Volcanic rocks are sharp

Ok,
I think my Nicaragua news will probably be strickly family stuff, but we'll see.

So we went to Montelimar (beach resort, all you can eat buffet, private beach). We were walking up the stairs to go to the casino when my dad, somehow tripped and fell. He said he tried to grab onto the plants that line the stairway, but that they weren't helpful. He wound up landing on his forearms on the low stone wall flanking the steps. Low sharp volcanic stone wall. He cut up his forearms. For a moment, I ran to him and all I could keep saying was, "Como te caistes?" How did you fall? Over and over again. He scared me because he wasn't moving. He was semi-upright. Feet on the floor, but twisted up. Finally we got him moving and he was bleeding down the arms.

My mom ran up to the Casino and brought back papertowels drenched in Flor de Cana (rum) and wiped down his arms. We both were trying to clean him up and stop the bleeding. Finally I ran up to the casino, with a little plastic cup full of bloody paper towels. "Listen,"I said, "My dad just fell down and he's 80 years old and he's bleeding, can you send el trensito to pick him up." The bartender looked at the bloody papertowels in the cup and got on the phone right away. The trensito isn't really a train, but an improvised transport system involving a tractor that pulls a large cart with seats on it for lazy or incapacitated guests. They sent the trensito and we went right to the hotel pharmacy where a very nice woman donned gloves and cleaned dad up with iodine, applied antibiotic ointment and then wrapped him up in gauze.

After that, I could tell that he felt bad. And nervous. And probably wondering himself how he fell. So we went to dinner, where my ma and I waited on him hand and foot. He sat at a table and we served him. Putting his plate in front of him I said, "Ya se que paso, te tirastes al suelo por que te querias que te tendamos." I know what happened, you threw yourself on the rocks because you wanted us to tend to you.

After dinner, we wound up going back to the casino, this time, on the trensito.
Dad gave my ma and me 100 cordobas each. I told him to blow on the coins they gave us at the cashier for luck. He blew on them and we won 682 cordobas. We tripled his investment. That perked him up. He never plays, says he doesn't have good luck like my mother. But he watched us rack in the dough. We left before we could lose any of it. Then we went to watch the hotel entertainment which involved a goofy Ms. Barcelo contest. He seemed happy enough to then get grumpy and complain about us fawning over him. That means he was back to his old curmudgeonly self. All is well.

Now it's Christmas eve. The water keeps going out. I've bathed and brushed my teeth knowing that by 5 who knows if there'll be water. We should probably fill some more jugs as people are coming over later, for dinner.