The Rainforests of Dominica

Contrary to what I have always believed,  perhaps some countries are better off without an international airport.  While this remains a highly controversial political issue with each political canidate promising an international airport only to enter office and realize or reinstate that the country does not have enough money to support such a project,  and consequently preventing most tourism...placing this industry aside, Dominica, has not been damaged from the over walked, over traveled well beaten paths tourism brings. The country was absolutely gorgeous.  In part at least, due to a lack of an international airport. While getting to and from the island make for adventerous stories all on thier own, the beauty which results from this struggle made the country perhaps one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

I planned to spend a week or so in the rainforest surrounding the village of Laudat, but had trouble leaving some 15 days later.  To explain each gorgeous hike, waterfall or hot-spring would be next to impossible and perhaps sometimes pictures are worth a 1000 words and there is in need to explain each trek.  The rainforest was absolutely gorgous.  We drank water right from the streams, the wildlife was healthy and plentiful and each breathtaking falls or mountain view left me thinking, this is what the world was like before we as the human race began to slowly destroy it.  This part of the trip would be a paradise for anyone who loves being outdoors.  For me it cannot be described anyother way.

Cooking eggs in the hotsprings- Valley of Desolation- 1.5 hours or half way to Boiling Lake

Filing up the water bottles

National Parrot - also found on their flag

Day 4 - Snorkeling at Champagne Beach and Scotts Head - South-east Dominica!

After leaving Jacqueline, I headed back to my home base for the time, Shahir's back in Portsmouth.  I shared my stories of the adventure with some fellow travelers and changed my clothes.  I left the big backpack with Shahir and took off once more with the little bag.  A mask and snorkel with a dry change of clothes was all I could see myself needing for this top 10 adventure!

My first stop was Champagne Beach, where I was told I could find the best snorkeling on the island. I had two goals in mind.  To check out the snorkeling, but also to see if I could compare marine life with deciding whether or not to dive in Dominica.  Unfortunately, my video of champagne is on the go-pro which I cannot attach to this computer, so photos will have to be noted during the slideshow I will do at the end of the Dominica portion of the trip.  However, for now, the snorkeling was amazing, and I would most definitely recommend this location.  If you have a mask and fins, it is free, if not, for only $10 to rent both, you can enjoy the experience for as long as you want!

This snorkeling experience was unique to any other, with great visibility, many small fish and warm bubbles coming from below as you swim.  The location gets its name from the hot bubbles which continuously rise from the volcanic sea floor, creating a champagne glass type illusion swim through.  It was well worth the efforts of reaching and the experience.  However, I was finished here earlier than planned, and when I went to catch the bus, another going in the other direction arrived first.  I decided maybe I should check out some of the south, since the opportunity seemed to present itself.  

Heading to Scott's Head, I began with grabbing some local food to eat before sitting near to the beach with a few fishermen.  I once more thought I'd use the opportunity to ask about Turtle soup.  To my surprise, the reaction was very different from Barbados, with the whole group openly admitting to regularly eating turtle, which could be caught during a certain time of the year and only while in open water.  Often they were getting caught in the nets.  While it is illegal to kill turtle out of season in Dominica, I was told it was not illegal to obtain or possess any part of the turtle or turtle product and if one were to get caught in the net, which is often the case, it is a free for all to bring in and eat.  There is also a turtle hunting season, catching a turtle out of season carries a $400 fine.  I asked what breed of turtle,  I was told primarily Hawksbill, but the Green turtle and Leatherback frequent the area as well....

Looking out, I could see the hill at the end of the island, and decided I'd go walk up it to see the view.  Thanking the fishermen for their chat, I headed off for a walk.

Nearly 20 minutes later, I was outside of the town and on top of the hill, taking in the gorgeous view of the surrounding area.  From here, I could see where the Atlantic Ocean met the Caribbean Sea and the two dive sites I would later discover.  Further away, I could see the town, Scott's Head, which I had just come from and a few of the other towns further north. 

Walking back down I noticed the sun was getting lower and perhaps I should find somewhere to sleep"for the night.  I decided I would hitchhike back to Soufiere, and explore that town while finding a guesthouse.  

It wasn't long before I put my thumb up that a vehicle stopped next to me.  It was a police vehicle. 

"Where are you headed?"
'"Somewhere north,"" I replied.  "I think I'll check out Soufiere and find a place for the night. Heading that way?""  
"I can"". he answered. "" I have to pick up my partner, but we are just driving around, not much happens around here.  Hop in.""

20 minutes later we were somewhat on route to Soufiere, with having stopped to talk to locals, when they received a call for a psychiatric patient who had been located.  They asked if I wanted to hang out later and offered to bring me to a hot springs in the town where I could go for a swim while I waited for them to return.  I thought this sounded like a good idea and agreed to be dropped off.  I went to two hot springs in Soufiere that night.  One further up the hill, which I found way too hot, and another, which was in the ocean, where I stayed for a few hours and mingled with some locals.  

With the sun set, I headed for the main road and stopped to chat with some locals with regard to where some guesthouses might be in the area.  The two officers were back, and we hung out for a bit, and had dinner before I went off to sleep for the night.  All up, they received 3 calls the entire night.  The mental health patient, a mother, daughter fight and a prank call.  They rarely ever get any murder I was told, and the most common was theft or assault.  Their only prison was in Rosseau, which is where they had to drive anyone they arrested and their police station, housed all 4-5 officers who are on duty.  The police life in Dominica was a bit different.  They lived at the station for the duration of their shift and were literally on call 24/7.  With 10 days on and 4 days off.   It was an interesting experience and a great night.  I was able to learn of their system, meet many locals and visit a few locations in the area before calling it a night.

The plan for the next day was to return to Portsmouth, contact Clide, grab my things and head to Laudaut, to spend  days in the rainforest.  I had checked off three parts of the list and two more were up that way.

Day Two and Three - Northern Dominica - Bense

With reference to the list of top ten things to do, after returning the boat, we headed north on a bus to Chadiere Pool, near to the town of Bense.  Here, we hiked for approximately 30 minutes, 10 minutes of which was along a beautiful stream,  to take a quick swim next to a small waterfall.  The rainforest was beautiful, much like St. Lucia, and the waterfall quiet and private.  Crossing the stream was at parts difficult, due to the strong current.  I slipped once and it took some time to catch myself as the water quickly moved me along.  While it only added to the adventure, I was soaked for the remainder of the walk which was not all that bad given the hot temperature of the day.


Along route back, I ran into a local fishing in the stream.  I stopped to ask what he was fishing for and he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a large crayfish.  Apparently they are plentiful in this area.

Afterwards we headed to Batibou Bay where I met Jacqueline  Douglas.  Ash, if you are following this part of the blog for places to stop and see or people to meet when you visit Dominica, mark this place down and be sure to stop by to meet Jacquiline.  She owns a little bed and breakfast in the area, but this is only one of her multiple jobs.  She is also a therapist, runs the bar on Batibou Beach, manages the surrounding estate and land and is quite involved in the community.  Jacquiline, has a welcoming smile and as I commented after trying my first drink at her bar, she makes dangerously good cinnamon rum.  

Batibou Bay, is perhaps one of the nicest beaches in Dominica, if not the nicest.  I am told that on a clear day you can see Guadaloupe from the shore.  The beach is quiet, with only a few other travelers sharing the experience with us, and is lined with hammocks along the shore to rest and take in the view.  Jacqueline sells drinks and completely organic lunches at this bar, with the use of banana leafs for plates, her little shack, tops the experience.

That night, Shahir went on ahead back to Portsmouth, while I stayed at Jacquelines place, in order to sleep off some of the rum and experience the area more thoroughly.   This was a beautiful part of the island, which I wish I had had more time to explore.  Apparently, with notice, you can contact a local to bring you down the river on a bamboo raft!  I spent my time relaxing, observing, and walking around the nature, soaking in all that I could.  There is however, something for everyone here and at the very least, it is worth a few days of any trip to Dominica.  Here is the website for the area for more information

http://hampsteadestate.com/


In the morning Jacqueline brought me with her on her usual errands.  We started with fruit picking and coconut counting, in an area used to film Pirates of the Caribbean.  She explained how many locals were not happy with the filming of this movie in certain locations as, while the hotels made good business, many property owners spent the income returning their property back to the way it was before roads and disturbances to the nature were caused during the filming.  Some wound up paying more in repairs than than they were paid by the production.

Jacqueline had the property divided up and a number of locals worked the land.  In the area we were counting coconuts, a woman had picked a huge stack.  She sells the coconuts for 50 cents and pays Jacqueline 10 cents for each she takes from her trees.  A good deal, I thought.  The land is kept up, the coconuts are harvested, and locals are able to make an income, while supplementing Jacqueline for her efforts and work.

Afterwards we went for a dip in the river, before heading into town.  Jacqueline, was in the midst of organizing a government subsidized tour guiding course for some locals, in order to increase the number of those around, who are able to properly show travelers the area.  Normally the course is quite expensive, and as it takes some time to pay back the cost, as a result, fewer and fewer locals were becoming involved.  Though this effort, Jacqueline was out to fix the problem. 

With the coconuts counted, the passion fruit picked and the letter to the government sent, we drove back to the house briefly before heading down to the beach where we first met.  Another peaceful day.  Jacqueline and I relaxed, shared some stories and had lunch before I headed back up to the road, which I hitchhiked my way back to town from.  I had hoped to return, but as the many stories to come will indicate, there was rarely time left to fill.  I will however be returning for this bamboo rafting trip, Jacqueline told me of, the next time I am in Dominica.  Until then, I was off to visit other parts of the island!

First Impressions - Dominica

While I am now playing a bit of catch up with this blog, as anyone speaking to me or on my facebook might know, Dominica quickly became one of my favorite countries and for a great number of reasons, making it worthy of many stories to come.  In Dominica, I learnt you can make rum and tea from anything, they call it bush rum, or bush tea and it is all excellent.  As was the rainforest I meant to spend 5 days in and wound up finding hard to leave after a week.  The locals were friendly, the culture was uniquely interesting and the nature was perhaps the best I have ever encountered.  However, like all stories, let me begin with where it all started, in Portsmouth, a town on the west coast, north of the capital Rouseau.

I began with meeting up with a couchsurfer Shahir.  He is an American from Austin Texas, who is studying medicine at an American University, which seemingly keeps the town of Portsmouth thriving.  For those of you who dont know, I am told, Austin, is the only democratic voting city in the entire state of Texas, making for interesting political conversation. Most especially with what is going on in Syria at the moment.  However, this is neither here nor there, we began with a list.  Titled ¨Shahir s top 10 things to do in Dominica.¨  I am proud to say, I covered all but one and added roughly 7 others, to this ongoing list.  After a briefing on the country, we decided we would sail to Secret Beach.....

In doing we ventured down to the beach where a local was renting boats.  While tying up the sails, the Dominican, commented ¨Mon, I have got to stop smoking so much guanja, I keep forgetting things¨ which to be honest, in hind sight, should have instilled a bit of concern....

After removing a stick from the boat, we hoped on and headed out to sea, Secret Beach bound!!  It was not long before we noticed we had slowed down, and while the wind was not in our favor, it was not entirely the cause....with one side of the boat quickly sinking lower then the other, we pulled into Secret Beach with a bit of relief to have made it there.... Pulling the boat up onto the shore, the two of us quickly realized it was much heavier than pulling it off the beach where we started and it did not take long to realize that the plug was missing from the back.   In all fairness, we had been warned.... 

Pulling the small sailboat further up as we allowed it to drain, we searched for a solution in order to make it back.  With our patchwork of a sail and the wind slowing, we needed as much assistance as we could.....Finally finding a fruit which seemed to fit as well as possible, we plugged the hole, hoped for the best and set sail back to Portsmouth.  

Arriving on the beach, we began to search for the man who had rented us the boat.  Finding him lying down in a hammock under a mango tree smoking a joint, we approached him to let him know we had brought the boat back.  

He asked how it was and we said it was great, except for the fact that the boat almost sunk.  He looked at us with a curious glaze and I commented that he should be sure to put the plug back in before sending anyone else out on such an adventure.  He commented ¨there was no plug mon?´ and then his face fell. ¨Oh, no, mon that was me!  I took the plug out this morning, to let it drain on the shore¨.  Shahir commented, that he thought it was him because he had left his stick which he usually carries on the boat, but that he had removed it and placed it next to the tree.¨  Seemingly forgetting about the lack of plug for a moment, the smile returned to the locals face and he asked ¨my bamboo?¨  But then realizing again that the boat was missing a plug he excitingly added ¨ Mon, I am so happy you made it back!  You could have sunk!!  What did you do?¨.  We advised that we plugged the hole the best we could with a fruit and his smile returned. ¨well that is great, and now you know what to do if that happens!¨ As though, either of us might have this happen on a regular basis....¨I am really sorry Mon, I was distracted with putting up my posters¨  and with this he gestured towards a coconut tree.  Glued to the tree, with what appeared to be the same blue adhesive holding the sail together, was a homemade poster, advertising what he did¨  I laughed at how it was not at all misleading, and thanked him again for his time before heading back to plan my stay.   Time to explore Dominica!

MARTINIQUE! August 23- 27th

Martinique reminded  me of how diverse the islands seem to be.  It wasn't surrounded by white beaches like Barbados, nor did it have incredible waterfalls or rainforests as plentiful as St. Lucia.  Martinique, as a territory of France, seemed far more developed with a noticeable amount of concrete, fast highways and 2 airports.  It was quite obviously a part of France by much more than the language and if I had to guess, I would say it is probably also the most productive of the three islands thus far.  Due to the above, for me, it had much less of a Caribbean feel.

Port coming into Martinique from St. Lucia

Port in Fort de France - arriving by ferry

I was lucky enough to be invited to my good friend Courtney's sister in laws  place for my first night and subsequently her going away party.  Stephanie and 3 of her friends had moved to Martinique for 4 months in order to perform research for their thesis papers in order to complete their Masters Degree in Ottawa, for International Development.  At this party, I met many of her welcoming friends and wound up spending the next few days hanging out with them.  While the waves wouldn't compare to Australia, Karim and I visited a beach up north and went surfing for my second afternoon and on the third day on the island, I rented a car and visited all of the recommended locations I could find along the island, including mostly beaches and communities.

Fort de France-  Library

East Coast - heading south

The beaches were not white like Barbados, instead, many were black or dark in color due to the volcanic ash which formed the island.  While this black sand has in places washed away, for the most part, the sand was considerably darker than that on Lake Superior back home or anywhere I have seen in Australia.  However there were some light brown beaches, but I did not think any of them seemed 'white', but this might be because I was in Barbados not long ago....

The people were very friendly, with a large part of the expat community coming from France, as one might expect, many were living on the island for only short periods of time.  

Unlike Barbados, the island did not have a large tourism community, but did have pockets of resort like areas which I imagine would be more filled during the tourist season.  However, there also were not many vendors selling souvenirs or locals looking to sell a tourists anything for that matter.  They did however distill the greatest number and types of rums than the other two islands, and I am not even sure how many they make as I was unable to sample them all, except to say that it had to be close to a dozen.

Coffee stop

I was told they get the rare leatherback turtle but that the hawksbill was far more common and went snorkeling at a few beaches to try my luck but I didn't find any.  The marine life did however seem comparable to Barbados, but with fewer fish.

Church in Ste Marie

graveyard in Ste. Marie (maybe 20 % of the town)

After traveling south and then heading east along the coastline, I ended my day tour in Ste. Marie, which reminded me of my home town, by name only.  This small, quiet community was quite quaint, but I would like to emphasis the "quiet" characteristic of the town.  I drove around, stopped for a swim at the black sand beach and then walked around for a bit.  There wasn't much going on.  Some locals were playing dominoes on tables along the streets and others were out fishing, not at all unlike the rest of the Caribbean, in this sense.  There was a large church and a massive graveyard next to it, which I found to be no coincidence in the sleepy town.  After a quick walk and a bite to eat, I was back in the car and heading home for the night.



I am not able to make a slide show of the places I visited just yet with the computer I am borrowing, but I will be sure to as soon as I can and add it when possible.  Until then, I hope you enjoy the photos I have added!