George checked his family into a hotel right on the beach. It was an establishment for respectable Americans known as "La Mar de Felicitaciones" by the tourists and "La Mar de Gringas" by everyone else. The family spent their days together on the beach or in a boat, putting the moribund greenness of their own island behind them. At night Travis was left to roam the hallways of the hotel unattended while George and Mary Frances learnt how to mambo. One evening, after stealing a micro-cassette recorder from a neighboring room, she ran blindly into Iris, who was leaning against a vending machine eating a bar of chocolate.

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