Dominica

To be honest, I didn’t really have any expectations for the island of Dominica--not to be confused with the Dominican Republic (this is a completely different island in the Caribbean). First of all, I knew nothing about Dominica, like how the actual pronunciation is dom-in-ee-ka instead of di-min-ica. And secondly, I had absolutely no plans during my stay on the island, and I was so worried about not making any friends to hang out with while we were there because I’d only been on the ship for a few days and making friends in any situation takes time. So naturally I thought I wasn’t going to have any fun for the two days we were going to spend there. Boy was I wrong.

Day 1
My roommate, Amanda, was having the same doubts about Dominica that I was and didn’t have anything planned for the first day, so we decided to have a roommie-filled day and explore the town of Roseau together.  We arrived on Sunday, January 16th sometime around 7am. It was a foggy morning, but in the distance we could see forested mountains above and colorful buildings and houses below. Almost immediately I noticed a KFC to the left of the dock, and later I found out that Roseau also had a Subway and a Pizza Hut, which I found pretty interesting.

Amanda and I scarfed down some breakfast and took a short little snooze while the majority of people who had trips got off the ship first. After that, we walked down the gangway and onto the streets of our first port, only to be bombarded by taxi drivers offering to give us the best deal for a ride around the island. Shaking off the pesky taxi drivers, we walked down the main road of town just taking in the scenery. Since it was Sunday, a majority of the shops and businesses were closed while most locals went to church. Amanda and I headed up to the Botanical Gardens, a public park filled with exotic trees, flowers and fields, and we braved a steep trail leading up to a peak overlooking the town. The hike was a little more tedious than I had expected and it was incredibly hot (much hotter than the cold weather I had left behind in the states!), so by the time we reached the top I was drenched in sweat. Clearly my decision to wear jean capris and  a cute top were a bad idea.The view was well worth it though. From there I could see the ship, the place that was beginning to feel like home, snuggled in the beautifully blue waters of the Caribbean Sea. I could also see the colorful rooftops of the buildings in Roseau. After taking in the scenery and resting up a bit, we headed back down the trail to go back to the ship. On our way out we saw some children playing in a tree. “Should we go say hi? I want to meet them,” my roommate said. Of course, I was totally down for that. Amanda and I both have little brothers, so we were happy for some interaction with people not our age. We came up with a plan to ask the kids where we could get some candy, just to start conversation. There were three kids in the tree: Joesamine, age 6, Ash, who’s 8, and Amari, who’s 5. Joesamine first pointed--in way too many directions--to the location of the nearest shop. After that conversation flowed easily. The kids had just been to church and were climbing around in their Sunday best. We chatted with them for a while and then their father came over to greet us. They invited us to lunch but we would have been late getting back on the ship, but we agreed to meet up with them the next day for a play date.

Back on the ship, we got changed, ate, and then met up with a group of other SAS-ers that wanted to explore the city with us. One of the guys that had gone on an SAS trip earlier had talked to a guy that drove an open tour bus who said he would take us to three local hot spots: Ti Tou Gorge, Trafalgar Falls, and The Hot Springs for about $10 US. We boarded the bus and headed up into the mountains. The views were beautiful as we kept driving higher and higher, but I was a bit worried sitting on the far side of the bus because the roads are much more narrow in Dominica and at times I was scared that I was going to just fall over the edge. But we just kept climbing higher and higher into the mountains. Closer to the top, we all noticed the temperature dropping slightly. Finally, we get to the gorge. It’s a little hard to explain, but Ti Tou Gorge is some kind of rock formation, like a cave, that has water in the middle that you can swim in and a waterfall at the end of it. There’s a scene in the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie that was filmed at Ti Tou Gorge, so I’ve swam in the same waters that Johnny Depp has *swoon*! I guess I was feeling adventurous that day because I jumped about 30 feet down into the gorge. It was a really cool experience. It felt like nature had swallowed me up and I loved every minute of it. Next we headed to Trafalgar Falls, where we hiked a little ways to the foot of two adjacent waterfalls. There are these huge rocks that you have to climb up to get to the waterfalls though, which proved a little difficult. I’m surprised no one twisted an ankle climbing around on those slippery rocks. After that, we headed to the hot springs, which are these pools of mineral water that locals sit in to “feel 10 years younger”. They feel like hot tubs. So that was nice to sit in for a while.

Then it was back to the ship to get ready for our first night out on the voyage. Some of the bar owners in town got wind of the fact that 700 students were on the island looking for some night-time fun, so they opened up a bar called J.R.’s and a club called Crazy Coconuts. I went to both and danced so much! Just like the Black Eyed Peas predicted, it was a great night.


Day 2
The next day I got up and headed to an internet cafe down the street. It was a beautiful day and the cafe was open and breezy. Sipping a rum punch while on my computer on such a beautiful day in Dominica felt luxurious to say the least. Back on the ship for lunch, I waited for Amanda to get back from her day trip so that we could meet up with or little friends from the day before. Sadly we ended up getting to the gardens too late, missing our play date. So instead we went to the markets in search of snacks for our room. We came across a grocery store and came out of it with Pringles and Canadian Chocolate Chip Cookies. They seemed to have a lot of Canadian products on the shelves, and they also had a Canadian bank on the island, so I sensed that Dominica has some sort of relationship with Canada.

On our way back to the ship we stopped to sit in the shade of a drink stand and met some more young kids working on homework. We talked to them for a little while and then it was time to get back on the ship to leave. I loved Dominica, so it was a little bittersweet to leave, but as we pulled away from the port I realized that my journey had only just begun.

Until next time,
Anna