Blog shmog. Mornings are for school, afternoons are for hands on learning (read: fun time) and evenings are for sleeping. There really is no time for blogging. So, in an effort to get caught up, here are some photos of Dominica, a most amazing island…
Darn, my editor won’t let me get away with that for our Dominica blog so, here goes nothing…
I suppose it is fitting to be writing about Dominica today since we are actually in Dominica!!…only we are on our way back down south after having visited nine other islands since and I am still writing about our trip north! Someday I’ll get caught up…
Before arriving here, we had hesitations about what it would be like. For some reason we had always thought of Dominica as one of the lesser developed islands. As such, we thought things might be a bit more run down, maybe with a bit more crime and aside from its natural beauty, not really a place we would want to spend a whole lot of time in. Boy were we wrong!
Our first stop was Roseau, the capital of Dominica. The first thing we did on shore (after checking in of course!) was a walk through town to the botanical gardens. You have to love a city that has a huge green space/botanical garden ripe for exploring right in town including a great hike to a viewpoint to boot. Within a few minutes of being there we were pleasantly surprised for the first time here (there were many more of these moments to come). At first we saw this beautiful large tree in the middle of a field but then once we got closer we saw wires hanging off of it all over. We thought there were some downed wires from a storm or something but once we got close enough to read the sign attached to the tree, we discovered this tree was specifically wired as… A FREE WIFI ZONE!! Our first reaction was how incongruous and wrong it was to be encouraging people to be consumed in an electronics device while in a beautiful botanical garden but upon further thought, we realized it might help get people out of their homes and offices on their breaks for some fresh air in the great outdoors – brilliant.
We had a great hike up Jack’s Trail at the back of the botanical gardens to a beautiful viewpoint overlooking the city with good little history lesson built in. They called it Jack’s trail because the soldiers walking up to the fort used to carry a flag – The Union Jack.
The next day we went on an island tour to many of the natural wonders of Dominica. Imagine, most Caribbean islands only have one volcano, Dominica has seven. One could argue it therefore has seven times the natural beauty!
As well as from the obvious natural beauty, on the tour we were impressed by the great condition of the roads. Apparently there was an influx of money from the Chinese to help develop a good road system, we can only speculate as to what it was in exchange for. In any case, since Dominica relies heavily on tourism and offering island tours, good roads help are quite helpful to the local economy – another thing Dominica has done right.
We also learned on the tour that health care is free to children up to the age of 18 and to adults over 65 years old. We also heard from our tour guide that university was free to local residents. Amazing. (Note: On another island tour a few months later, our guide said university was NOT free to residents – maybe too good to be true? – I’ll have to verify).
After Roseau we sailed/motored up to the island to Portsmouth. Here Neil celebrated a milestone birthday. Since Dominica was always high on Neil’s list of ‘must see’ places, it is fitting that he got to spend a birthday here. Since this was the first birthday we were celebrating on the boat, we didn’t have any requisite party supplies so without much hope, we set off into the small town of Portsmouth to see what we could find. To our surprise, we came across a party store! I had never seen one of these on any of the other islands – there may as well have been a rainbow shining right onto it! In the store we managed to find balloons, cards, a singing candle and a Happy Birthday sign – pretty good considering, prior to this store, we didn’t even think we would find candles!
In the morning of his birthday, we went on a guided tour up the Indian River which has partly been made famous because it is the site of the Calypso witch’s hut from the Pirates of the Caribbean. It was quite tranquil and had lots of wildlife to keep an eye out for.
To make a long blog longer, this one about Dominica would not be complete without a mention of how friendly and welcoming the locals are. Anytime we passed someone on the street and said hello, we were always greeted with a friendly smile and it often followed up with a couple of minutes worth of conversation. But, what will truly attest to the character of the people here (and to my absentmindedness), I must tell the story of the two wallets.
On Neil’s birthday, after a lovely hike up to Fort Shirley, the kids and I popped into the small souvenir shop to support the local economy and to pick up a little something for Neil. There was a lovely older gentleman working the shop (he was over 80 and in terrific shape – leaving the next day for a vacation to England) and we got to talking. After a good half an hour of chatting we purchased our souvenirs and went on our merry way. We were half way home when my phone rang with a call from a local number. I didn’t know any locals so I wondered who could be calling me. The female voice at the other end knew my name and asked me if I was missing anything. Oh my gosh, my wallet!! But not just my wallet with all of its contents but Neil’s wallet too!! I had left both wallets on the counter of the little souvenir shop. This woman had found the wallets, looked inside mine for contact information, found my cell phone receipt and called the number. Just as we turned around to head back up the long trek to the fort the woman at the other end asked where we were and offered to deliver the wallets to us. Within a few minutes, both wallets were back in my possession complete with cards and money and there was no expectation of a reward. It was simply a good samaritan doing a good deed and a being a super ambassador for the people of Dominica. As for the wallet story, I will never live it down!
Thank you Dominica for a wonderful experience!
Sailing Trismic 