Our last day in Dominica gave us perfect sunny weather and an adventure. With its active volcanoes, Dominica exhibits numerous places where gas bubbles out of the earth. One, in the center of the island, is the second largest “boiling” freshwater lake in the world. The other is where we went snorkeling today, Champagne Beach!

Big purple sea urchins!

Lincoln drove us to the southernmost part of the island, where we rented equipment and found a guide named Black Dolphin, who pointed out all kinds of cool stuff for us to see.

Bubbles! Warm sulfuric bubbles! So much fun to swim through!

So many fish!

We couldn’t possibly name them all. Also, when we were quietly floating, we could hear fish chewing on the coral, just like in Curaçao! Parrot fish chew on coral, but the striped ones here are Sargeant Majors.

Black Dolphin also showed us a cannon which has been on the bottom since the 18th or early 19th century; he wasn’t sure of the exact year, but he said that is was from a shipwreck of a cargo ship that lies farther offshore.

Lots to see. Dolphin told us that before Hurricane Maria, more coral, sponges and other sea life was present at this cove. But in the few years since, he has seen growth. He believes the reefs will come back almost to normalcy in a few years, if no more hurricanes hit.

Simply wonderful time!

After snorkeling, Lincoln drove us to the southernmost point on the island, Scott’s Head.

We walked along this narrow strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean (left) and the Caribbean Sea (right).

From Scott’s Head, looking back toward Scott’s Head Village. This time Atlantic on right, Caribbean on left.

Looking back across Caribbean toward Roseau, where we sleep on this island. A cruise ship dwarfed the town today, but it’s hard to see in this picture.

Near to top of the head is – surprise – another cannon. These islands saw a lot of European wars for control.

Back near our hotel, this man was harvesting something with a big machete. We’ve seen him a couple of days now.

That is it for Dominica; tomorrow we travel by ferry to Martinique.

Normally, the first day in a new place we would walk around, check stuff out. But our first day on Dominique, two cruise ships (over 5,000 people!) were scheduled to be here that day, so we went to the Indian River. This morning, our driver could not pick us up early so we spent the day walking in Roseau. It was overcast and a bit rainy. We learned a lot about how devastating hurricane Maria was to this island country.

As we hiked up Jack’s Walk above the botanic gardens, we were treated to views of Roseau and its namesake river. The light-colored cliffs along the river are volcanic ash beds from prehistoric eruptions emanating from a large stratovolcano (one of nine on the island) just southeast of the city.

At the top of Jack’s Walk we reached Morne Bruce, an 18th century lookout with a cannon. The British established many lookouts on the west side of Dominica to warn of French warships (Jack’s Walk is named for their flag, the Union Jack). There is also this Christian monument, painted as white as the sky on this overcast day.

A panoramic view of the city with the cricket stadium on the right.

Back down the hill, we walked past this rather unkempt cemetery.

The parliament building also houses the president’s office. The building appears undamaged by Hurricane Maria, but it has probably been repaired or rebuilt. After all it was a priority to maintain the government functions.

Here is a view showing a totally devastated building and a refurbished building. There is a lot of construction activity related to hurricane damage, but complete restoration will take many more years. Rebuilding will be more challenging if climate change increases the frequency and severity of these types of storms. Our driver told us that thousands of residents left after Maria, never to return.

Both the Anglican and Catholic Churches need new roofs and probably have other significant damage.

In the city, this type of damage is fairly common. The upper story of a building is demolished but a business has resumed operation on the floor(s) below.

This tiny gas station can fuel vehicles on either street via long hoses from the pumps.

The Fort Young Hotel is the only premium hotel in Roseau; it has been refurbished and serves nice meals in its bar and restaurant. The brass cannon on the ground beneath “Fort” is a reminder that this was part of the British system of forts and lookouts.

From the Fort Young Hotel, the southernmost point on Dominica, Scott’s Head (named after an 18th century British Lieutenant Governor) is barely visible in the haze.

On the way back to our hotel, we saw the market where you could buy fresh fruit and vegetables as well as this icon of American fast food (chicken is common on menus here, not always cooked the Colonel Sanders way).

We arrived at the trailhead for Middleham Falls and read the sign indicating that the walk would take 45 minutes. Since we knew it was a bit over 2 miles, we thought it would be a well developed trail. After all, it is only rated “moderate” difficulty.

BUT, all our information and the sign were before hurricane Maria (2017)! Even the guided hikes took over 1.5 hours to reach the falls, and we took longer than that. Our driver, Lincoln, said he waited so long and so quietly that he saw a parrot, the Official Bird of Dominica.

Most of the steps were uneven, some were knee high and a few were thigh high. It was difficult and slippery!

But the forest is beautiful.

First glimpse of the falls, just the top.

The falls were so tall (~250 ft) that we could not get the entire fall in one photo!

We were proud to make the almost 5 mile trek, coming back to the parking lot muddy, wet and tired. We did not bring any food along, while in Colorado, if we had known, we certainly would have brought a snack.

But Lincoln was there to find a place for a quick lunch.

We then went to Titou Gorge, thinking it was in the Pirates movies, but the part that is accessible is actually a slot canyon that you can swim through! If we had understood that, we would have brought our suits!

Imagine swimming through a slot canyon!

Hot water from springs flows into the bottom part of the pool, but in the slot canyon part (we were told) the water is very cold.

We then went to the freshwater lake, but the rain shortened the scene and the visitor center was closed.

All of these sites are within Morne Trois Pitons National Park. We bought passes for all of Dominica parks for the week.

I, Clare, want to thank my entire hiking group, for all their advice and help which I took to heart, because I never would have been capable of that hike had I not had a ton of practice in Colorado with you!

Dominica, the “Natural” Island was used in many scenes in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. So, of course we became Pirate tourists today and went to see one of the sites. But first, when we got off the ferry last evening, we walked to our hotel room in the main town, Roseau. Yes, walked. It was only 5 minutes, and we had been on the ferry for 2+ hours.

This little place, Narakiel’s Inn, is where we will spend the next five nights. The room is smaller than the BnB on Guadeloupe, it is up 3 flights of stairs and we are on our own for all meals. Different? It was something like this or a resort which is too far away from anything to easily get around. Fortunately, the host Karen is helpful, finding us a taxi driver/tour guide for the week to help us get to all the great spots.

Before the taxi picked us up, we went for a walk in the neighborhood. A bunch of dogs started barking when the school children were walking by, so Clare listened to the lecture about not running away, the dogs smell fear, they are just trying to let you know they are here. Then the teacher asked the kids to say “Good Morning” to Clare! She said “Good Morning” back, and everyone smiled.

View of Roseau from above our little room. There is one cruise ship at the main dock and a much larger one at a dock just to the right of the frame.

We are also close to a stadium, we assume for soccer or cricket? It seems huge for such a small population.

Also, it seems to be a law on this island to warn other drivers if you have a car with left hand drive, since driving is on the left side here.

After about an hour and a half taxi ride with Lincoln, we arrived at the Indian River, where the beautiful witch woman Calypso enchanted pirates in the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Our guide was Spesh (for Super Special – they take nick-names for themselves to describe their tours). The Indian River is a tidal river so that currents can run in either direction.

Spesh loves his river. He knows all the animals hideouts and can names all the fish, birds and plants. To motor was used only to get us going at the beginning; after that, he guided and propelled the boat with one oar/pole.

He first took us to Calypso’s cabin from the movie set. It is on a tributary to the Indian River. He was here when they were filming and helped them out.

The female of this crab species is red and black and small, while the male is much bigger and white. The white one is a specialty of the island now, since the former delicacy, a big frog called the mountain chicken (tastes like chicken) went extinct when the British were trying to eradicate marijuana from the island with some herbicide.

The swampy river had a maximum depth of 9 feet. Spesh used his pole pushing us along from the bottom of the river.

White crab’s claw in center. They were difficult to find (although Spesh knew where to look for them).

The roots of the trees are like something from a fantasy novel. Dragon shapes, weird spirits – we took tons of pictures of the roots!

The fibrous roots are great for fish, because algae gets caught on them, and also great for people to use to make ropes and weave cloth.

The bar at the end of the river. We just walked around a bit.

Prices are in three currencies! The preferred currency is Eastern Caribbean dollars, as on Antigua.

The plants near the Bush Bar were quite beautiful.

Other river travelers. I was glad we had Spesh’s boat to ourselves! Note that this guide is using two oars.

On the way back down the river, Spesh was quiet, letting us enjoy watching without a narrative. Quite peaceful.

After the river trip, Lincoln took us to a cozy lunch spot where Brian tried the local beer. All the local beers in the islands taste the same.

Lincoln took us to the beach near his home where we walked while he chatted with his friends.

And back to our Inn and to find dinner somewhere!