Dominica

Ok so it has been a crazy two days here in Dominica. On the first Day I woke up to see the ship come into the harbor which was awesome, but then I went back into my room because we would be allowed to deport for several hours and I overslept by 15 minutes and missed the group I was going to go exploring with, but this really turned out to be a blessing in disguise. After I finished breakfast I met up with another group of 5 girls and a guy named Evan and they invited me to tag along, so I did! We started by walking about 15 minutes from where the ship was docked to the city of Roseau (pronounced Roos-o) and we went to a little grocery store and bought things for lunch (peanut butter, bread, jugs of water, and granola bars) and then we just walked about Roseau for while until we found a cab that would take us up into the mountains to hike the trail to Trafalgar falls, which are these amazing waterfalls that you can swim right up to! When we got to the trail head we had to buy these national park passes from a park service building, but they were only 5 dollars so we weren’t too concerned. The hike to see the falls was pretty easy and well laid out, with steps and hand railings and it ended at an observation platform. However, for the more adventurous the path continues up the valley an eventually disappears all together in a large boulder field with was pretty sketchy to climb over because the rocks were all covered in a really slick moss and to make matters worse I sprained my left knee on the first day we were in Nassau so I basically had to do all my climbing with one leg straight, but it just added to the adventure. When we finally got over all the boulders we had to swim up a short stretch of river with a pretty strong current to actually reach the falls but the little pool at the base was amazing! It was cool but not cold and the falls just thundered in the background, and you could look out on the valley and see the whole distance that you had come up. It was one of the coolest scenes that I have ever seen in my life. We ended up staying near the falls for about 4 hours and we ate our lunch up there. The trek back to the trail head was much easier than going up and the trip that had taken us about 45 minutes to go up only took about 15 to get back. Then we decided that we would walk to an area called Wotten Waven which has these natural sulfur hot springs and it ended up taking us a little longer than we planned…. By which I mean the short walk we thought we had ended up being about a 4 mile hike through the mountains of Dominica, but when we finally got there it was well worth the trek. The pools were warm but not hot and had a smell all of their own and we spent about an hour and a half there. Then we decided that it was about dinner time and we really should find a place to eat so we walked in to the town of Wotten Waven and found this little mom and pop restaurant that sat on top of a little hotel. We decided it look good enough and so we headed up. When we got inside the restaurant this old woman came out and asked if “we would be wanting dinner tonight” and we said sure so she sat us down a table and said she would cook something up for us. The only option we had was chicken or fish and there was not enough for everyone to order the same thing, so given that we are in the Caribbean I ordered the fish. When we asked her how much dinner would cost she said 12 dollars per person and if we wanted the house cocktail it would be 18. Now for the 18 dollars we spent we got an amazing lentil soup, the main course which was banana bread (basically a fried banana), some plantains, some lentils, a cabbage salad, the fish, and a few other little things. Then we also got a homemade ice cream dish to finish it all off. The drink we got with dinner was called the bullet and it was the special house drink.  We all ordered it because we were afraid to drink the water and it was great! It came out in a glass that was slightly bigger than a double shot glass and it had about 10 different types of juice in it along with the “house special spices” and a healthy dose of rum. The dinner was great, and afterwards we got a “taxi” back to the ship, and oh those roads are sketchy I would die if I ever had to dive on them. When we got back to the ship a few of our group called it a night, but the rest of us went, showered, and changed before we went out to sample the Dominican night life. We ended up at a bar called “The Crazy Coconut” and it was teeming with other SAS students and locals. We finally made it back to the ship at about 1 in the morning and went straight to sleep. And that was the end of Day one.

                Day two started bright and early at 7 am and then the snooze was hit and it started for real at 7:30. I was going with the same group as the day before to go up to see the area where part of the second pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. The cab ride up there was insane! We wove through these little mountain road on grades that I wasn’t sure our little taxi could handle, but we eventually got there and when we did it was amazing!!! This little gorge was more of a tunnel with a narrow open slit in the top rather than a gorge. We swam up the gorge and climbed up the waterfalls inside, the light in there was so eerie and faint and the current was intense but we all made to this place where you couldn’t get past without climbing gear. It was so cool! Then we just let the current take us all the way back down, and every time we reached a waterfall we simply jumped over it.  After the gorge we went to the botanical gardens which were nice but the real treat was getting to meet these four old ladies who were grounds keepers there. These ladies went around raking up all the newly fallen leaves everyday and piled them into these baskets that they carried on their heads. We then walked a few street markets and I got a t-shirt, a magnet, and a Dominica patch. By this time it was getting near the on ship time so we headed back to the ship, and when we got real near we stopped for a beer and spent about 30 minutes just looking at the black sand beaches of Dominica. It was a great end to a great two days on a little known island, and I will say that I want to come back here one day, the Islands natural beauty is unspoiled by all the sugar cane farming that happened on so many other islands and so it is way closer to its natural state, also the simple fact that everyone we met were so nice and everyone was ready to take a few minutes to talk to you. Now we are back on the ship and are on our way to Brazil and the Amazon river so the adventure continues.

 

 

 

On a different note, I have not stopped sweating since I got off the plane in Nassau and I can’t get properly hydrated to save my life! It’s like trying to fill a colander with water it just doesn’t work…. This hot weather and high humidity is going to kill me…  I knew it was going to be an issue in port but I never imagined that the ship would be as hot as it is! Oh and for all those who know the doc says my knee will be ok I just strained it but it still feels like its going to explode.