Being in the service has it's ups and it's downs; sometimes you even get to have them with a woman. We were in in Recife, Brazil, in the mid 70's for a three day stopover. Our destroyer was headed for Africa, and we had pulled in for a little fuel and fun.

The first thing that struck you as you crossed over the ships brow (gangplank to you civilians) was the tropical smell. Inside the ship you breathe air that's been closed up for days. It's clean, but flavorless (unless the cooks are making something smelly, like fish!).

Outside the ship in Recife, you noticed the air immediately. It was different! You seemed to be able to smell fruits you had never tasted with rotting jungle vegetation, the ocean, seafood and a host of smaller city-smells mixed in too.

The second thing that hit you was the tropical heat and humidity. It was akin to walking into a brick wall; it was so thick you wondered if you could move through it.

I was headed into town with my buddy, Jack Macarthy (name changed to protect the guilty, etc). He worked in another division, but we were both Petty Officer 2nd Class (E-5's) in our mid 20's. Most of the guys on ship were much younger than we were. Another buddy of ours that usually was with us was stuck on duty that day, so it was just the two of us.

Anyway, we were looking for a beer. We had been underway for a few weeks and had worked up a thirst. We went into one bar a few blocks from the piers, and it was swamped with other guys from the ship. Evidently we were not the only ones that had this idea. We ordered beers as we sat down, and the girl went off to get them for us.

She didn't bring us back beers, she brought us the Elixir of the Gods. If you like good beer, then you would appreciate Brahma Beer. It's a pilsner, with a semi-cloudy tea color that's reminiscent of a British beer; it's flowery and full bodied at the same time, almost juicy. After the hot walk into town, cold piss would have been welcome, but that beer was heaven captured in a bottle.

The bar we were in was very narrow and long, and hot. Air conditioning was not widespread in those days. I can't remember the bar's name, but it's not there anymore anyway. We were there in the 90's and it's long gone. The bar consisted of a row of tables on the right and a small bar semi-hidden in the gloom at the back on the left. This was back in the days when most people smoked cigarettes. We just sat there drinking the Elixir, smoking cigarettes, and swapping our sea stories (lies about the past few weeks worth of adventures underway).

After being there a while, we noticed several gals were making the rounds trying to drum up business. A few stopped by our table, but we were not interested in buying them any sweetheart drinks. (A sweetheart drink is a high priced glass of iced tea that can empty your wallet faster than a billy goat can knock you on your ass.)

As we drank beer and shot the shit, we noticed one of our snipes (ship's engineering type) come through a door that had a small stairwell behind it. He had a girl following close behind him, holding his hand.

Jack went over to ask him what was up and then came back to tell me there were rooms available right up the stairs. We could conveniently get "lucky" and come back down later.

As I watched the girls in the room sashaying around and rubbing up on the patrons, my bigger head received the message (from the tightness of my Levi's among other things) that my little head was doing a lot of thinking, but I was trying to go easy on the money and put a few dollars away. Jack, on the other hand, was in more direct contact with his smaller id. He was as randy as a three-peckered billy goat. Jack always was ready.

After another beer (Jack had switched to rum and coke) and a lot of coaxing from Jack, I agreed to start really watching the women, seeing if there were any likely candidates. Soon he had a girl in his lap and was struggling to communicate with her. She spoke about 20 words of English and a lot of Portuguese that came out like a machine gun. She was probably about our age and pretty - brunette hair and about 5'2", with a nice set of curves and what looked to be an ample bosom under her blouse. It was a little hard to tell in her outfit of slacks and short sleeve blouse.

A blond stopped at our table and asked me if I had changed my mind. I told her to sit down, and we ordered another round as we tried to communicate with the girls. I got it that the blond answered to Anna (her real name was too hard for us to pronounce) and the other girl's name was Maria, the equivalent of Mary. I found out my first name (Paul) was Paolo in Portuguese. Anna knew a lot more English, as if that mattered to us.

Maria was really working on Jack, wiggling her butt on his lap and grabbing him, and you could see from his eyes he was not going to wait very long. Next thing I know, Jack is headed towards the door and stairs with Maria. He had a bottle of rum in one hand and the girl in the other, moving as though his military objective was in sight.

I ran after him and asked what was happening. He said he couldn't wait, he needed pussy and was headed upstairs now! I grabbed Anna's hand and the four of us disappeared into the gloom of the stairway.

At the top of the stairs there was a door and Maria opened it into a sunlit room. We saw what passed for a hotel desk. We stopped at the desk, made the obvious financial transactions paying the bar fine for taking the girls out of the bar and paying the room rent.

After that we then headed up another set of stairs to a different floor. At the top we both took a long hit from the rum bottle. I still had my beer, so I chased my rum with that. It may have been a sweet dark rum, but it was still harsh when taken straight.