Over the last few weeks we have started to get into the Village Life again. We live in a typical Pueblo Blanco called Guaro which has a population of around 2,000. During the winter the village is like a ghost town with most of the bars only opening a few hours a day.
The summer is a different story, a stage is set up in front of the Ayuntamiento at the end of June and it stays there until September. Every Saturday there is some form of entertainment and pretty much the whole village gets dressed up and slowly make their way to the square,stopping along the way for a spot of tapas.
Last Saturday was the first time we have managed to make it down there due to the fact that the entertainers don’t normally start until around midnight so we made the most of having a babysitter (Charlie’s Nana) and joined the rest of the village.
I have to say we struck lucky as, instead of the normal Spanish singers with a backing track or synthesizer, we got to see a ‘real band’ called Bueno Sombra. The band was fantastic and my only criticism was that they were not on for long enough.
This summer I have really noticed the differences between the way the Brits and the Spanish deal with the heat. I think the reason I have noticed it so much is because we have a young baby who has a pretty set routine. During previous summers I was working in an airconditoned office during the day and at night we spent more time out in the Village square.
This year is different, Charlie wakes up early in the morning and has 2 or 3 naps during the day. Unfortunately, because I am working from home I can’t take this opportunity to sleep through the heat of the day and instead use the time to catch up on work or chores.
The Spanish on the other hand seem to spend most of the day in hiding and enjoying a nice long siesta and they normally come out to play around 9pm and they get louder until around 11pm when its cool enough to go to sleep.
By the time we have managed to get Charlie to sleep and had some tea its just in time for our Spanish neighbours to turn the volume up. The option of getting an early night is out of the question seems as our bedroom is at the front of the house.
I have decided that next year we will have to adapt in the summer, Charlie will be older and hopefully it will be easier to get him to sleep whilst we are out. We are going to have late nights, late mornings (for Charlie) and long siestas and hopefully we will all cope with the heat better and still manage to get a good days work done.