Shumway Family Blahhhg: Anniversary Trip gone haywire

Happy Anniversary to my husband of 13 years!!! (That hat was may anniversary present. lol) For our anniversary I made reservations at a really great restaurant called Sunset Bay Beach Club which is about 20-30 minutes away on Sunset bay. Our plan was to leave after lunch, go to Sunset beach to snorkel, and then walk up the steps to have a yummy lobster dinner for two. We got on the public transport to head out.

**Side Note: Public Transports run all day from Portsmouth all the way north to the capitol, Roseau. If you're going Roseau it takes about and hour or so. The public transports, however, are run down 12-28 seater vans that people get on and off all day long. and it takes much longer with all the stopping and starting to pick up and drop off. When you get in you squish really close to the people next to you. Hopefully they smell alright. It's usually ok because the windows are open unless it's raining, and the wind whips around your face. If you need a ride, you just stand by the side of the road looking expectantly and one will stop for you. No need to find a bus stop. There are only a few on the island anyway. When you're about to the point that you'd like to get off the transport you just call out "Stopping!" and he will pull over to let you out. **

Sunset bay is about halfway between Portsmouth and Roseau. I had never been there before, so when we got on the transport I told the driver that we were going to Sunset Bay and that We'd never been there before so I would need him to stop to let us out when we got there. "ok, ok, Sunset Bay, ok." He said. 45 minutes into the ride I asked how much longer it would be to Sunset Bay. "Ohhhhh Sunset Bay? You want to go to Sunset Bay?? We passed it." Nooooo!!!! ug. "how far back is it? can you take us back?" "No," he said, "We goeen to Roseau, mon." "Can you take us back to Sunset Bay after we go to Roseau?" "No mon, I not goeen back to Portsmouth tonight."

By the time we got to Roseau we had decided that we would forgo Sunset Bay and just stay in Roseau and have an adventure. Here are pictures to prove it:

Ok, first of all I just have to say that this is one of my favorite pictures. Aaron is licking his pinky and I am leaning my arm on the table but it looks like that's my hairy arm and Aaron's licking MY pinky. I laughed for quite a while about this. We stopped into KFC to use the restrooms (one of the only US franchises on the island)

Dinner at the Laughing Lobster. It's called that cause you think you're going to get Lobster, but it's not even on the menu. Which is why the Lobster is laughing. at you. Pretty *great* service, too. The waitress wasn't rude AT ALL. ;)

This is the view out the "window." There aren't actual glass windows in Dominica unless you're at Ross or in a fancy part of the island like Picard.

On our way to get Jelly Coconuts

The guy that sells on this corner actually has a truck and sits in the back. The guy (Augustus the Jelly man) that sells them where we live just rolls around a wheel barrow. The customer in front of us. You see more covered dreads then bare dreads here.

Roseau's Jelly man. He sits in the back under his umbrella. You come up and ask for a coconut and he chooses one and uses his machete to slice chunks off the top until he reaches the juice cavity and then sticks in a straw.

My very first jelly coconut :)

you drink out the juice.......

.......and then you give it back to the Jelly man and he splits it in half and slices off a piece for you to use as a spoon.

and you scrape the jelly off the sides.

Not all coconuts taste the same. I really didn't like the first one I had very much, but I just kept on trying them and they grew on me. Some are more tart than others. Once you get that perfect one you will keep getting them trying to recreate that experience.

Roseau's market (we have a smaller one is Portsmouth) where people come to sell their vegetables, meat, baked goods, and concoctions like coconut oil and sugar cane juice

The roads in Dominica were mainly built by the Chinese in exchange for Dominica allowing them to mine there, so there are a lot of obviously Chinese things around. Chinese shops, Chinese food, and when you see construction workers on the side of the road, they wear the straw conical Asian hats.

This is Dominican fast food. Painted plywood huts. They call them shacks. They are lined up along a wide street where the transports park to gather riders for their trip back south to Portsmouth.