A random event changed things for me dramatically. I was called to my bosses office one morning, where he explained that the company had run into an issue and a fellow employee was being sent home for medical reasons from the office in Puerto Rico. He continued by telling me that he needed me to replace the man, at least temporarily to keep thing moving and that would mean my moving temporarily to Puerto Rico. He proposed that I work in the Puerto Rico office for two week intervals, then come home for the weekend. He told me I would need to start as quickly as I could make the arrangements. I had always been a team player and my home situation could probably use a break, so I agreed and headed home to let my wife know.
The confrontation wife my wife was actually surprising. She'd shown little interest in me or the last couple of months and I had thought she'd be glad to get rid of me for a while. After some reassurance that it was only temporary and the company thought enough of my performance to select me to bail them out, she finally acceded with the stipulation that I spend my weekend home doing what she wanted. I agreed and headed off to the our bedroom to pack. As it turned out, Puerto Rico, especially San Juan, was quite a bit more progressive than even my home city. This started me down a road for which I never really wanted to return.
My first week was pretty much catching up on conditions, getting familiar with the people, office and surroundings, then figuring out how to get around on my own. Having to live alone here I knew would be a problem. My sex life had gotten a kick start with my restroom experience and I had kept it interesting with my magazines, so I managed to slip a couple of good ones in my bag when I packed, just so I'd have something besides fantasies to keep me entertained at night. Little did I know that those two magazines would get almost none of my time.
During a lunch break on my third day, a fellow worker pointed out some major points of interest in down town San Juan. Shops, café's, and good shops to shop at where the prices weren't over inflated for the tourists. During lunch he pointed out one building across from where we ate. That he said was the local gay bath house and warned I shouldn't come to down town late in the evening. I stared at the building which wasn't much to look at, just a typical stone structure with no signs or marquee. My mind made a mental note of the address and after I got back to the apartment that night , looked up the establishment and was pleased to see that it was a favorite meeting place for gay men. Needless to say, I started making plans for the coming weekend.
A bath house was something I'd read about but never seen. I had no idea what they were all about but I knew I was going to find out this weekend. The week had flown by until the lunch, now it seemed to drag on forever, but Friday finally arrived and after heading home to shower and change, I began the next phase of my journey as a gay man.
I arrived shortly after dark, parked down the street from the building and walked up to it. As I noted at lunch, there were no signs and the entrance wasn't exactly easy to spot. After some walking and looking, I finally spotted it and entered. The bath house was actually on the second floor. You had to climb some stairs where you came to a window. The clerk behind the glass let me know how much entry would cost and after paying my toll, handed me two towels and a key with a number on it. The door in was the easy part, it buzzed as the clerk hit the lock, so pressed forward and entered the club.
The whole club was dark and it took some time for my eyes to adjust, but after a few minutes standing like a statue at the entrance, I could finally make out things enough to move forward without fear of falling over something. The first thing I noticed was that no one was dressed. Everyone was walking around with a towel wrapped around their waist. Not really knowing what to do next, I glanced at the key and could just make out the numbers 32 on the tag. I assumed that was my room, so I began my search for a door to match my key.
The doors turned out to be the easy part, each had a plate next to it with a number, but the first door I found had the number ten next to it so I bumbled around until I found door 32. The key fit and I was inside my own private little room. There was bench of sorts on one side, a small table, which apparently was mounted to the floor, and on the wall opposite the bench was a TV playing a gay flick. While searching for my room, had noticed a lot of doors closed, either they were empty or the occupants had closed them, but several were open. When I passed by the open doors, a man was laying on the bench, either looking at the TV or looking out the door at the people passing. I later learned the protocol of this and it came in handy.
I figured my next move would be to strip and dawn my towel, then I could take a look around. There were some hooks on the back of the door and I was soon naked. The clerk had also included a clip with my towels. I hadn't noticed before but it made sense. Two towels, one to wear, one to use as designed, the clip was to hold up the towel you wore. Towel in place I opened the door and closed it behind me as I left. Not wanting to leave my stuff unprotected while I wandered around I locked the door and found the problem with wearing only a towel, no place to keep a key. I wedged it into the waist around the clip and it seemed secure enough to move around, but I'd need to work something else out if I was going to come back here.
I began my tour of my first bath house. The doors lined two hallways, but the doors were separated here and there by archways into other areas. One are appeared to be a small theater with multiple seats and several men were scattered around the room watch another gay flick. One arch led to a small vending area, which turned out to be rather interesting. The machines did sell drinks and snacks, but some of the machines sold accessories, condoms, lubes, lotions, etc.. I continued to explore and came upon an arch with a sign that said simply, studios. I made a note to investigate what those were and moved on. I came to the last archway and the sign said play room. There was music playing in the back ground, loud but not too much so, just enough to prevent eaves dropping on other guests and the whole place was dark so I could get a look inside.