Dominica is truly a Caribbean town with colourful buildings and people. The Carib Indians, the original inhabitants of Dominica, 3000 of whom still live on the island. These people travelled from North America to South America and finally settled in the Caribbean. Dominica is the only island where they have their own territory on the Atlantic coast.
Dominican people are a mixture of Carib and South American people. They are the only island with people of South American features mostly from Venezuela. The tribe they belong too is the Arawat. So it was nice to see a whole new island with people from a different ethnic tribe altogether. It made it more interesting as not all trips to the Caribbean are like this. They are mainly resorts and all inclusive beach stays.
I Arrived in Dominica without my bags. Everyone’s bags from St Lucia were left there. The lovely Liat Airlines decided not to put our bags on the plane because they were overweight before we even checked in. luckily like I always do, I packed as if I would never see my big bag again so it didn’t affect me much at all. We took a long and very winding drive into the mountainous region to stay at Roxy’s. Nice place nestled in between the three dormant volcanoes. The main reason for staying here is to go and see Boiling Lake. It is an 8 hour return trip and it is a very hard walk. This trip would cost $40 which everyone declined to do. It is not the biggest boiling lake in the world which I have seen in New Zealand which made my mind up not to bother. I am on holiday after all, why would I inflict this hard walk on myself and pay for the privilege. If it was free I would have done it. We did a trip to Titou Gorge in the afternoon. This is where scenes of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was filmed. It’s a very narrow gorge and 15 feet deep without nothing to hold on to so if you’re tired then you’re just going to have to tread water. I struggled and got in trouble near the waterfall where 2 ladies from the trip saved me. The water was cold and the slow swim into it was ok but I only got in trouble when I had to tread water for a long time and the strong current coming from the waterfall didn’t help me at all. I really could not climb up to the waterfall, I just watched everybody else do it as I hung on to the rocks.
The next day we took a long walk to fresh water lake in Laudat. The steps were steep and it rained all day. The views of the lake were intermittent with the mist from the rain but just for a few seconds the mist cleared and I got a really good photo. I got really wet but at least the bags were on their way to the hotel. That made everyone very happy indeed. I skipped the following mornings walk to a waterfall for a lazy morning.
In the afternoon we headed for Roseau to stay for two nights. We arrived at our hotel to be met by a huge military ship of the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary outside the hotel. In fact we had a view of the ship from our window. I waved at the many sailors on the ship in their shorts and at one point one of the local lads thought I was from the ship. The same afternoon we snorkelled at Champagne Reef. It is named this because of the volcanoes, there are bubbles coming through the sea bed. This gives it a champagne effect. The sea bed also has bright yellow fumaroles. Again I guess from the effects of the volcanoes in the Trois Pitons National Park. The water was warm and the fishes were fun. The whole day was great. In the evening we met the owner of the hotel who laid on a mini buffet and welcome drinks for us and saw the beautiful sunset albeit slightly blocked by the ship, over the sea.
The next day I spent some time in the Botanical Gardens which is not usually my thing but they left a remnant of the last hurricane. There is a school bus crushed under a tree in the grounds which makes for a great photo. While I was there we tried to see the famous parrot only for the enclosure to be closed as they were mating. I saw a hole in the screen and saw one parrot that didn’t look like it was mating, in fact it looked dead. Our trip in Dominica was coming to an end. After a very short stay we headed for Martinique.
