Finally a few days to explore Dominica! We were sprung from quarantine on Monday morning and made our way over to do the final check in. Once checked in, we were approached by a tour guide who was getting ready to start a tour of Indian River with another boating family. He asked if we wanted to join so we hopped on board his dinghy and off we went. Dominica has 365 rivers which makes it the winning island for fresh water supply. Dominica is mostly jungle and the beaches are more black and gray rock than sand so it is a unique island. The Indian River is most well-known as a Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest filming location. On the tour, we got to see Calypso’s shack which Hollywood had actually built for the filming but the locals rebuilt after Hurricane Maria wiped out the original. Evidently Hollywood is not very good at building construction to last through a hurricane. Our guide had assisted the film crew with moving people and equipment so I am now calculating that puts me two degrees of separation from Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom…..so close! As we made our way up the river, the guide described all the wonders of Dominica. He then took us on a hike to a farm where he picked multitudes of herbs for us to take back to the boat. He also made us a fruit plate with fruit he picked fresh off the trees. It was amazing and I have never tasted a banana that was so sweet. They pride themselves on being “very healthy” because of their herbs. One man told me that he had been forced to get the Covid vaccine which he did not want. So, after he got the shot, he went home and “flushed out my body with so many herbs…not one drop of dat vaccine left inside dis body, mon!”
On Tuesday, we rented a car to go exploring further. Dominica was once a British colony so not only do you drive on the opposite side of the road, you drive on the opposite side of the car. Bill did a great job navigating the change but I had a very difficult time. If you have never sat in the “driver’s seat” with no steering wheel, brake or accelerator in front of you, I do not recommend it. I constantly felt like we were going to drive over a cliff and I think the floorboard now has a permanent hole from me stomping the nonexistent brake pedal. I believe next time I will sit in the back seat behind him….like Driving Miss Daisy….that way, I won’t be able to see the cliff prior to the death plunge. We made our way over the mountain to the capital of Dominica, Roseau. Roseau has a population of around 15,000 people and two streets. The day we visited, all 15,000 people were out driving on the two streets. Roseau had a grocery store, a few restaurants and a museum but since we could not find anywhere to park, we had to pass on the museum. We made our way out of town to Champagne Beach. Champagne Beach was advertised as having bubbles that came up from the seabed (due to volcanic activity) and it was supposed to be like “swimming in a glass of champagne.” We disagreed. While snorkeling, we had a difficult time finding any rising bubble streams. After about 20 minutes, we both found one at the same time and watched as a few sad little bubbles floated up to the surface…not exactly a glass of champagne event. But then….as if the island knew we were disappointed in the bubbles, a swarm of sardines appeared. Not hundreds, not thousands but hundreds of thousands of sardines swimming all around us. The school was so thick that we could not even see the bottom of the ocean! I am guessing that telling people they will be swimming in champagne is a more effective marketing campaign than “come be swallowed by a huge fish with a school of sardines” but I must say, the experience was much more exciting than bubbles! After snorkeling, we attempted to find our Airbnb for the night. Google maps sounded so sure of herself….We drove up a steep mountain, through a deep gorge, back up the side of another mountain, down a dirt road when Google suddenly announced we had reached our destination. Hmmm, I knew it would be rustic but not this rustic. After a call to our Airbnb hostess, we drove back down the mountain, through the gorge, back up the other mountain and arrived at her house which was about ten minutes from Champagne Beach…sigh. We settled in nicely to the place, did some laundry, went to dinner and fell asleep. All good…until the sun rose at 5am….suddenly, right outside the window came a bellowing “cockadoodledoo!” Then, every 15 seconds from that moment on “cockadoodledoo!” After breakfast, he was still just crowing away and Bill told the hostess that the only good thing to do with that rooster was to put it in some soup. The hostess stated that he was their alarm clock and Bill said, “More like your alarm cock” which made our hostess burst into laughter. As we prepared to go out for the day, that bird was still just happily crowing away. We voted at that point to pack our bags and find another place to stay….otherwise the hostess would be very suspicious of where her alarm clock had gone when Bill took her mystery soup the next day. Leaving the crazed rooster behind, we made our way to Ti Tou Gorge which was yet another site where they had filmed Pirates of the Caribbean. On our way up the dirt road, we passed a young man walking so we stopped to make sure we were headed in the right direction. He stated that he was heading to Ti Tou Gorge because he was the tour guide. We loaded him into the car and he was a much better direction supplier than Google! Another Covid Plus….we were the only ones at the gorge. On a regular day during normal times, at least 100 cruise passengers would have descended upon us according to our guide. Since it was just us, we suited up in our life jackets and the guide took us down to the river. He stated, “In the States, you might say the water is cold. In Dominica, we say it is refreshing. So, no hesitation, just come on into the refreshing water!” I am pretty sure he would call the Polar Bear Plunge “refreshing” as well but this American still says it’s freaking COLD! After our bodies numbed, we made our way through a small gorge toward a beautiful waterfall. Along the way, we stopped where Pirates had filmed one of the scenes and were amazed at how much Hollywood magic had been used in the film to piece together the actual scene. We then received a Dominican baptism under the waterfall prior to making our way out of the freezing abyss. Next stop was Trafalgar Falls which has a “Father Fall” which is higher and warmer and a “Mother Fall” which is shorter and colder. Our guide helped us make our way to a small pool below Father Fall where we enjoyed a few minutes in a relaxing spa bath. After a long day, we made our way to our new Airbnb which was a small cliffside hotel. It had an amazing view, welcoming hosts, a pool, a restaurant and most importantly, no roosters! On Thursday, we made our way back to the boat to prepare for leaving. We stopped by the customs office to check out of Dominica and were pleasantly surprised that it only took 5 minutes and $3.00 to get our check out papers. It took us over 5 days to get our Covid results because evidently, the health department will not email anything to anyone. After asking multiple times and having no response, our agent finally secured the results in hand once ‘the health guy drove them from Roseau (approximately 40 miles away) over here to my office” so that she could scan them into the computer and email them to us. You would think that these things would not be surprising to me after a year on the sea but sometimes, they can still make me shake my head in bewilderment. We now will be sailing down the remainder of the island chain to our summer destination of Grenada. We hope to arrive by July 1st if all goes well and hope that getting past the Covid police will go smoothly. Have a wonderful week and we will see you in Grenada! ***More pictures on the pictures tab
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
|