I woke up not long after dawn to... the crowing of a rooster. And the sound of a truck backfiring. And a car radio blaring Christina Aguillera at 300 decibels. And many, many more sounds. I tried to sleep through these things, but it was like hitting a snooze button set on 20 second intervals. I got up. I found, to my delight, that the shower had hot water. I tidied the room, gathered up my camera and a few essentials, stuffed them into my day bag, and went out into the morning sun. It was beautiful and I could tell it would easily hit 90 degrees.

I found a small, clean place for breakfast and had the plato typico, consisting of a sort of chicken and onion omellette, plantains, fried beans, pickled vegetables, sour cream, cheese, avocado and tortillas. I was impressed with the assortment of accompanying hot sauces -- two plain squeeze bottles that should have read "smoking hot death" and "you damned fool, don't".