Intro to Sex Tourism (Part 3)

Previously: Part 1, Part 2

While we ate Rocky began to talk about the Jews, Hitler and the Holocaust. The Jews were clearly a favorite topic and I was trying not to listen to it. He got Sofia to look up from her texting and asked her if she knew who Hitler was. She didn’t. She had never heard of the Holocaust or the Nazis. Rocky began to explain the second World War to her. In his version the Jews had brought it upon themselves.

Then he asked Sofia what she wanted to do with her life. She smiled at him playfully. Rocky told her she was beautiful and 19 and not working and all the guys were chasing her--but what did she want?

She wanted to be a model, she said, and I realized then that she believed she was gorgeous. Had I cared at all and actually been annoyed by her texting, I might have said something nasty about her having no chance and pointing out all that was wrong with her, but I was thinking about how I needed a ride back to the hostel. I didn’t want to walk back with this hangover.

Rocky switched topics to another favorite, bee pollen. He claimed bee pollen was more powerful than steroids or human growth hormone and insisted that after taking it a few times a young person could grow an extra few inches and have his mind improved. Bee pollen was a secret supplement used by all the top athletes and he tried to convince Sofia that it was what she needed to improve herself. She could become a model or maybe a telenovela actress with it. Sofia listened to him carefully and seemed to consider it. Then she went back to her texting.

I turned to Rocky and told him I was going and stood up.

“Okay, bro, but Sofia’s really into you, y’know?”

I looked at his pock-marked pathetic face and smirked. “Yeah. I know.”

The girls got up too and we all walked to the car and left Chipichape. On the ride back nobody said anything and Sofia sat in front texting on her cell phone. Rocky and I got out and said goodbye to the girls and I went back to my room and fell asleep.

A few days later I was reading in bed when Rocky came to my door and announced we were neighbors. He had moved into the privado next to mine. Then he walked into my room in his bare feet and scratching at his genitals proceeded to tell me about some black girl who had given him her number.

I was horrified that he was standing in the middle of my room in his bare feet. I don’t like them real black, he said, but he was going to give this one a try. I was giving him the subtle signals to leave. A doorman at a hotel had gotten the number for him, he said. You should see the body on her though. I turned over in my bed and looked away. And she has a sister. Maybe you’re interested, bro. And Sofia’s been asking about you too, man. I closed my eyes.

But Rocky did not leave in time and my room would have his odor for the next few hours, part sickness and part decay. I had to keep my door shut after that. When I left for Argentina a few days later he was in the common area on his laptop and I said goodbye to him. He winked knowingly at me and I winked back at him. We did not have to say anything more. It was an exchange of winks that no doubt confirmed for him the special bond that existed between us.