Nothing works without organization, a lot of patience and teamwork
A lot is possible - the limit is usually the parents' energy
Driving as a relaxation break for the parents
In Focus - Diego is always the "highlight" in South America
We miss the German drugstores
Now, after about four months on the road with Diego in the camper, it's time to give you an insight into traveling with Diego. In particular, everyday travel with him and how we handle everything.
First of all, it really isn't easy. And without organized processes, a lot of patience and mutual support, nothing works.
Let's start in the morning. We don't need an alarm clock; Diego wakes us up between 6 and 8 a.m. depending on the phase. In very rare cases he sleeps until 9 a.m., but that's the exception when he's sick or in bed late.
Micha then plays with Diego in bed and I prepare breakfast for the three of us. At the very beginning, Diego drank my milk in the morning and early afternoon. Now he eats with us at the breakfast table, depending on what we have, a bit of fruit, bread, pancakes - whatever is available. He is not that hungry in the morning. But he is not patient either. Usually, after 10 minutes in the high chair, the peace and quiet is over. It is particularly difficult for Micha, because he prefers to take it easy in the morning and read the newspaper and other important news as well as breakfast. So one of us has to actively play with Diego or we keep it short.
I take care of the dishes, and then Micha gets the camper ready to go. This is relatively quick - pure routine. Only now with the additional step of installing Diego's child seat. The background to this is that we still only have a two-seater. The child seat has found its place in the hatch. We have a so-called reboarder. This means Diego can travel facing forwards or backwards. Actually, at his age, he is only allowed to drive rear-facing. So for the first time during the journey, when Diego is sleeping, he drives towards the living area. This usually works for one to two hours maximum. When Diego is awake, we turn his seat around so that he faces us in the front of the cab. Unfortunately, he won't accept this for more than half an hour. Then the only solution is to sit on the lap of the passenger. And that is a full-time job and under no circumstances can he endure more than 30 minutes. Because Diego wants to empty the glove compartment (in the best case scenario), pull the handbrake, steer, change gears and so on. It's almost impossible to control.
This means that in total we drive for a maximum of three hours at a time. Up until now I found driving during our long-term trip rather annoying. Now we both love it. The journey is actually relatively relaxed, at least when Diego is sleeping. It is quiet, you can talk and the passenger can research (if there is a network) or relax. Then we usually take a lunch break for at least two hours, so that we can all eat in peace and Diego still has time to play and let off steam afterwards.
At the beginning, when he was still small, he played a lot on our bed, which is in the alcove (50 cm high). Now the space is almost too small for him. Firstly, he can't get up without hitting his head and secondly, he now crawls like a gerbil. Then he would fall down every few seconds. So often the only option is the dining table, the floor (~ 2 square meters) or outside. Unfortunately, the latter is not always possible, depending on the weather, temperature and other things. In the Bolivian jungle, of course, we couldn't let him crawl outside. But the possibilities are more diverse than you might imagine. Sometimes there is a pool table, sometimes animals, sometimes a pool...
The fact is that we never have time together during the day unless Diego is sleeping. Diego sleeps well when we drive or when he is in the baby carrier. Once you put him down, he hardly sleeps at all; sometimes 30 minutes if you're lucky.
Every now and then we do an afternoon stage, depending on how far we want or need to go. This is similar to the morning stage, except that it is usually not as long. We try to get to our campsite later, at 6 p.m. Then Diego slowly gets hungry. And there is not much tolerance for that. At the moment he still eats cereal porridge with milk in the evening. After that we play a bit. Micha cooks. I do the dishes, so the daily tasks are distributed quite well. That is very important to both of us. Why? Because it is really exhausting to look after Diego in such a small space. He can hit his head in so many places, fall down, rip out cables... and constantly needs new stimulation.
We have time for ourselves when Diego is in bed. However, it often happens that we simply have no energy left. Diego usually goes to bed around 8 a.m. I still breastfeed him and then - on good days - he falls asleep immediately. On bad days, for example when he's growing, is getting a tooth, has a cold, or something else, I have to "carry" him to sleep. That's not possible in the camper. That means we have to go out into the fresh air. Depending on where we are, I have to dress him and myself warmly and then we walk. Sometimes it can be quite idyllic, but often I find myself walking through the desert in the middle of the night with a flashlight, through a noisy village with barking street dogs, or simply in circles on the campsite. Thank God such evenings and nights are the exception. Diego is currently sleeping in the hallway again, on the floor. Right at the beginning we tried taking him to bed with us. It may be 2m wide, but Diego sleeps like a snow angel, with his arms outstretched. That leaves about 50-60cm of space for each of us. After one night we ruled that out as a permanent solution. Apart from that, I don't breastfeed him in bed. I have my breastfeeding spot in the hallway, where I sit on a step. That works best for all of us. For a while, Diego had his own bed. We had a special construction made on the kitchen unit. This only lasted for six weeks, however. Then Diego was able to pull himself up on the bars and could have fallen down. So it's no longer safe - a pity.
Now Diego sleeps on our bed first, and as soon as we go to bed, Diego is laid in the hallway (otherwise we trip over him, he is disturbed by the blue lights and noise, etc.). As I said, we often don't have much energy left for evening activities. But of course if we want to get something done or watch a film (with headphones :-)), then that's the only way. When Diego sleeps, he sleeps. A little bit of residual light doesn't bother him; he doesn't usually wake up when we "move" him either.
All of this may sound extremely complicated to you, but our routines have settled in quite well now. And we don't want to complain. At home, you would have your own routine with a baby or toddler too.
At first we didn't even know if it would work to travel with Diego in this way. And I have to be honest, we really struggled for more than two weeks with whether it made sense. Especially at the beginning, we had to get used to life in the camper and everyday travel again, plus find new routines with Diego. Of course, these change from time to time. Now he needs a lot more exercise and space, but less daytime sleep than at the beginning.
We don't just have driving days, of course. We like to stay in a place that we like to relax or work on the blog for more than just an hour in the evening. Days like these are a bit more difficult to organize. In the end, we have to constantly take turns looking after him. Apart from the fact that each of us has a need for individuality and our own favorite projects, it is physically and mentally impossible to look after Diego all day long. At least not for the two of us. I don't know how other parents feel.
And then of course there are the days of excursions or activities. If it's just a visit to the city or a short hike, then it's nothing special. Diego goes in the baby carrier. Most of the time he sleeps, and after two hours at the most he wants to get out. When he was about 8 months old, we started putting him in the backpack every now and then, i.e. the backpack in which he sits on our backs. He takes to it quite well, at least for 30 minutes. But he's still a bit small for that. I think with time he'll stay in it for longer. We've also done whole-day excursions, for example to the Salar de Uyuni. Of course that requires good packing (all meals, changing things, warm clothes, etc.). All in all, it's all doable. Of course it's extremely exhausting for us as parents, but so far we've still had the energy and motivation. The traveling and the places we can be give us so much more in return that it's definitely worth it. And to be honest, I don't think it would be any less stressful at home, in a fixed place.
You can buy baby items on almost every corner, whether diapers or toys. Every small shop in the most remote place has something in stock. But if you think about the selection in a German drugstore, you'll look in vain. Even in the large international supermarket chains like Carrefour, there are neither nursing pads nor baby food. When we arrived in Uruguay in mid-May and Diego was almost 7 months old, we had just started giving him solid food. We looked for a long time for vegetable or fruit puree in a jar. Finally, I asked mothers in the supermarket - they simply don't offer anything like that here. And so we had to make all the puree ourselves (in stock for a few days, of course). It's good that we had the foresight to bring a battery-powered mixer from Germany. Diego now eats with us more and more, which saves Micha a lot of effort.
Thankfully, Diego has never been seriously ill so far. Apart from a bit of a cold, he copes well with traveling. The altitude doesn't bother him either. We have already been to the Argentinian Puna and the Bolivian lagoon route at extreme altitudes of over 4,000 m. Diego never had any problems there. However, we also make sure that we acclimatize slowly and only spend the night at higher altitudes. Whether it is a dry desert climate or a tropical rainforest, heat or cold, you don't notice anything wrong with Diego. He is really extremely adaptable and makes things very easy for us in that respect. It is a great relief for us when we don't have to worry about his well-being and he enjoys traveling.
The South Americans are definitely all very child-friendly. Life without children is unimaginable here. Diego is always a highlight, and even more so as a blonde. Lots of people want a photo with him. If we have a good feeling about it, that's fine with us. We don't mind if someone wants to pick him up or play with him. On the contrary, we are very happy when someone simply offers to look after him for a while. But that rarely happens. And when it does, Diego unfortunately does not accept it. He has been very shy around strangers since he was 8 months old and one of us always has to be within sight. He is just used to both of us being around him almost all the time. And sometimes Diego even finds playmates his own age (although at that age it's more like "playing next to each other").
Comments