The Watsons Do Dominica

 My parents said they loved the trip out here. I told them my only request was that they tell all my siblings how good it was so they might try and come visit too. I am really missing my family! Dad said to me “Well I can guarantee you Dan, but I am not sure about anyone else.” True to his word, a few weeks after mom and dad leave I get a message from Jess saying her and Dan have cancelled their Mexico trip and are coming to see me in a couple weeks! That was some good quick work Dad! Thank you!!
There wasn’t too much going on after my parents left. Joel was just studying hard. I spent time editing my book, I have also started another book, and I have read a bunch of books. I actually stumbled upon this one series that had 12 books in it that I became obsessed with.  The best author I have read since I was first introduced to Tolkien. I don’t want to tell you who though because the books I read were geared towards 10 year olds and that’s embarrassing. This author has written some Adult geared novels. I will tell you who it is once I read some of those and it’s not so weird anymore. Hahaha. I also spend a lot of time doing RS stuff, activities and helping the sisters around here. Other than that I was really just jazzed for Dan and Jess to come and I had a lot of fun planning out their trip.
Here is a sum up of their trip.
They got here on February 19^th, about 7:00 my time, it was dark out already and they were beat after a long day of traveling. It was fantastic to see them! I  miss Dan and Jess so much and don’t get to see them nearly enough even when I am home. They are way too much fun to be around. I was sad that it was dark out and they couldn’t really see anything on the drive home. I had dinner cooking in the crock pot, and Joel had stayed at home to study and was able to finish up dinner right before we got there, it was amazing. We had dinner as soon as we got home and then they quickly and promptly fell asleep. 

I am super happy they were able to bring some essential items for us; it was crazy sweet of them to get and bring a bunch of new ‘supplies’ for us. Like a new frying pan, razors, spitz, etc... They soon figured out why this stuff is important. They were blown away when they realized certain prices for things. Apparently they Rum here is ridiculously cheap, while hygiene supplies are incredibly expensive. I never realized it before, but you could honestly buy a couple bottles of Rum for the price of a tube of Toothpaste. This actually started to explain A LOT of some of the local people I know. Not all, but defiantly some. If given the choice between toothpaste or a lot of rum...

 Wednesday morning Joel had his first test of the semester, and I had to work doing my Standardized Patient stuff.  I took Dan and Jess to campus with me, ran into a friend and asked her to show them around. They were able to explore the beach and most of campus. There are 10 men in our branch that are in the same semester right now. It’s a huge group of us! Naturally once all the boys were done their first test we all went out to celebrate. We rented a transport and went to Batibou beach. Joel and I have been here..and blogged about here before so I won’t describe it in detail. It is a really beautiful beach though and Dan and Jess loved it. We all went and had fun playing in the water, then we all had a big hot dog roast on the beach. It was excellent, except for the sand flies that ate us nearly to death. All well.

 

Thursday I had my favorite transport driver Peter take us to Champagne, Scotts head, Soufriere Springs plus we stopped in Roseau a bit for souvenir shopping on the way home.  Peter sure earned his wage that day! He gave us a really intense island tour stopping to show us everything on the way. I was itching to get into the water, but Dan and Jess loved it and we all learned lots. 

It was pouring, but still fun! It doesn't rain underwater!

Rainy at Champagne, Crazy nice at Scott's Head...I dunno Clark.

Sugar Cain Field

Friday I convinced Joel to take a day off from studying and come play with us, we also got another friend of ours, Mac, to come too. We hired a transport driver that a friend of mine recommended but I had never used before because Peter was already booked for the day. It worked out through because Serj was great. The original plan was to do Emerald Pool, Trafalgar Falls and Screws Spa. But at the last moment on a quick dentition I changed my mind and asked Serj to forget Emerald Pool and take us to Ti Tou gorge instead. Everyone talks about how great it is and I wanted to try it again with someone who knew where it was so bad! Joel was a little hesitant because he really didn’t enjoy the Ti Tou journey last time, but he let me try it anyways. And guess what.....HE LOVES IT NOW! I win muahaha. Ti Tou is seriously amazing!! Here is where we went wrong with Mom and Dad...we walked up the trail, which is dead wrong, you can hardly see anything that way. You want to experience the awesomeness of Ti Tou Gorge? You have to Swim up it! Oh also, Dad, they have since added a bunch of signs showing you exactly how to get to Ti Tou. Ether they JUST put them up (bad luck for us) or we somehow missed them all when we were driving hahaha. Carnival was the week before Dan and Jess came, and apparently 2 guys swam up Ti Tou while they were intoxicated and drown. Now they highly recommend wearing life jackets or float devices. There was a man there renting them out, I didn’t think we needed them but we eventually just got them and I am glad we did. It would have been fine to swim it, but with a floaty I could just relax and enjoy the beauty of it all. The guy who gave us the floaties came too. He had some crazy cave climbing skills. He took us right up to the first waterfall and helped us climb up it and we got to play in the awesome waterfall at the top. Coming down we had to jump back down over the little waterfall. 

This is a pipe running all the way down  the mountain, I think its for their Hydro Electricity, its covered in wood from Canada. Represent!

Getting in the Mountain water, its Cold!

Hot Spring just outside, nice to warm up after that cold water

 We stopped at CoCoCottages since we had time and were right there. Jess and Dan loved her beautiful garden there and we all went nuts over her chocolate. We bought a lot..and yet still not enough somehow.

Next was a fun trip to Trafalgar Falls. I love it there, it’s so fun to swing on the vines and play on the rocks.

The drive to Trafalgar.

Village in the Mountains and the Ocean in the back.

You can hardly see it, but the 2 white dots in the middle are Trafalgar Falls.

 

 

 

And lastly Screws Spa, we purposefully hit this at sunset so we could show Dan and Jess what it looked like during the day, but the most of our time there at night. I described this place in detail in my last blog so if you’re confused go check that one out. All I can say is being there at night is Perfection. The water is perfect, the lights are stunning, you can see the stars through the canopy of the rainforest and there were fireflies everywhere!  Seriously Perfection!
 

 

 

 

The fruit after again, was seriously to die for. And while we were in the spa, Serj had gone and got us a Cocobean. He showed Dan and Jess what they are like when they are young and showed them how to eat them. I can’t do it because its slimy and looks like a brain and the thought of it grosses me out. But everyone else seems to LOVE them.

The inside of a young Cocobean

Saturday morning we went to the market. Got a lot of fun new stuff for them, Jess got lots of fresh Cinnamon and we got a bag of fresh Sugar Cain. They chop it right in front of us. The rest of the morning we spent snorkeling around the peir. A friend of ours here has a Spear Gun, and he was awesome enough to let us borrow it. Dan went out spear fishing and got us 2 fish for supper! 

 

In the afternoon we went and rented a boat to take down the Indian River. Our boat driver...well remember at the beginning of the post when I said some people have to make the choice between toothpaste or rum? It was quite apparent that this man has made that choice several times in his life...and it’s a choice at all. He was quite intoxicated. But he did get us to the end of the river and back and that’s all that matters right? 

While we were sitting at the restaurant at the end of the river ready and waiting to come home he was sitting at the bar. We told him we wanted to go and he kind of shushed us away. We waited a few more minutes and then we got upset, we were about to go get all up in his business’ but when we got there he had woven these 2 beautiful things for Jess and I. We went from super angry to *aww sucks ol’ buddy* in about .5 seconds.  Can you believe he made these out of Palm Tree Leaves?  Needless to say, we melted and didn’t even mind his drunken singing and trash talking other boat drivers all the way back down the river. 

 

Sunday was a lazy day, Dan and Jess did their own thing most of the day. We did fry up the fish Dan caught the day before though! It was delish. We also went on a nice walk up and down the beach. Collecting sea shells and playing with little crabs.

Monday –Last Day- we went to Fort Shirley in the morning, it’s really close to where I live. We walked home along the beach doing a bunch more beach combing. We did a little bit of snorkeling around sunken barge, and then that afternoon was Beach Bash! It is so much stinking fun and I am so glad Dan and Jess were here for it. I love Beach Bash!

  

This post is already crazy long, so I am not going to go into detail about beach bash this year at this time. But please remind me to tell you a really great story about it another time. I will give you a hint, it involves Joel and a broken Kayak. 

Also Dan and Jess got to see this 4ft Python just outside my house!

They had to leave super early Tuesday morning; I got up early and made a big breakfast. Peter was taking them to the airport for us and he showed up a bit early so I invited him in for Breakfast too. Then we had to say good-bye. It was sad to see them leave. I loved having them here. They were so much fun to have around and they were so incredibly good to us. It’s funny to me that Dan and I use to hate each other so bad when we were growing up, and now he is one of my favorite people. He is a fantastic brother and an even better friend. Also, he married a Gem! Jess is such a sweet heart and so great to be around. I sure miss their girls, and the rest of my family. Ugh. 10 more months...10 more months...I love it here, but no time on a beach is better then time with family. Thank you guys so much for coming to visit me! It meant the world to me!! Love you!!