Day 16 Driven to drink
R wakes me from deep slumber at what feels like 3am and is crying and saying he wants music on the phone. I tell him no way but he persists. Eventually he says he wants a cracker.
This goes on for a while and in the end I say ok, but he can't have it in the bed, he has to walk with me to the kitchen to have it and eat it here. He asks why and I say because of bugs. He says 'why bugs?' and through my sleep fuzzed brain I have to come up with a child friendly and non-frightening explanation of reasons for basic hygiene in tropical climates.
I check the time and it's 11.45pm. After what feels like an age, we go back to the room and he falls back asleep.
I wake at 5.30 and he at 6. This morning our laughing session revolves around a big fart he does and my feigned disgust. Then I say I'm still tired and he tries to put his dummy in my mouth and we play at me being the baby for a while. I keep spitting the dummy out and he keeps putting it back in.
We get up at 7 and he wants chocolate balls. I remind him they have finished and we have a new cereal, Cap'n Crunch. He likes the packet as the Cap'n is a pirate and he sits and eats 3 bowls while making pirate noises. I get told off for making pirate noises back and instructed that I must be frightened.
Dana and Olga, who work in the kitchen arrive and start making eyes and blowing kisses at R which he returns. I don't even try him with the rice, beans and egg this morning but I do get a banana which he eats half of. While eating my breakfast I tune into the girls at the next table and realise they are speaking Dutch. Kerching. I have been keeping an eye out for Dutch people to help me translate some of the bits I can't figure out in the potty book. So I ask if they will help me with something and they say they will be glad to.
After breakfast, I get the book and R and I sit while one of the girls reads the book. I tell her that though the boy's name is Basje, we have been calling him Basil, so could she please stick with that. It's pretty funny because she obviously doesn't know a lot of the necessary vocabular in English: poo, wee, nappy, 'willie'and potty so in fact, my help is required. R listens attentively and is perhaps the only one of who is not a bit relieved when we get to the end. He hugs is book to his chest and asks if we can go swimming now.
We get sunscreened up and he insists on wearing his swimming trunks and yellow float jacket out of the hostel. We head onto the beach and I ask if we can walk up the beach and go to a different spot. He's not keen but I start walking anyway and he follows. It rained heavily yesterday afternoon and this has flattened a lot of the sand, so the high winds aren't causing us to get sand-whipped so much today. We make it maybe 500m and then R heads to play at the seashore so I sit.
Our part of the beach has remained clean since we picked up trash the other day, but there's some rubbish here and the sight of a plastic bottle washing into the sea upsets me so I do another little trash collection. The I sit and see we are sitting near some grandparents on the beach with a little boy, older than R. And this boy has BEACH TOYS.
R plays happily on his hands and knees just where the water starts for about 5 minutes, then comes back to me and sees the boys toys. The grandparents have given me encouraging smiles so I tell him to play with the boy. There are plastic spades and boats and even a DIGGER. The two boys play very nicely together and I chat to the Grandad. They are a local family, who have lived all their lives in San Juan Del Sur. They ask me about our travels and where we are from and they are very complimentary about my Spanish. I say how hard it is to find tuff to do with a kid, especially when he usually needs to sleep in the day, so day trips are difficult. They tell me there is a park in the town. A revelation. They also tell me
about a place that's good for kids only 3km away and how to get there.
It's great seeing R play with a kid for a while. I laugh when the grandad looks at his watch and says 'it's only 9.30'. I know the feeling.
On snakes and ladders day, when I was sitting with the surfers (who actually haven't been surfing for the past few days, so I should perhaps re-classify then as wannabe or part-time surfers) I was writing
while they were playing. One of them asked what I was writing and I said a blog. He asked for the URL which presented me with a quandary as it was the first time someone had asked who I am still in direct contact with. I said I would think about it.
Last night, I gave him the address. Mainly because I'm curious about what will happen if I messing with the narrative in this way. Mixing life and art live. I have no idea whether he will read it or if he does, whether he will tell me, so we shall see what comes back.
The local family leave and R and I stay, swimming in big waves for a while longer. Then we get out and build a big sandcastle with a moat with our hands. He says he's hungry and tired and we start the walk back - which ends up with me carrying him. On the way, we pass some hardcore backpackers who have been sleeping on the beach. You can see from their deep tans, worn clothes and small bags that they are doing it almost the 'reallest' way there is.
My soul is with them, even though when I was child-free I only dabbled in their world. They give me a nod of acknowledgement as I pass with R in my arms. I return it with a quiet smile.
R wants to eat cereal and I say yes, but he needs to shower first. The next few hours is a dance of bed/eat/bed/eat/walk around/poo (in nappy)/say he's tired/say he's not tired etc etc. I sit and write in the courtyard while he changes his mind every few minutes. He's getting to know quite a few faces here now and of course even more people know him, so I can relax a little while he wanders around. He doesn't stay away from me for more than about 3 minutes at a stretch but he's happy with only partial attention from me.
Jordan (tattoo Californian part time surf dude) comes out, hungover and gives R his phone with music playing on Spotify. DJ R is immensely happy with this and jumps from track to track, settling on Carlos Santana and swaying to the music.
Then Jordan says he has to pack his surfboards up and does R want to go with him. R's not sure, but I tell him there are pictures on the surf boards so he goes to look.
I'm really tired and would like to sleep. I also need to change our flights. I'd like two days recovery before going off on the filming job for three days, so I need to move our flights forward two days. Apparently I need to do it by phone. I'm trying to use Viber, but the wifi signal isn't strong enough to sustain the call. I go to check on R and he is sitting happily on Jordan's surfboard in his bedroom with a Lithuanian girl called Dama who has given him a big sheet of bubble wrap. He is popping the bubbles with delight and Jordan later Whatsapp's me a photo.
Eventually I decide to go and lie down, thinking perhaps R will join me. In fact, what happens is I fall asleep, to be woken about half an hour later by some noise. I leave the room and find R sitting with the Leo and Dominic from Montreal. They are listening to music and chatting. R has somehow found one of the emergency 'ullies' I have hidden away and they are playing with the two Ullies.
Seeing R is having such a good time, but still feeling knackered myself, I lie in a hammock and leave him to socialise. I am messaging a friend back home who has just left work and been to the pub and suddenly it occurs to me it's Friday (night). The only thing for it is a Cuba Libre. Or a Nicaragua Libre as they call it here.
In fact two.
Half an hour later, I'm feeling pretty merry and R leaves his new friends and comes to join me at the hammock. I'm slightly paranoid that the very lovely staff at the hostel think I'm being irresponsible, but I think this is mainly paranoia. And in fact I bloody deserved those drinks. And possibly even needed them too.
Me and R banter and talk about music. He's obsessed with the lyrics to Cecilia and keeps asking me again and again 'what is breaking your heart?' Why? 'what is shaking my confidence?'. I must have found 50 ways to explain heartbreak by 3pm.
Jordan has introduced R to Manu Chao so I add 'Me Gustas Tu' to R's playlist. I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before as R sucks up song lyrics so it should help bring his Spanish along.
Throughout the day, the little girl who lives here, H, appears and disappears and she and R are starting to form a relationship. During my absent-mummy hour, they appear each with one of H's toys in hand. I am now facing the fact that my 2 year old son has more friends here than I do.
R and I go out to the playground, which he is pretty thrilled with. Being used to English playgrounds, I tell him to test everything in case it's too hot to touch before going on it - but of course it has all been designed for hot sun, so none of it is too hot. There is a seahorse merry go round (plastic) and some other ride on creatures (also plastic) and a few wooden climbing frames with slides. The biggest grin from R comes when he climbs to the top of one, which has a roof and says 'i'm the king of the castle'. We both know that means I'm the dirty rascal.
We get two successful potty wees in the late afternoon. The language is still the issue. He tells he did a wee both times when he means he wants one. The second time he tells me 'it's in his willy' though. God he will hate me if he ever reads this when he's a teenager. It shall not remain online for all time.
At 7.30 R is exhausted and goes to bed without a story. The only fuss is he wants to sleep with TWO bunnies (ullies). I tell him he can only have one because the other ones are my secret bunnies for emergencies because the world will end if we have no ully. He says 'why the world end?'.
I really do have to be careful on this one, because while it would be super cute for him to have two ullies, I can't risk him needing two as much as he needs one to comfort him, because then, there'd be twice the risk of losing them. And the third ully must remain my secret.
After R goes to bed, I try again to change our flights - again with no luck. The backpackers are warming up now. Or is it me? It's as if they've read my top 5 on how to talk to a child because they are making noises and pulling faces at him. A few of them have said they think this is a great experience for a child.
As I'm writing this, I overhear someone saying this place, San Juan Del Sur, is a party town
This is news to me so I ask another guy about it. Apparently there are tons of bars here and they are all packed every night till 4 or 5 in the morning.
Maybe my two large rum and cokes weren't quite so rock and roll after all.
R wakes me from deep slumber at what feels like 3am and is crying and saying he wants music on the phone. I tell him no way but he persists. Eventually he says he wants a cracker.
This goes on for a while and in the end I say ok, but he can't have it in the bed, he has to walk with me to the kitchen to have it and eat it here. He asks why and I say because of bugs. He says 'why bugs?' and through my sleep fuzzed brain I have to come up with a child friendly and non-frightening explanation of reasons for basic hygiene in tropical climates.
I check the time and it's 11.45pm. After what feels like an age, we go back to the room and he falls back asleep.
I wake at 5.30 and he at 6. This morning our laughing session revolves around a big fart he does and my feigned disgust. Then I say I'm still tired and he tries to put his dummy in my mouth and we play at me being the baby for a while. I keep spitting the dummy out and he keeps putting it back in.
We get up at 7 and he wants chocolate balls. I remind him they have finished and we have a new cereal, Cap'n Crunch. He likes the packet as the Cap'n is a pirate and he sits and eats 3 bowls while making pirate noises. I get told off for making pirate noises back and instructed that I must be frightened.
Dana and Olga, who work in the kitchen arrive and start making eyes and blowing kisses at R which he returns. I don't even try him with the rice, beans and egg this morning but I do get a banana which he eats half of. While eating my breakfast I tune into the girls at the next table and realise they are speaking Dutch. Kerching. I have been keeping an eye out for Dutch people to help me translate some of the bits I can't figure out in the potty book. So I ask if they will help me with something and they say they will be glad to.
After breakfast, I get the book and R and I sit while one of the girls reads the book. I tell her that though the boy's name is Basje, we have been calling him Basil, so could she please stick with that. It's pretty funny because she obviously doesn't know a lot of the necessary vocabular in English: poo, wee, nappy, 'willie'and potty so in fact, my help is required. R listens attentively and is perhaps the only one of who is not a bit relieved when we get to the end. He hugs is book to his chest and asks if we can go swimming now.
We get sunscreened up and he insists on wearing his swimming trunks and yellow float jacket out of the hostel. We head onto the beach and I ask if we can walk up the beach and go to a different spot. He's not keen but I start walking anyway and he follows. It rained heavily yesterday afternoon and this has flattened a lot of the sand, so the high winds aren't causing us to get sand-whipped so much today. We make it maybe 500m and then R heads to play at the seashore so I sit.
Our part of the beach has remained clean since we picked up trash the other day, but there's some rubbish here and the sight of a plastic bottle washing into the sea upsets me so I do another little trash collection. The I sit and see we are sitting near some grandparents on the beach with a little boy, older than R. And this boy has BEACH TOYS.
R plays happily on his hands and knees just where the water starts for about 5 minutes, then comes back to me and sees the boys toys. The grandparents have given me encouraging smiles so I tell him to play with the boy. There are plastic spades and boats and even a DIGGER. The two boys play very nicely together and I chat to the Grandad. They are a local family, who have lived all their lives in San Juan Del Sur. They ask me about our travels and where we are from and they are very complimentary about my Spanish. I say how hard it is to find tuff to do with a kid, especially when he usually needs to sleep in the day, so day trips are difficult. They tell me there is a park in the town. A revelation. They also tell me
about a place that's good for kids only 3km away and how to get there.
It's great seeing R play with a kid for a while. I laugh when the grandad looks at his watch and says 'it's only 9.30'. I know the feeling.
On snakes and ladders day, when I was sitting with the surfers (who actually haven't been surfing for the past few days, so I should perhaps re-classify then as wannabe or part-time surfers) I was writing
while they were playing. One of them asked what I was writing and I said a blog. He asked for the URL which presented me with a quandary as it was the first time someone had asked who I am still in direct contact with. I said I would think about it.
Last night, I gave him the address. Mainly because I'm curious about what will happen if I messing with the narrative in this way. Mixing life and art live. I have no idea whether he will read it or if he does, whether he will tell me, so we shall see what comes back.
The local family leave and R and I stay, swimming in big waves for a while longer. Then we get out and build a big sandcastle with a moat with our hands. He says he's hungry and tired and we start the walk back - which ends up with me carrying him. On the way, we pass some hardcore backpackers who have been sleeping on the beach. You can see from their deep tans, worn clothes and small bags that they are doing it almost the 'reallest' way there is.
My soul is with them, even though when I was child-free I only dabbled in their world. They give me a nod of acknowledgement as I pass with R in my arms. I return it with a quiet smile.
R wants to eat cereal and I say yes, but he needs to shower first. The next few hours is a dance of bed/eat/bed/eat/walk around/poo (in nappy)/say he's tired/say he's not tired etc etc. I sit and write in the courtyard while he changes his mind every few minutes. He's getting to know quite a few faces here now and of course even more people know him, so I can relax a little while he wanders around. He doesn't stay away from me for more than about 3 minutes at a stretch but he's happy with only partial attention from me.
Jordan (tattoo Californian part time surf dude) comes out, hungover and gives R his phone with music playing on Spotify. DJ R is immensely happy with this and jumps from track to track, settling on Carlos Santana and swaying to the music.
Then Jordan says he has to pack his surfboards up and does R want to go with him. R's not sure, but I tell him there are pictures on the surf boards so he goes to look.
I'm really tired and would like to sleep. I also need to change our flights. I'd like two days recovery before going off on the filming job for three days, so I need to move our flights forward two days. Apparently I need to do it by phone. I'm trying to use Viber, but the wifi signal isn't strong enough to sustain the call. I go to check on R and he is sitting happily on Jordan's surfboard in his bedroom with a Lithuanian girl called Dama who has given him a big sheet of bubble wrap. He is popping the bubbles with delight and Jordan later Whatsapp's me a photo.
Eventually I decide to go and lie down, thinking perhaps R will join me. In fact, what happens is I fall asleep, to be woken about half an hour later by some noise. I leave the room and find R sitting with the Leo and Dominic from Montreal. They are listening to music and chatting. R has somehow found one of the emergency 'ullies' I have hidden away and they are playing with the two Ullies.
Seeing R is having such a good time, but still feeling knackered myself, I lie in a hammock and leave him to socialise. I am messaging a friend back home who has just left work and been to the pub and suddenly it occurs to me it's Friday (night). The only thing for it is a Cuba Libre. Or a Nicaragua Libre as they call it here.
In fact two.
Half an hour later, I'm feeling pretty merry and R leaves his new friends and comes to join me at the hammock. I'm slightly paranoid that the very lovely staff at the hostel think I'm being irresponsible, but I think this is mainly paranoia. And in fact I bloody deserved those drinks. And possibly even needed them too.
Me and R banter and talk about music. He's obsessed with the lyrics to Cecilia and keeps asking me again and again 'what is breaking your heart?' Why? 'what is shaking my confidence?'. I must have found 50 ways to explain heartbreak by 3pm.
Jordan has introduced R to Manu Chao so I add 'Me Gustas Tu' to R's playlist. I can't believe I hadn't thought of this before as R sucks up song lyrics so it should help bring his Spanish along.
Throughout the day, the little girl who lives here, H, appears and disappears and she and R are starting to form a relationship. During my absent-mummy hour, they appear each with one of H's toys in hand. I am now facing the fact that my 2 year old son has more friends here than I do.
R and I go out to the playground, which he is pretty thrilled with. Being used to English playgrounds, I tell him to test everything in case it's too hot to touch before going on it - but of course it has all been designed for hot sun, so none of it is too hot. There is a seahorse merry go round (plastic) and some other ride on creatures (also plastic) and a few wooden climbing frames with slides. The biggest grin from R comes when he climbs to the top of one, which has a roof and says 'i'm the king of the castle'. We both know that means I'm the dirty rascal.
We get two successful potty wees in the late afternoon. The language is still the issue. He tells he did a wee both times when he means he wants one. The second time he tells me 'it's in his willy' though. God he will hate me if he ever reads this when he's a teenager. It shall not remain online for all time.
At 7.30 R is exhausted and goes to bed without a story. The only fuss is he wants to sleep with TWO bunnies (ullies). I tell him he can only have one because the other ones are my secret bunnies for emergencies because the world will end if we have no ully. He says 'why the world end?'.
I really do have to be careful on this one, because while it would be super cute for him to have two ullies, I can't risk him needing two as much as he needs one to comfort him, because then, there'd be twice the risk of losing them. And the third ully must remain my secret.
After R goes to bed, I try again to change our flights - again with no luck. The backpackers are warming up now. Or is it me? It's as if they've read my top 5 on how to talk to a child because they are making noises and pulling faces at him. A few of them have said they think this is a great experience for a child.
As I'm writing this, I overhear someone saying this place, San Juan Del Sur, is a party town
This is news to me so I ask another guy about it. Apparently there are tons of bars here and they are all packed every night till 4 or 5 in the morning.
Maybe my two large rum and cokes weren't quite so rock and roll after all.