Dominica Revisited

When we decided to come back to Dominica this year we planned on seeing parts of the island we had not seen last year. The island is just as lush and green and the people as friendly as we remembered.

Our first indication that our memories of the island were true was the arrival of Martin in his fishing dinghy PROVIDENCE. If you remember, Martin is the 'yacht service provider' (Boat Boy) we used last year. We had called him on the VHF as we were coming into the harbour, but he had not heard us. He found out from another boat that we had called him and came over just as we were finished dropping the anchor. He welcomed us to the island with a friendly "Welcome to Dominica". He took our laundry to be done and came back later with grapefruit and some fresh herbs - basil, chives and big thyme, all of which was delicious.

It is grapefruit season on the island and the grapefruit are soooooooooooooooooo juicy and sweet. Orange season is just finishing so there are still a few oranges still available.

The Bounty of Dominica

We spent one morning with Martin going snorkeling in another bay. There was us, Tom and Kathy from YELLOW ROSE and Joyce from LADY H. The bay we went to was Douglas Bay on the other side of Cabrits National Park. We stopped at three different sites. One of them was particularly spectacular with shallow areas and a deep canyon with blue star coral. There were different kinds of sponges - barrel and tube. The barrel sponges were all different shapes and sizes, but all shaped like open ended barrels. Some of the fishes we saw were Spotted Trunkfish, Stoplight Parrotfish, Yellowtail Damselfish,Trumpetfish, and Yellow Goatfish. Joyce is a diver and she gave us the names of most of the fishes we saw. I also looked them up in the fish guide we have. Unfortunately we do not have an underwater camera until Jason comes in April, therefore, no pictures of the snorkeling. Here is a website that you can access to see pictures of some of the fish we have seen. http://www.reefnews.com/reefnews/index/fishes.html

On Monday we headed out on an island tour with a group of other cruisers. There were two couples from England and another couple from Canada.

Left to right: Ruth, Geoff, GERU (CDN); Phillip, Jana, DELPHINUS (ENG); Dillon GUIDE; Lizzie, Dic, INDIAN SUMMER (ENG)

Last year we toured the north end of the island so this year we went along the east coast to visit a Carib Indian village. Carib Indians are some of the original natives on the island. They are not indigenous to the region as they came and conquered the Arawak Indians who were the indigenous population. The Caribs were pushed to the north-east of the island by the British when they arrived and later that area of the island became 'Carib Territory' similar to the reservations in Canada. However, the Caribs were treated differently than the aborigines in Canada and they are an equal part of the Dominican social structure although most of them still live in the Territory. The Territory looked like the rest of the island as far as housing goes. They do have a Caribe Village set up where the buildings are like the ones they used to live in - thatched roofs and open sided. We did not go to the village proper due to time restraints, but were able to watch women do the basket weaving for which the Caribes are known. They had some interesting carvings of heads along a fence. When asked what they were made of we were told 'hair'.

One other stop we made was at an agricultural station just north of Portsmouth. Here Griff found a Katie dog replacement. The big sows just loved having their ears scratched like Katie does. The look on their faces (the sow's and Griff's) was one of pure contentment.

Dillon, our guide, made frequent stops throughout the day. He was a wealth of information about the country and the plant and animal life. There are no large animals on the island or as Dillon put it "nothing that would attack us". For animal life there are wild boars, iguanas, agoutis, and mountain chickens (a large forest frog) that the people hunt for food and lots of parrots. The only ones we saw were one iguana and a pair of parrots. We saw lots of different plants. Dillon was able to tell us the names and what plants were used for. He said he learned a lot of the information while he lived with his grandmothers. At one stop, a filmsite for Pirates of the Caribbean Parts 1&2, he husked a couple of coconuts and we were able to drink the coconut water and then eat the flesh. It was much nicer than the water and flesh we tried in Grenada. Maybe it was because it was definitely fresh.

One place we revisited was the Red Rocks by Calibishi. It was every bit as spectacular as last year. The sea wasn't quite as wild as last year, no waves splashing up over the area we were standing on, but with the sun shining and the blue, blue sky the red of the rocks really stood out.

2009

2008

The last stop of the day was at Chaudiere Pool. We drove along a farm access road, very similar to what the forestry trunk roads were like before they were paved - single lane, dirt track. When we got to the end we saw the sign for the pool, 2684 ft, with the arrow pointing downwards. We should have taken that as an omen because the trail went straight down the side of the hill for 2684 feet. Fortunately the tree roots grew across the path and acted as a staircase. When we arrived at the bottom it was worth it. A pool 18 feet deep with a small waterfall and a 20 foot cliff surrounding it. One of the guides used the waterfall as a waterslide and Griff, forgetting he is 66, jumped from the cliff. No picture you just have to take my word for it. Swimming in the pool was a refreshing end to a long day.

We got back to the boat 10 hours after we left in the morning, tired but more knowledgeable about the island.