You Only Paradise Once

This was our last break before Stephen starts his last semester here on the Island. We decided it was better not to spend the money going home and stayed in Dominica for the break. We did however get off the Island for a couple days to enjoy the French Island of Martinique. We spent one night at Fort Young Hotel with the Wade's and Koop's and had such a fun time. We relaxed as much as we could and visited some parts of the Island Stephen hadn't seen before. The day Stephen took his final exam we headed to the beach after and played frisbee with some of the branch members and then rinsed off at the pool before heading out to dinner just enjoying our much needed break.
The day we went to Fort Young we snorkeled at Champagne Reef first. This was our second time snorkeling there. It is my favorite and really only place on the Island I will snorkel. It was a perfectly sunny day which made the water so beautifully clear and blue. Stephen was even able to see some of his first iguana's pretty up close. After snorkeling was pool time! Fort Young has such a nice pool and we ended the night eating dinner at the hotel restaurant then playing games in the Wade's suite which they upgraded to for only 25$. The next day we visited Scott's Head again and explored a little of Roseau before heading back home.
One really fun thing we did during the break was kayak to secret beach. This was only our second time going to this beach and first time kayaking here. It was a perfect day for it, not to hot and not to stormy. We were able to watch the sunset on our way back and then enjoyed a yummy dinner at la flambeau.
On one of our last days of break we went to Chaudiere pool and Batibou beach with a small group from our branch. Chaudiere or Bense pool is the place on the Island to go cliff diving and also there is a natural water slide. The water was a bit more rough than normal but I was determined to go down the slide. The first time worked out pretty nicely but the second time I got sucked back under the water and everyone thought for a few seconds that I was going to drown. But I survived and had a really fun time. After the pool we headed to Baitbou beach and relaxed for a couple hours and ate lunch. Batibou is my favorite beach on the Island. It wasn't sunny but it was still really nice.

Loving being together for two weeks after a long semester.

Snorkeling at Champagne Reef

For some reason I either look like an old man or an old witch in my snorkel mask.

Fun at Fort Young Hotel

Scott's Head

Secret Beach

 Obviously poor swimsuit choice for secret beach. 

I promise other people were there and I'm not topless.

Found this little guy on our Syndicate Falls hike. 

Coolest walking stick I've ever seen.

He was about 8 inches long.

Chaudiere (Bense) Pool

Cinnamon Tree - Smells just like Christmas

Batibou

My shoes almost made it all four semesters. 

They served me well this last year.

Bitter Sweet Martinique

The day after Stephen's third semester final we headed on a ferry to the French Caribbean Island Martinique. We stayed at the Hotel La Pagerie for three nights and had a wonderful time. The part of Martinique we stayed at was La Pointe du Bout in Trois-Ilets. It was such a cozy little area right by the ocean and had a lot of fun little restaurants and shops. The only time we ventured much past the hotel was to go golfing. We rented a car and after golfing we took the really long way home to explore some of the Island. It is a little sad to say but my favorite part of the trip was the amazing food we got to eat. We were in French food heaven for 4 days eating amazing meals at least 3 times a day. We went to the same little bakery every morning and got way too many pastries for breakfast. We had crepes, sandwiches, pastas, meats, and ice cream. It was amazing. French is the language spoken in Martinique and it was really a challenge communicating with everyone. It did make it pretty fun and exciting though. When we went out to eat we would just point to something that looked delicious someone at the table next to us had and order that. We spent a lot of time at the pool and in our room just relaxing enjoying our well deserved break. Stephen loved being able to go golf. It was pretty difficult communicating what we needed to rent. We finally got our cart and his clubs and he noticed there were no golf balls. The lady who worked there seemed a bit confused as to why we would need golf balls and then why we wouldn't just bring our own from home. Finally we got 3 balls from one of the grounds men by knocking on his front door and waking him up. He grabbed them out of a bucket of water which smelled or urine and who knows what else. We are finding it is always an adventure wherever we go.
The biggest adventure of our trip or I should say the bitter part of our trip was coming home. Once again we got a true Caribbean traveling experience. We arrived to the ferry two hours early in order to avoid any hassle. The ferry surprisingly left on time and we didn't have any long lines to wait in for hours. About 20 minutes after we left the ferry broke down! It took an hour to get back to the port and it was announced that a new ferry wouldn't arrive until 8:30pm, 5 hours later! Luckily some older Dominican women watched our bags and we explored some of the capital of Martinique. The funny thing was that it was Sunday and the city closes up shop on Sunday. We were walking the deserted streets of this big city. It reminded me of a zombie movie with no one in site. We made our way to the peer after stopping at a McDonalds that was open and found that all of the families swim and play games at the beach on Sunday. We stayed and watched the sun set, then at 9pm our new ferry came and took us back to Dominica. We went up top of the ferry and watched the stars and enjoyed the ocean mist and breeze. It was pretty incredible being up there seeing all of the stars and even the milky way and being with each other. We got back home to our apartment around midnight and went straight to bed.

After our ferry broke down they kindly escorted us off 

using the cargo ramp and some wood pallets...