El papel arroyo

We like the hotel we are staying at, we really do but every day we have had a problem with the housekeeping. Some days they don't leave coffee. Other days no kitchen towel or cloth. Another day no towels. And if I want a tea bag I have to specially request that too. Anyway today we got back from the Wild Animal Park all hot and bothered and there was NO TOILET PAPER. So here goes the daily call to reception, hello, can you please ask housekeeping to bring up etc etc. Also today the housekeeper left one of her cleaning products in our bathroom. 'Hilda' was written on it. I envisioned Hilda as a stony faced, solidly built middle aged woman who brooked no nonsense - no coffee wasting, no time-wasting tea drinking, you don't really need 3 towels, I know that child only bathes every 3 days ... Imagine our surprise when she appeared at the door, young, pleasant, and without a word of English. However this is when the fun started. 'Yes?' she said. 'We need toilet paper' we said, after we had got our towel, our coffee, our tea and our dishtowel (we were able to point to those on her cart). Blank look. We tried the proven method of repeating ourselves very loudly. That didn't work. Looked at each other. Looked at her. Still nothing. OK, so I mimed pulling the paper off the roll. Hilda is looking a bit bemused now but still doesn't get it (or DOES she ... perhaps she is waiting to see how far I will go with the miming...) Bathroom? suggests Al. Suddenly he has the brainwave to show her what we want. 'Oh!' She understands now, much laughter and smiling and pleasantness as she unwraps 2 rolls and hands them over. Finally a smidge of Spanish enters my head 'Que es eso, en espanol?' I ask. 'Papel', she tells me kindly, as a teacher would correct a slow 5 year old. 'Papel arroyo'. So now I know.