Splashy day

Monday, March 23, 2009

Despite the gloomy forecasts, today dawned bright and sunny. Since Glenn had gone on an all day excursion to Saona Island, we were able to go to breakfast early, and got a seat on the patio. There weren’t any tinned peaches (which I normally eat as my morning fruit), but they had a steaming bowl of hot chocolate. Unfortunately, by the time I got to it, it was a tepid bowl of chocolate – I got back to the patio with my food, to find that Torsten had stood up on his chair, tipped it over and fallen flat on his back on the patio, and needed comforting. I didn’t actually see him fall or even lying there, as, by the time I got back, Ingo and several waiters were buzzing around trying to comfort him. I took Torsten and cuddled him, while a waiter brought a high chair that was less prone to tip than one of the normal patio chairs. I told him it was his own fault for being disobedient and standing up on the chair, but I’m not sure whether that sank in.

He didn’t want much breakfast after that, but after he had calmed down a bit, he was fine, and we managed to get some nourishment into him. We then went back to our room to change into bathing gear. Torsten is becoming very willful and whiny; I really hope this tendency stops once we’re back home and in our normal routine! On the other hand, he’s saying some startling things that are very funny – like informing us that Daddy wants to go back to work, and Mummy and Torsten will stay in the hotel, or offering various types of foods to birds. We’ll see what happens when we get home.

In any case, we eventually got ready, and headed towards the “little sandbox”. Torsten played there happily for about an hour – the fountains in the wading pool were especially high, and he walked under them as though they were a tunnel – and then we went for a walk along the beach, taking care to stay well away from the ocean (it was a red flag anyway). After stopping for a quick game of shuffleboard, where Torsten would push one of the disks to the other end using one of the sticks, while Ingo and I shot around him, we went to see if we could find Erin.

Erin and several other little girls were playing in the wading pool where we’d seen her yesterday. There was one little girl there named Sunny, who was quite the little bossy boots – she was 3 ½. Her parents are from New York and are quite friendly. Torsten had a good time there, surrounded by little girls. Erin then left to take a nap, and for a minute Torsten wanted to go back to the Kids’ Club, but soon decided to go play in the big pool with Daddy instead. After a little while longer, we decided to go for lunch, and led Torsten back to our room for a change. Marty had left her stuff by the wading pool and had said that she would be back soon, but she hadn’t returned by the time we left, which was about 40 minutes later. As we left, we heard the New York couple (Sue and Tommy) saying that they were going to leave too, so Ingo went back to the wading pool to collect Marty, Joe and Erin’s stuff and take it to their room. However, as he was pushing their stroller and things back, he met Marty coming back, and she thanked him but said they hadn’t left anything they couldn’t replace.

When Ingo came back, Torsten and I were sitting on the balcony. Ingo said he’d be right up, and Torsten jumped up, ran to the door, and opened it to run or look out. I called him back and closed the door, but I can see that I’ll really have to watch out for him once we get home!

Lunch was the normal buffet stuff, and we got a seat on the patio again. Torsten had some soup and made a bit of a mess, but was kept entertained by the little black birds who constantly flew over and perched on the empty chairs at the tables. One of them even flew onto an empty table, pecked at the bowl containing sugar packets, and flew off with a sugar packet in his mouth! Our lunch also had some entertainment in that a quartet of loud, boisterous young people came onto the patio – one girl had on a bikini top, and they wouldn’t allow her into the restaurant. Her friends went to get their lunch, and when the guy of the group came back, he peeled off his T-shirt and handed it to her so that she could go and get her lunch! After lunch, we went back to the room and had stories and naptime. Thankfully, Torsten fell asleep fairly quickly and stayed asleep for about 2 ½ hours, getting back into his normal routine.

When Torsten woke up, we had a few potato chips and then went to look at the parrots before dinner. Midway through dinner, we were joined by Glenn, who had returned from his excursion. He said he had a lot of fun – it was a good thing that the weather had held up. He described the local houses, which were all in bright pastel shades, and said that they would hang meat up outside to dry for several days before eating them. He also saw a church with a tall arch that was much taller than the church was wide. He couldn’t remember the name of the church, or even the town, but I later looked it up based on the photo he showed me, and it was the Basilica de Nuestros Senora de la Altagracia in Higuey, which is about 40 minutes from here. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary who apparently performed a miracle in Altagracia (defeating the French) and is therefore the patron saint of the island.

After dinner, we hurried back to the room so that we could give Torsten a hairwash, and then spent the remainder of the evening before bedtime watching Spanish cartoons (including the Backyardigans, which was really cute – featuring a robot that walked around saying “Queso” (cheese)).

By the way, no photos will be posted till we're back, since I can only post through my BB (not wanting to pay for Internet access if I don't need to).