to his room, finally, and, slowly, went in. There was still plenty of wood flooring showing in the main room itself—even though the bed was large and all of the pieces of furniture were hefty—the bathroom, however, was cramped.