The Nature Island

Dominica was wonderful. Sunday morning I joined a group of about 10 other students and we made our way through town. Every few feet we were stopped by a taxi driver trying to take us to the beach or some other site because “it’s Sunday! Everything is closed!” The vast majority of the island’s 70,000 person population is Catholic. Once we got off the main street, we saw the cricket stadium and a variety of stores and other buildings. The island has a lot of French influence in its architecture. The four languages of the island are English, Creole, French, and Spanish. We eventually found ourselves in the botanical gardens (Mama would be happy) but we just walked through them up to Jack’s Walk, a fairly short but very steep path up one of Dominica’s many mountains. The path wound around and around through jungle-like plants. Suddenly, though, we were met with the breathtaking site of the city from above. Definitely worth the climb. We stayed at the top for a long time taking pictures of the plants and the monuments and the view. A little way away were a few tables with some women selling trinkets and such. The son of one of them was probably almost 2 years old and some of the people in our group had fun playing peek a boo with him. Some government official had a house up there too, with his own uniformed guard and everything. After looking around for a while, we made our way back down by the road this time which was pointed out by the women to us. It was a less strenuous walk. We stopped halfway down at the Mountainview Café for refreshments and more pictures. I tried a Vita Malt—non-alcoholic malt beverage high in B vitamins. It was certainly…interesting. I couldn’t drink the whole thing though. After lunch aboard the ship, I joined another group for a trip to Trafalgra Falls. We took a taxi up (and down) the winding island roads to the trail entrance in a park. There were times when I worried that we weren’t actually on a road at all, but Dominican traffic was a lot less terrifying overall than Bahamian. We got to the park and bought our entrance tickets and were met by a guide (of course, any way to get more money from us) who led us to the falls. She proved to be very helpful though, so it was worth the extra couple dollars. The falls were at least as pretty as the ones I’ve seen in South Carolina. The trail was definitely more jungle-like. It was really cool to see crabs in the mountains. That part was new. The island is home to 365 rivers, a huge number that I can’t remember of waterfalls, 9 active volcanoes on land, and 3 active volcanoes in the water. Even on our short hike, we saw many different freshwater and sulphur springs. Dominica also utilizes its resources so a large percentage of its energy comes from hydroelectricity. I was very impressed. We hiked to the observation deck for the falls and then decided to venture closer to them over rocks and the river. After that trek, we went back to the parking lot and shopped around at the tables with souvenirs there. On our way back to the ship, the taxi driver took us on a few detours and stopped the van in prime photo spots. The guy riding in the front passenger seat engaged him in some intense political conversations too ranging from crime rates and the death penalty to all sorts of other things. It was very educational. Monday morning I went on my Semester at Sea sponsored snorkeling trip to Soufrie Marine Reserve and Champagne Reef. It was really cool. My first time snorkeling. We saw a lot of different corals and fish and other stuff. (This is why I’m not a science major.) There’s a hole in Champagne Reef that emits water so hot it can poach an egg in “less than no time.” Our guides went down and brought up some of the water in their snorkels and let us feel it after it had cooled down some. It was still surprisingly hot. That afternoon I just walked through the market and went to the post office and an internet café. Dominica doesn’t have a big enough airport to support big flights so it’s very difficult to access, which is sad because their main source of national income now is tourism because the British stopped importing their bananas. I fear that if too many people could get to Dominica though, it would be spoiled. Double-edged sword of their semi-isolation.