Another day, another island :-). That’s the way these cruises are. Most of the islands are so tiny that you can easily hit the highlights in just a few hours. Others, like Puerto Rico, truly need a few days to really see the place. There are pros and cons to all types of travel.
“Dominica” is pronounced differently than I thought. The emphasis is on the first syllable like when you say Dominican Republic. The island itself is itty bitty coming in at 29 X 16 miles. It is sandwiched in between the two French islands of Guadalupe and Martinique. It is also a volcanic island and has active volcanoes. Seismic sensors are placed all around the island.
Throughout its history both the British and the French have fought over this island country. It changed ownership between them four times. Finally in 1978 it gained its independence although it is a member of the British Commonwealth. The following year the island was devastated by Hurricane David. The little country had to grow up fast.
Their indigenous people are also the Caribs. The Caribs are very peaceful and make all kinds of handcrafted goods. They have a chief and even have a representative in their parliamentary. Most of them live on the east side of the island. Descriptively, they have a yellowish cast to their skin tone as well as a more flat face and almond-shaped eyes. Or so we were told 🙂
The Island has around 70,000 people so it isn’t hugely populated. Their primary language is English but they speak their version of creole as well. Agriculture is the main industry. They export out a lot of bananas. Fishing is also big on the coast. Of course tourism is another large source of income. Today there were three cruise ships docked at Woodbridge Port counting us and another one in the harbor at the capital. That’s a lot of tourists coming into one small island for the day.
There is some industry on the island. However, that is confined to the flat areas which there isn’t a great lot of. The residential areas are on the hillsides. As member of the Commonwealth, they drive on the left side of the road. Gasoline is expensive at $7/imperial gallon. I THINK that is a bit more than a regular gallon.
Getting to the pier today was different from all of our other days. Today we had to tender in as we were anchored in the bay and not at a pier like the other ships in port. The tenders they used were a couple of their enclosed emergency vehicles. I much prefer open-air tenders to these things. Once we got loaded into the cramped thing, it was bouncing around so much that the wall right next to my head smashed into something and a huge paint chip flew off right in front of my face! It was a bit of an adrenaline rush. I was glad when we pushed off and were motoring towards shore.
Our guide for the excursion today was Josie. Another lady in our group was calling her Jessie so I don’t know which one of us misunderstood what she said her name was :-). Sometimes the accents make it difficult to understand clearly what is being said. All you can do is try.
Anyway, she loaded us into our tiny bus. We again were last to board (I’m not sure why we keep being last but somehow we manage) and this time the only seats left were behind the driver where you had no leg room at all. I was glad our excursion was only three and a half hours. That’s about as long as my knees would hold up being jammed up. I told myself that it was just all a part of the adventure 🙂
Today we were going to see a good deal of nature which was fine by me. I prefer that to spending all of my time in cities or towns. The first place we were going to this morning was the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Emerald Pond—a lush waterfall in the rainforest of the island.
Lush has been the best way to describe all of these islands. You can’t believe how much plant growth there is. It is literally a jungle and the tiny villages are hacked out of it. It doesn’t take long for an abandoned building to be overtaken by Mother Nature.
One curious thing I noticed here was that the street lights were wind-powered! I’ve never seen anything quite like it. After Hurricane Maria blew through in 2017 and devastated the island, they rebuilt using this type of lighting. It’s a great idea if you get enough wind to make the lights work.
During our travels we discovered that they have 20 different species of mango and 200 species of ferns. The giant tree fern is the most prevalent. Really, you felt like you were driving through Jurassic Park. Bamboo also grows everywhere. It isn’t native to the island. However, it does help fight soil erosion and fishermen use it for making their fish pots. So it is a helpful invasive plant.
Animals-wise, they don’t have much. They have four species of non-poisonous snakes and I believe she said pigs. There is nothing large or dangerous here. They do have nine species of lizards as well as over 150 species of birds. The Sisserou parrot is their national bird. It is found way up on the mountain. It is only found here in Dominica and is one of two parrot species on the island.
And speaking of mountains, the tallest one—Morne Diablotins—is 1,447 m. There is a national park on the second tallest mountain. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. Another wonder of the island is the hot spring called Boiling Lake. It is the second largest hot springs in the world. Because this is a volcanic island, there is a plethora of hot springs that people can enjoy a good soak in—if they can stand the stench of sulfur!
The island also has a national hiking trail called the Waitukubuli National Trail. It is the longest hike in the Eastern Caribbean. It runs from north to south. Of course, like any trail, you can do it all in one go or break it up and do it one section at a time.
As you would expect with a rainforest, the island gets a good deal of rain annually. They average 50-60 inches on the coast while some areas in the interior get as much as 350! Being in the tropics, they have their share of hurricanes. David destroyed 75% of the island when he hit in the 1970s. Then in 2015 Tropical Storm Erika gave them fits. But it was Maria who hit in the middle of the night and lasted for more than 8 hours that did the greatest amount of damage. She caused massive flooding and then mudslides as the mountains got saturated with water. The lucky people only went a few months without power and water. Others went for a year without electricity. Fortunately, there are so many fresh springs on the island that getting water was no problem.
I wasn’t surprised when Josie told us that just about all of “Pirates of the Caribbean 2” was filmed here. Some of the Carib natives were in it. Now I need to go home and watch it again. If I remember correctly, it was a bit different. The first movie is my favorite.
After thirty or so minutes of driving, we reached the park with the Emerald Pond which is a UNESCO site. Josie got us all tickets while we used the facilities. Then she pointed us in the correct direction for the trail and we took off. The hike wasn’t too bad. But it was a hike. The path wasn’t concrete like in some of our parks. It was fairly well maintained and nothing too bad. There were a good bit of steps, however, so if you didn’t think you could manage them, you could stop at one of the two viewpoints.
To be honest, I didn’t find the waterfall or the pond at the bottom of it all that impressive. I mean it’s really hard to beat Iguazu Falls in Brazil or Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Those are impressive. This was a long, slender rush of water. The “pond” at the foot of it was more turquoise than green. Maybe the emerald part of the name came from the fact that it was surrounded by forest. I don’t know.
Don’t get me wrong. It was pretty, just not spectacular. I couldn’t quite understand why it was a UNESCO site. Despite that, I enjoyed the hike down there and got photos of Doug with his hand dipping into the spring water. Then we made the trek uphill back to the Visitors’ Center. We actually took a different route going back. It was a bit longer but it had fewer stairs so I liked that. Plus we had a view of the tallest mountain AND of the Atlantic Ocean. Both peeked between ferns and trees.
We wandered through the venders’ stalls while waiting for everybody else to make it back up. Doug was on a mission to find a map or flag of the country for a Christmas ornament. If he had his way, our tree would be one big flag! I personally like variety.
Back in the bus we drove more through Dominica which is called “The Nature Island of the Caribbean.” Our next stop was a refreshment one. We all got a coupon for a free drink at a small establishment in the rainforest. I made a bad choice. I thought I was getting a beer but it ended up being a ginger beer. Now, I enjoy a good ginger beer but this particular one was a shanti and just too sugary for me. I like my ginger beer to have a little bite to it. I fell in love with Bunderburg Ginger beer in Australia. But this one was free so I couldn’t complain. I did chose it afterall. Doug picked an actual beer called Kubuli. It was a lager. I took a sip after my ginger beer. Yuck! The two didn’t mix well at all!
After this refreshment pit stop we made tracks to our next stop which was at Trafalgar Falls. These were a set of two falls. It was a short hike to get to these as well. Only one tiny section was a bit rugged. Doug left me eating his dust as he motored up the trail. These days I try to be very careful. I do NOT want to spend any more time in my boot. However, my new walking shoes with instep support seem to be doing the job. My foot is doing really well. No discomfort at all. But because I am careful, I am slower than I use to be and can’t keep up with his pace. Actually, I can never keep up with his pace :-).
By the time I arrived (I got stuck behind some people even slower than me), he was ready to go. There really wasn’t a great deal to see. The falls were pretty but nothing spectacular or unusual. It was nice to get out of the bus though and do some hiking in nature. The surroundings were lovely. I was fascinated with the growth of moss and plants on rocks. It just amazed me to see these tiny and delicate plants thriving on something inhospitable like rock. These plants created their own little micro world.
Back at the Visitors’ Center Doug finally found his flag. I looked at the summery dresses that were so colorful and cheerful. I wanted to get one but I was afraid it would fall apart in the wash. So all we ended up with was a pin with the flag on it. We did get a picture of a new kind of local beer—Carib. We didn’t drink it but we did see it.
We had one last stop for the day and it was for a scenic overlook at the bay where we were docked. To get there we had to drive back to Roseau which is the port city and the capital of the country. Driving in the city was hair-raising. The streets were narrow and vehicles parked on both sides of the road. If the cars hadn’t pushed their side mirrors flush against the vehicle, we would have taken some of them off! I did get some video of the drive. It was adrenalin-inducing.
To get the the overlook we had to drive through the back portion of the Botanical Gardens. I wish we could have seen the front portion of it. It looked quite nice. I think these gardens are suppose to be the best in the Caribbean. From what we saw, they did look quite nice.
The view from the viewpoint, however, was gorgeous. We could look down on the town as well as see the Marina docked out in the bay. We also got a great look at the cricket pitch in the middle of the city. We had a few minutes to admire the view and then we headed back to the terminal.
We had perfect timing for the tender. We only had to wait a couple of minutes. We packed in like sardines and motored our way out to the ship. We had enough time to grab lunch at the Terrace Cafe before it closed. I got a salad but then went for some comfort food as well. I couldn’t resist a couple of small slices of roast beef as well as a tiny scoop of mashed potatoes. That’s my kind of comfort food 🙂
I was all hot and sweaty from hiking so I got cleaned up and we enjoyed a glass of wine before dinner. We brought six bottles with us. We needed to drink them! We couldn’t tarry too long though because tonight we had 6:30 reservations at the French speciality restaurant Jacques. We had heard that the meals really get drawn out so we had Brandon change our time from 7:30 to 6:30. We didn’t want to miss the show.
I can’t say I was impressed with Jacques. It was fine but nothing special. I did enjoy my escargot. It was nicely coated with butter and garlic. I got a prime rib which was fine. There was nothing about it that made it “French” though. At least it didn’t have any heavy French sauce on it. That stuff is terrible for my weight and cholesterol not that the prime rib was good for it 🙂
The meal went quicker than we had heard it would. I was grateful for that. We had plenty of time to get to the show. It was worth all of the trouble we went to to make sure we could see it. Tonight they had comedian Darrell Joyce. He was from Atlanta and an African-American. He was hysterically funny. However, I did feel that one of his bits went a tad too far. Several people in the audience obviously didn’t enjoy it and walked out. I felt at times he was pandering to the “white, angry” crowd. Many of the things he said were absolutely true but he put them rather harshly. Mostly his stuff was funny and I enjoyed it.
Tomorrow we have the return of Levent the magician/comedian as well as a day in Barbados. Our excursion tomorrow will be quite different as we are spending several hours on a catamarans snorkeling. It should be a fun and relaxing day.
Tales from the Trail 
Beautiful scenery! Would love to see all of these beautiful islands sometime!
On a side note, I am interested in which walking shoes and inserts you got. Apparently, my right foot just decided to buckle on the top while I finished my India trip and now it’s often uncomfortable to walk. I have an email in to my doctor but would also appreciate anything that you found that helped. Thanks.