Touring Dominica

Our first anchorage in Dominica (pronounced domineeka to distinguish it from the DR) was in Portsmouth, located in the huge Prince Rupert Bay.  "Boat Boys" - actually entrepreneurial men - run the cruising show there, greeting boats, arranging tours/taxis, providing a weekly cruisers barbecue and whatever else you will pay them for.  Extremely helpful and friendly.  One of the boys takes you under his wing.  Alexis was ours - a kind, gentle, soft spoken man - just our style. 

A 'palace' being built in suburban Portsmouth.  Many buildings with ornate cement sculptures.  The owner proudly posed to show this beauty off.

And then there was this gem, just off the main drag, with every conceivable space adorned, conch shells being the main decorative item used.

Toilet seats of assorted colours lined up on top of a container - decor or just overflow?

Poverty was clearly visible...and sad.

Portsmouth harbour and town from Cabrits National Park.

Fort Shirley has been restored to hold meetings/conventions/tours.

There aren’t a lot of anchorages so cruising is limited but inland hiking, the beauty of the nature and the friendly people - albeit, a little too much hustling - make Dominica one of our favourite islands.  Usually we avoid tours, preferring to manage our own sight-seeing and hikes but Dominica is most thoroughly introduced with the stories of the characterful guides.  It is also a way of supporting the economy of this struggling island, especially after the devastating tropical storm and mudslides of August 2015 which wiped out roads, businesses and homes and killed many.  We found three anchorages - Portsmouth and Roseau being the usual for cruisers, and the less used and, hence for us, more beautiful Sunset Bay Club at Batalie Beach.

So off we went with dear friends, Don and Maxine, to the Indian River, an island taxi tour, the Boiling Lake, snorkelling Champagne Beach and the Scots Head Drop Off.  Days between were spent sailing and exploring Portsmouth, Cabrits, and Rosseau.

Indian River Tour 

Nice!  The Indian River is a protected area.  No motors are allowed.  Dinghies are not allowed either which means that the Boat Boys get all cruiser business.

Our "boy", Alexis, rowed us the river which is lined with mangroves.  Eerily special.

The river was the set for Pirates of the Caribbean and Calypso's hut was especially built and now maintained by the boys.  The tour ends at a bar in the middle of the swamp.  

Island Taxi Tour 

A sugar mill where slaves were also held for auction. 

A "sensitive plant", a ground cover.  The leaves close together along the stem if crushed or if shaded.  Jeffrey, taxi tour guide, told us that these plants were grown around the place where slaves were held.  If a slave escaped, they could be easily tracked because the sensitive plants' leaves would be closed, leaving footprints.  The slave history on these islands is brutal and, unfortunately, not a lot of attention is given to it.  More time is spent in museums on the battles between French, English and sometimes Spanish - the European history - also, brutal.

The wilder Atlantic coast

Some of the flotsam washed ashore after the August tropical storm.  Whole roads were washed out.  The Chinese government, seemingly a major investor in all the islands, immediately helped and continue to rebuild the roads and bridges.  Interesting.  Houses, cars, trucks and boats were also washed away and are still visible and badly damaged wrecks in some villages.  Several businesses were so filled with mud that they remain closed and abandoned.  The storm is reported to have put the island a decade behind.

The taxi tour took us to the Pointe Baptisite Chocolate Factory on an piece of property purchased in the 1930's by two "bohemian" Scottish aristocrats.  Their grandson has developed a boutique chocolate factory with local flavours like coffee, mango, ginger, nutmeg and hot pepper.  We sampled and purchased.

Alan, the man is shorts, is the chocolateir.  He toured us around in leather shorts and belt that didn't quite fit, and that's about it.  Barefoot, bare chested and, needless to say, eccentric.

Alan, the chocolate man.

The garden in the estate.

Coco pods on the tree.

Cassava being roasted to make cassava flour in the Kalinargo territory.  The Kalinargo, called Caribs by Columbus, were fierce warriors who were all but eliminated in constant wars and fighting with the Europeans.  A confusing and violent history, eventually granted a small group of surviving Kalinargo a reservation on the Atlantic coast. 

A delicious stop for warm cassava bread - natural and coconut flavoured.

Impossible to believe as I write this in the scorching heat, but we were chilled from a rainy walk through beautiful forest to  Emerald Falls

The Highlight: The Boiling Lake

Sea Cat, our characterful guide, had us swinging on vines .  Not quite Jane but fun anyway.

The hike was four hours each way.  Up and down, across rivers and along ridges.

Up very steep slopes that were stepped with logs.  An incredible task worthy of the national park fee.

Spectacular views make it impossible to choose just a few photos.  So bear with me...

Descending into Desolation Valley, aptly named.  This is where the volcano is venting.  Little grows in the valley because of the high mineral content and extremely high temperatures.  

Steep.

Sea Cat looking like a warlock above his cauldron - or so my imagination says.  The steam is coming from one of the vents.

Sea Cat putting some eggs in his plastic bag pot to boil for our second snack of the day.  Our first was freshly picked grapefruit.

The white chicken egg shell turned black in the high sulphur and mineral content of the stream.  Strangest and best boiled egg I've every had.

Sea Cat adorned us with mud masks.  The mineral content is apparently good for the skin.  We had these on for the remainder of the hike.

Desolation Valley.  Truly a strange place.  The rock was different pastel shades with steam belching in patches all over the place.

The Boiling Lake, a crater full of water.  The second largest in the world, about 60 meters wide, it is at a rolling boil in the centre.  Steam rising from the surface can be seen from miles away.

The viewing point of the Boiling Lake is on a natural ledge about 50 meters above the lake.  We ate our lunch catered by Sea Cat - fish, chicken, salad and a baguette.  He carried all this food - there were six of us - the entire way. 

And back again.  

Still smiling.  This ascent was long and arduous.  All stairs.

At the top of one of the ascents, Sea Cat suddenly started to dance and chant.  We thought it was some kind of victory dance for getting back to the highest place or that Sea Cat had suddenly lost it in an exuberant way.  Maxine and I just had to join in, feeling a little light headed from all the exertion.  We found out after several minutes that he had checked the score on his cell phone - in the middle of nowhere - and found out that West Indies had narrowly beaten England in the world cricket finals.  The dance was a victory dance but not for our efforts.  Good on West Indies!  

The hike ended after eight hot hours at the Titou Gorge.  A fresh water swim about 200 meters up a very narrow, deep water gorge topped off the day perfectly.  It wasn't quite over...Sea Cat drove us back to the boat, around tight corners, up and down hills, very fast!

Champagne Pool and Scots Head

Sea Cat's man, a younger, chattier version.  He and Sea Cat had visited and had a beer aboard the night of our arrival at Roseau.  Being a smooth, quick talker, he persuaded us to go on a snorkelling tour to Scots Head with him.  And we were very glad he had.  We never would have found the best spots on our own.

There is a cannon down there somewhere covered with coral.

Champagne Pool.  This is an area where hot air venting bubbles up through about 10 feet of water.  Apparently, you can cook an egg here, too, but I forgot to bring the eggs.  It was really like swimming in a glass of champagne surrounded by narrow streams of bubbles.  The fish liked it too.

Scots Head.  A lovely rocky promontory at the south end of the island.  About 250 feet, of course, we had to hike up!

View north from the top.

Snorkelling at Scot's Head.  An underwater shelf and then a fall down a 100 ft wall where we couldn't see the bottom.  Kind of intimidating.

Yellow tube sponge and long-spined urchin in incredibly clear water.

A trumpet fish.  A goofy looking fish that is long and skinny.  Often hangs around vertically waiting for prey to come by.

Finished with a home-made rum concoction at Bubble Beach Bar.

The owner at Bubble Beach Bar has created a hot and a very hot pool of the beach.  The hot sand on the bottom heats the water.  A bit much on a hot day but we were into the very hot one.

Luckily, we did not have to change.

And we opted not to have a massage.

But we did take photos.

On our own

We only had two sails with Don and Maxine.  Don looking like he belongs on Milly.

A bamboo house in the Roseau botanical gardens.  The inside was like a green cathedral.

This tree fell on a bus during a tropical storm years ago.  The tree survived and still grows, the bus doesn't.  Happily, no one was in the bus at the time.  A good reminder of the power of nature.

It was a great introduction but deserves much more time.  Hikes are limitless.  There is even a fourteen stage hike from one end of the island to the other.  Now that would be a great two week adventure.  An injury to Peter’s foot made hiking impossible so we left prematurely but we will be back…when we have the time and lots of energy.