A Week in Curaçao

Enzo and Taddeo agreed to join us and we went to a place called Windsurfing Curaçao which provides lessons and would rent us the boards. They had a very nice bay and the lessons were really easy as long as you had decent balance. Perhaps the hardest part of it was righting the sail if you fell in the water. When the wind was right, you could go really fast, although turning the board around could be challenging. We even did some racing but we had to be careful not to run into the other wind surfers. We were there for about 4 hours before we had to get back for lunch and to be ready for our volleyball game at 5 pm.

This game was much more difficult than the first two taking all three sets. We won the first 21-18, lost the second 21-19 and finally won the third 24-22. We stayed around to watch the other game that day which was won by an Australian team. They were really good but we felt we could beat them. We were really psyched, but we also knew we'd have to be at our best. While talking it over, Ryan spoke up. "You know guys, back in college, when we had an important game the next day, there was sort of an agreement on the team that we wouldn't have any sex that night, so I think we should avoid fucking around tonight. What do you think?"

Taddeo and Enzo were both nodding. "It's the same with us, Ryan. It's what we do, or rather what we don't do, before we have to dance the next day." He looked at Taddeo who clearly agreed. "Of course we can always make up for it tomorrow night," he said with a smile.

Later that night, as we were getting ready for bed, I asked Ryan a question that had been bugging me. "Ryan, the other night, you were actually enjoying bottoming. What in the world did Taddeo do that made it so different for you?"

"Yeah, Mark, I've been wondering about that myself. It's not that he's great looking - other great looking guys have fucked me and I really didn't get much out of it. The only conclusion I've come to is that he is so assertive. He knew what he wanted and he just took it. He had his dick in me before I even knew it was happening."

"I asked him about it too, and he said he can somehow sense when someone needs a good fucking. I guess he must have been right, because it's never felt anywhere so good for me before - and I really enjoyed every minute of it. Actually I don't remember much about it -- it's like I lost consciousness and our bodies became one.

"That sounds rather weird to me, Ryan. I'd like to experience something like that myself! Well, whatever, I guess, now we need to get some sleep -- we have a big day tomorrow."

Day 6 -- Saturday: Tournament Championship; Sunset Cruise; Last night with Enzo and Taddeo

We woke up early on Saturday. We felt sad that it would be our last day here -- we had to fly home tomorrow. We met Enzo and Taddeo for lunch and then just killed time before the game.

We were surprised when we got to the volleyball court to find a large crowd of spectators. We had gotten matching t-shirts made earlier in the week with our team name in large letters on them. Ryan had wanted us to call us the 'Creamers' but the rest of us thought that was too suggestive, plus I thought it was rather arrogant. While we were really good, I didn't think we would 'cream' the opposing team, so instead we chose the name 'Strokers' and that was the name we had put on our shirts. It was a great name for a volleyball team and also suggested what we liked to do at night.

When the crowd saw the shirts they starting chanting 'Strokers', 'Strokers', etc., so we sort of had our own cheerleaders. We had made Ryan our captain and he met with the ref and the other captain and won the toss. He chose to serve.

The other team was the Australians we had seen play the day before, all of whom were at least 6' tall. The first game went back and forth with them finally winning, 21 -- 18. The second game was hard fought, but this time the score was in our favor 28 -- 26. Personally I thought they were getting tired.

So it was now up to the third and last game and we basically just took it over. Ryan had us pumped and to tell the truth we just had more stamina than they did. Ryan as a college baseball player seemed to have limitless energy and he was all over the court as he had been throughout the tournament. There was almost no ball into our court that he couldn't get to, and that included many of their spikes. Then as professional ballet dancers, Taddeo and Enzo had extremely strong legs and could easily jump very high and leap for long periods of time. Both Enzo and Taddeo won a large number of points for us with their spikes up by the net. As for me, well, while I wasn't bad, but as I've said before, I was easily the least effective member of our team. I will admit though I was pretty good at setting up our ballet boys for their spikes -- plus I even managed to block a few of our opponents' shots too. When all was done, the final score was 21 -- 17 and we had won!!

We hurried back to our rooms to shower and dress for the cruise. While we weren't going to dress up, Ryan and I did put on our best shirts and shorts for the catamaran cruise.

We met our Italian friends on the dock at 5:30 and boarded the beautiful boat shortly after. I'd never seen, much less been on a catamaran before and it was a large boat with 2 long hulls with a deck mounted between them and holding them in place. The deck had a canopy covering it and there were 20-25 tables with a small dance floor in the middle. Taddeo and Ryan sat a table near the dance floor and Enzo and I were at another one nearby. I was gratified to see at least 2 lesbian couples and a few other gay couples as well. Most of those on board were between the ages of 30 and 60. The four of us were by far the youngest.

Shortly after we got on board, Taddeo and Enzo went to talk to the captain of the boat and I saw Enzo hand him a cassette tape. "What'd you give the captain? I asked Enzo when he came back.

"You'll find out, Marco. It'll be a surprise -- you'll see," he replied with a grin.

The sails were soon raised and the ship sailed out into the ocean. It was a beautiful evening. As the sun began to set, seemingly into the ocean, the sky went from blue with streaks of yellow and pink and finally to a brilliant orange -- it was spectacular! The sky became grayer and darker with the large orb of the sun slowly sinking into the ocean. Candles in hurricane lamps were lit on the tables and appetizers and wine were served.

Soon after the sun had set, the captain moved to the dance floor and announced over the sound system: "Ladies and Gentlemen (pause) - and since this is a gay-friendly cruise, I want to add -- Ladies and Ladies and Gentlemen and Gentlemen (there was a large laugh from the crowd), we have a special surprise for you, Taddeo and Enzo, will you come up here? I have the honor to introduce, Taddeo Masigno and Enzo Aliberti, who are ballet dancers from the famous Teatro di San Carlo of Naples, Italy, who have offered to dance for you. Enzo and Taddeo bowed to the audience to mild applause. Then the music came on. Initially it was a recording of the Love Theme from the film 'Romeo and Juliet'. They twirled around each other and glided around the stage -- sometimes separately and at other times together. There were synchronized leaps and twirls -- it was beautiful.

Then all of sudden the music changed to a tenor singing 'Funiculi-Funicula' and the boys encouraged everyone to sing along and soon the entire audience was singing lustily. They finished by making fantastic leaps across the stage and back again and bowed just as the music ended. Breathless, they returned to our tables, to applause and many grateful thanks from the other tables.

We greatly enjoyed the appetizers and wine and were able to have conversations with some of the other guests during the cruise, many of them wanting to know about us.

We docked about 3 hours after we had left. We were in a pleasant but somber mood, remembering that we'd soon be leaving Curaçao. We had thought about going to one of the clubs, but we decided to head back to the resort. We picked up a few bottles of wine and some cheese and crackers because we really weren't very hungry after all the appetizers we'd eaten and so the four of us retired to the suite that Ryan and I had. Taddeo and Enzo wanted to spend the night with us so we could spend our last few hours together before they had to say goodbye to us when left for the airport.

We spent most of those hours just talking. They told us about their life in Naples, their families and what it was like to be ballarinos and some of the adventures they'd had in Naples and on some of their tours. In turn, we talked about what a wonderful place New Orleans was and about its history. We also told them about the surrounding countryside and the many bayous and swamps. I told them about my growing up in California and what I was studying at Tulane. Ryan told them about his family and heritage and about the University of Virginia and baseball.

After awhile - and after we'd polished off a couple bottles of wine - Enzo and I started making out and Ryan and Taddeo moved into the bedroom. It wasn't long before Enzo gave me some more of his sweet Italian cream and we cuddled together as we fell asleep in each other's arms.

Day 7 -- Sunday: Leaving

We woke up about 9 in the morning and took our showers and began packing. We hadn't bought much, just a few souvenirs and a few gifts for Ryan's family. Our flight was to leave about 3 pm, so we had plenty of time to eat something before we had to go. We didn't have much food in our suite, but we did have some breakfast pastries and cereal and milk and even some fruit and we all shared that.

The taxi to the airport was to arrive at noon, so around 11:30 we hugged each other and assured Enzo and Taddeo that we would try to come to Italy next summer. I gave Taddeo a long kiss and Ryan did the same with Enzo. Then we changed partners and kissed and just held each other.

The taxi got us to the airport in plenty of time and we boarded the plane and buckled in. While the plane was climbing into the skies, I noticed Ryan had a few tear marks on his cheeks and my own eyes were moist as well. This didn't surprise me at all -- I was certainly going to miss both Enzo and Taddeo, but Ryan was leaving someone who had become more than just a friend.