Sunday morning, following our viewing of yet another spectacular Isla sunrise, we walked over to El Mercado for breakfast. We had a great breakfast of eggs, veggies, rice, and fresh tortillas with fresh orange juice. I don't remember exactly how much we paid for that breakfast, but I do remember being pleasantly surprised at how cheap it was.

After breakfast, we walked to Playa Norte and parked ourselves under our favorite palm tree to watch the early morning slowly come to life. Soon after we arrived, two attractive early 20ish young women walked onto the beach, selecting a spot near us. They were speaking a language unintelligible by me that sounded Scandinavian. Of course I couldn't help but notice how incredibly fit both of them were as they stood a few feet from us, clad in t-shirts and bikinis, performing numerous stretching exercises. Then the young lady in a red bikini shed her shirt and jogged to the water's edge, revealing the fact that she had apparently gone to the store where only the bottom part of the bikini is sold. Her friend, who had evidently shopped at the same store, stood on the beach jumping up and down in a manner that both tested and partially defied gravity, while shouting something to the girl in the water.

"Are you enjoying the morning?" Ritsuko looked at me with a wily smile.

"Immensely." I said as I sat expressionless, leaning against the palm tree, watching the show, my hat pulled down to my sunglasses.

Ritsuko giggled and mumbled something in Japanese about old dogs as she laid down and started reading. About that time, the girl in red disappeared on the other side of the bow of one of the boats tied up in the water. She then jumped up and placed what looked like a red flag onto the bow, subsequently diving into the water and swimming farther out. Her friend squealed with laughter and ran out to the water to join her. By this time some of the local guys, who were setting up the beach chairs, had congregated nearby and were cheering the girls on as they played in the water, jumping up out of the water with each wave.

Hearing all of the commotion, Ritsuko looked up from her book to see what was happening. "Why all the excitement?" she asked.

"See the red flag on the bow of that boat?" I asked her, nodding toward the water.

"Yes ... so?"

"Notice how much it looks like a bikini bottom?" I asked with a wide grin.

About that time, she saw the young lady who was previously clad in red jump out of the water revealing her natural hair color, and being applauded by the men standing on the beach. I looked at Ritsuko with an even bigger grin.

"You guys!!!!" she said, shaking her head as she went back to reading.

As her friend came ashore, the young woman discreetly donned her bikini bottom on the far side of the boat. She then came ashore to join her friend, waving at the men who were setting up the beach chairs. The girls quickly put on their t-shirts, gathered their towels, looked at me and Ritsuko with big smiles and waves, and walked off the beach, disappearing down Carlos Lazo Avenue. "OK," I thought to myself, "that was a good start to the day."

We spent the rest of the morning on the beach basking in the sun, sleeping in the shade, and swimming in the warm turquoise water. Sometime about noon or so, we wandered down the beach to Na Balam for cold beer, hot tortilla chips, and a lunch of seafood fajitas. I loved the seafood fajitas there, with bits of fish, shrimp, squid, and conch.

It was a really hot day. Walking back to Secreto all we wanted to do was jump into the pool. I loved the pool there. You could sit in the water with your head just above the surface and look out at the sea. The pool was built so that at water level, the water of the pool seemed to join the sea. It was a soothing illusion, and the cool water was also soothing. We took turns going to the room for beer, as we spent an hour or so in the pool. Deciding that we had enough sun for a while and feeling quite tired, we went to the room for a siesta. I think that I went into REM sleep as soon as I laid back on the bed.

I awoke to the sound of Ritsuko opening the room safe. She was arming her pockets for yet another round of shopping. I really didn't care to go shopping, so I asked her to catch up with me at one of 3 beach bars later, figuring that I would either be at Buho's, Sunset Grill, or Sergio's.

Happy hour had just begun at Buho's. Unfortunately the happy hour beer was Corona. I would drink Corona if there were no other beer available, and I mean no other beer!! I would even drink Lone Star before I would drink Corona (ok, I am not trying to start a feud with any Texans who might be reading this. I grew up in Texas, and never really cared for Lone Star, but really enjoyed Pearl ). So, I figured that it was worth the extra money to enjoy a Superior, and besides, if anyone would have suggested to me "I'll pay you 15 pesos to get off your butt, and walk over to the concession stand, buy a ticket, and come back so that I could drink a beer that I really didn't like that much," my response of telling that person what he could do with the 15 pesos would have been less than congenial. So, with cost justification firmly resolved in my mind, I happily sat at the bar, looking out at Playa Norte, drinking cold Cerveza Superior, and not really caring that I was paying too much by Isla standards.

Buho's is a hub of activity during the afternoon. It is a great place to sit in the shade, listen to some tunes, have a cold beer, and watch the beach. A lot of people come and go, but that afternoon, I really didn't care to talk to anyone, and I was quite happy spending my time there quietly enjoying myself as I read, occasionally watching the beach activity, and slowly consuming my afternoon allotment of cerveza.

After a couple of hours, Ritsuko walked up and sat on the bench next to me, exuberant from her shopping. After giving me a review of her bounty of souvenirs, we walked out onto the beach and sat in the sand near the water as the sun got lower in the sky.

We silently shared another spectacular Isla sunset, then Ritsuko and I walked back to Secreto, changed clothes, and went out for food. We really didn't know what we wanted until, walking down Lopez Mateos, we caught a whiff of the aroma of chicken being grilled at Taqueria Glenssy. This aroma had taunted us many times as we had walked by there, and a couple of nights prior, we had bought some tacos to carry back to the hotel, which were some of the best chicken tacos that either of us had ever tasted. We sat down at one of the little tables there, and ordered pollo asada. Unbelievable...what a great tasting meal. I have always believed that to find great food, one should walk about and when something smells good, stop and eat.

After our meal, we walked down Hidalgo, once again stopping at Isla Tequila, which had become our favorite place to sit in the evening to enjoy music and cerveza. The band was great as usual, and the beer cheap, cold, and good. The evening air was cool, and we sat at a table on the street watching the parade of people, while we compared our observations of the day. Life just doesn't get any better.