Photo: Zipolite: Bathing Before Breakfast

It is July, and baking hot even next to the ocean. And we sleep not twenty meters from the lap of the waves. I should say roar, because this part of the beach is called "Beach of the Drowned Men." In a small scallop between rocks, the foreigners come to swim and sunbathe nude. The military and young boys would come to gawk, but the money has spoken, and Zipolite is now much more polite and calm compared to ten years ago. A bungalow on the water's edge is $40, fruit shake $2, fresh whole fish $10. Still.