Dominica - Part Two

Once we were back on the road Levi offered us assorted drinks he had brought in a big cooler. Some of us enjoyed bottled fruit drinks but the big hit was the local beer - Kabuli. We again saw all kinds of beautiful and unusual scenery.

Papaya

Sausage Tree

Steam coming out of hot springs - you really realized that you were on an island with an active volcano seeing that!

Quick stop to see the boiling water

We stopped for a view of Roseau and saw the Emerald docked in the harbor.

Green lizard walking across the road

Damaged school bus from a hurricane

There are schools all over and each one has different uniforms. This one was really colorful.

Later in the day the kids had gotten out of school and at one point a bunch of little school boys ran along side of us waving and laughing - they were so cute!

Our last stop was snorkeling at Champagne Reef. Because Dominica is greatly made up of lava the beaches are either black sand or very rocky. This was the case at Champagne Reef. From the main entrance there is a long boardwalk to get to the actual beach area to snorkel but you couldn't do too much walking without shoes on which made it a bit difficult to get into the water to put your fins on.

The snorkeling was so awesome. David and I as well as Kelley went out with Levi. The water was a perfect temperature and I was very comfortable though a bit nervous given that I don't swim and this was only the 3rd time we had gone snorkeling. As we swam we came across various spots where there are fissures through which bubbles come up thus the name Champagne Reef.

Levi led us out to where we saw so many gorgeous fish and other sea creatures. At one point I looked down and knew I was seeing something unusual and came up to ask Levi to look and see what it was. What a surprise when he told me it was an octopus! He then told us he would try to find us a sea turtle and it didn't take long til he was calling the three of us over to another area and there the little guy was!

I absolutely loved it and was the last one out of the water! It is so unwordly and beautiful under there. It's also extremely quiet and peaceful.

We all hugged and thanked Levi as he returned us to the Emerald around 4:30 which gave us just enough time to do a bit of shopping in the local stalls and shops.

We were tired but happy as we walked back up the gang way and once again used our cards in the security machine to ID us, (thereby accounting for our return to the ship), and they also had the same type of machines set up to x-ray your packages and bags that you see in airports. They say that you are not supposed to take any liquor bought back to your cabin so there is a table set up where a crew member is supposed to take your liquor packages to be returned to you back at Port Everglades - but I didn't see many people stopping!

Just before 5:30 general announcements were made for certain people to report to such and such a number. This ended up happening after every port stop and it didn't take long to figure out those were people who probably hadn't checked thru the ID machine yet! Every time we left port you could see lots of heads - including ours - standing on their balconies watching as we sailed away into the sunset. Dominica was an especially lovely sunset.

That night we really wanted to see Jim Macdonald, one of the comedians, as it was his last night performing for our cruise. We had had a snack when we got back on the ship so decided to go to his early show and then have a late dinner. He is very innovative doing not only regular stand up comedy but the last part of his show he uses a slide projector and he had us in tears we were laughing so hard. At dinner we got a table for 6 and ended up eating with the same Canadian couple we had sat with previously as well as a couple from South Carolina. As before the conversation was great and we ended up again sitting in the dining room til 10:00. I had a shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, a pasta dish with pesto, and for dessert an Orange Grande Marnier Souffle with Vanilla Sauce. Oh my gosh that dessert was to die for!

We went to bed looking forward to our next stop - Barbados.

DOMINICA - Part One

Thursday, Feb. 12, we woke up early as we pulled into the port at the capitol city of Roseau in Dominica. (We later learned that it's pronounced Dom-in-eeka.) We went out on our balcony and were excited to see we were facing the port and witnessed a glorious sunrise.

Right away we could see this terrain was unlike anything we had seen before. It was very mountainous and so lush! We loved the houses tucked all around and up the mountain.

We had a private tour scheduled with Levi Baron of Bumpiing Tours, (and yes that is how Levi spells it!), that Alicia had arranged for all of us. He had gotten excellent reviews on the cruise boards and we had our usual buffet breakfast and then hurried to get off the ship. You disembark on deck on 4 where you pass by security and have to insert your cruise card to verify your info and keep track of who leaves the ship. As we got off the ship we saw Cheryl and Kelley and walked over to the area where we were to meet Levi. He has other vans he sends out so we felt very lucky to have Levi himself greet us.

Levi, Alicia, and Chuck

Chuck, Helaine & David, Amy & David, Cheryl & Kelley

Our first stop was at Titu Gorge. To get there we had to travel on some very, curvy, winding roads up the mountains to the rainforest. There were some pretty scary moments but Levi had lived here all his life and we were in good hands. He told us all kinds of history and information about his island and stopped to point things out and for us to take pictures. He was very enjoyable and an excellent tour guide.

I didn't know nutmeg grew on trees!

Once we got to Titu Gorge we had to hike a bit up and thru a creek bed and across a bridge. Helaine and her David decided to wait for us in the van. (He has very bad knees and she had forgotten to bring shoe she could get wet.) We got to the Gorge and though other tour groups had arrived it wasn't too crowded. Once finding out how cold the water was Alicia and I decided to be the documenters rather than the explorer's!

Levi in the lead - with David close behind

Cheryl screamed the whole way from the cold!

Next up was a drive to Trafalger Falls. Once we reached the area we did have a bit of a hike to see them but it was worth it! It's really two falls and they call them the mother and the son.

The whole time we were walking thru the forest it felt like it was drizzling but it was really just spray from the falls.

This is the mother falls.

This is the son. It actually is higher than it looks in this picture. And you can see them both though my camera wouldn't go wide enough to get them in one picture.

Next we hiked down to an even further area to Wotten Springs where there are pools of warm water. Even though it was a slippery climb over large rocks to get there it sounded too good to me to pass on.

The water was indeed as warm as a bath and fairly clear although these pictures don't show that very well. I didn't want to get out - especially knowing that we would now have to hike back up!

We had already done so much and there was more to come. More on our excellent day in Dominica in the next blog!