On 8/5/2021 at 7:08 PM, Anna N said:I did a little digging and it would seem that like most places prices in the tourist area are considerably higher than elsewhere. Looking at the average yearly income it’s a darn good job. 🤣
The cost of living is really high here for pretty much everything. I have been told that the cost of power is one of the highest in the world (I have not researched if that is true). I do know that there is no health insurance available, unless you are lucky enough to work for one of the very few employers who offer it. And health care options are very limited. Most ailments require flying back stateside to be treated. There are other costs to living here too. As is probably the case in most every other tourist-driven venue with lots of restaurants and bars, alcoholism is a big problem. I know people who have had to move off island permanently to get a handle on their drinking. People have moved here with their kids and ended up losing custody to their parents back stateside because of partying. It's not the place to live if you have a drinking or drug problem.
Wednesday night we had no reservations, but nobody felt like cooking, so we went in to town right when the restaurants opened and went to a small no-reservations place in town, Cafe Roma. It is in an alley at the top of a flight of stairs, so people sometimes miss it.
My husband ordered a dirty martini, and the bartender made him "two for the price of one." (See what I mean about the booze? Good thing we were walking back home!)
My brother and brother in law got something called an Electric Umbrella, and my sister stuck to wine.
My niece is not a huge fan of pasta, so just got spaghetti with garlic and olive oil. My brother got the same. My sister and I got penne with broccoli and I added blackened shrimp to mine. This was huge. I ate less than half. My brother in law ate some more of it for breakfast yesterday (he is weird) and there is still some left.
My husband and brother in law split a white pizza with shrimp buried under all that cheese.
After dinner we went in search of something sweet and found Irie Pops.
They make everything with coconut milk. I had a dark chocolate sea salt pop, and my husband and niece went for their soft serve ice cream. Everything was good. We are going back to get a bunch of the pops to put in the freezer of the next house.
Yesterday we spent the day at Cinnamon Beach. The local teens and young adults play volleyball on Fridays and Saturdays. Anyone can join in. I am TERRIBLE at volleyball, but we set up nearby so we could watch the game.
We had dinner at High Tide
Niece wanted chicken wings
First conch fritters of the trip! They were spicy
Three of us wanted the tuna and three wanted the mahi.
Blackened mahi mahi with mango salsa and coconut rice. I wanted triple the salsa and half of the fish haha
Seared tuna with soba noodles and wasabi cream sauce
We are changing houses today, so will be saying goodbye to this view in a few hours. On to the next place.
