lush rainforests & beautiful rainbows in Dominica

the dominica flag

the beautiful island of dominica might be up there in my top 10 most beautiful places in the world...at the least in the top 20! We arrived yesterday to warm tropical showers with hot and muggy conditions on a quiet Sunday morning into the small town of Roseau and the ship cleared in a matter of 30 minutes....of course the big rush happens on that first port and most folks are not use to checking off the ship and the 30 step staircase from deck 5 to the pier!

So Deb and I got off right away to head into the sleepy town to see if we could find anything open.

johns trail in botanical gardens

We came across a wonderful bakery and bought ourselves some warm wheat bread and headed a bit out of town towards the lush hillsides. We joined up with a professor and she was headed to the botanical gardens so we joined her up the hill.
We ended up finding John's walking trail and walked to the top of the hill to look down on the city and these beautiful views of the caribbean sea!

views from the top of the trail

We walked down the back into town and found most folks were in church and taking walks around town in their sunday best. we headed back towards the ship for lunch as the restaurants were not open in time for our 1300 FDP trip to the organic farm. As we headed up the mountain, we learned a great deal about the Carib tribe, which still inhabit a small village in the mountains and a bit about the dominicans and their life, agriculture and culture!

The organic farm was fabulous~this was their first field trip at the farm and we were happy to be the first 12 folks there~the whole family is involved in tending to the 2.5 acres of land they til by hand and it was a

pleasure to see the beginnings of what will become a popular FDP in the future! Their plans are to clear a bit of their forest to create camp sights for children and eco tourism to come through to learn about farming~I thought of my friend Gaby back home who is learning about permaculture and growing and eating organically! the experience really made me want to go home and double my capacity in my garden this summer~first backyard transformation party when I get back Gaby!

We came back in the late afternoon and decided that the best restaurant in town was the back of the ship overlooking the beautiful town. Other than fiddling around and doing some reading, the night was short!

The next day, we decided (Dan, Barb, Randy, John, Debbie and I) to hire a driver to take us to a few places around the island...we had heard of several places and settled on the emerald pools, scott cove and some sulfur hot springs near the cove!

Emerald pool

We drove up the same winding road as yesterday and passed the farm on our way up and kept going towards the pools...goodness, walking through this lush Unesco World Heritage site was magical....the rainforest was quiet, lush green and there were only the 6 of us on the trail to the pools.

When we got there, there were about 8 SAS students there along with a couple from France and us...we ended up jumping in and wading in the amazing waters under the waterfall! Walking back, we ended up getting drenched in a sudden downpour so stopped for a biscuit and nuts snack at the picnic tables in the middle of the park~another fun and memorable moment (thanks Cindy for leaving your poncho with Deb-it sure came in handy).

We got into some dry clothes and headed back down from the lush rainforest to the other end of the island, called Scotts cove. It took us awhile to get there but gosh, was it worth it! The little town of Soufriere and the bay, where the Caribbean waters meet the Atlantic was amazing!

We stopped and had lunch at this very small 5 table restaurant and while we waited, took a dip in the sea! Most of us had fresh fish with creole sauce, rice, plaintains, bananas, taro root and a local beer while overlooking this beautiful bay!

We also headed up the road to a sulfur springs, but because of the rains, they had turned off the pools so nurse Randy suggested that this might not be such a wise choice to soak in still water!

Needing to head back to the ship in plenty of time for on-ship time, and to do some last minute running around town, we did not get to spend time at the beach...but you know I will be back! There are some beautiful diving and snorkeling to be had here, hiking and the like~the people are kind, laid back and have that caribbean ease that is so inviting!
Clearly with only 2 days here, there just was not enough time to explore the 8 volcanos, the abundance black sand beaches, the lush rainforests and waterfalls and lushes foods and sunsets in this quaint colorful town and island!
We took off at 2000 and we are rockin and rollin into the Atlantic, with our next stop....the mouth of the Amazon in 3 days and then inland 1000 miles to Manuas in 2 additional days!
It will be a good nights rest with the MV explorer rockin us to sleep!
until the next time~ worldlyheart ro

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