The beautiful, nature island of Dominica was more than it has been described. The youngest of the volcanic islands, its mountains rise lush and green saeeply from the sea. We were glad that we took a tour of at least part of the island, because otherwise we wouldn't have seen anything but the little city of Roseau -- nice as it is. The minivan driver skillfully negotiated turn after hairpin turn up their main road to the interior of the south end of the island. We passed all kinds of waterfalls, large and small as we made our way up the mountain in the rain. Yes, more rain! We were told that it was the end of the rainy season in Dominica and that it had been raining for over 3 days. Slides and washouts are common problems, as you might guess. The road we took was pretty good, except for a couple of construction areas. Concrete drains were installed all along. Once we left that highway, we were on a little, broken road that made the old summits to Christina Lake look pretty good. We weren't long on that road, however, before we came to our main destination -- Jacko Falls. This is a gorgeous waterfalls with a pretty good viewing platform. We went down the stairs only a bit because with the rain, they were slippery and really offered no more of a view of the falls than we had. We were treated to wonderful fresh pineapple slices and either the ever-present rum punch or fresh grapefruit juice. The grapefruit juice was fresh and sweet and left me wanting more.
We drove back down the mountain and past their cricket stadium (seats 12 thousand, I think) and into their central city botanical garden. We saw four parrots in captivity there. The parrot is the national bird of Dominica. It was interesting to learn that these birds mate for life, live up to 70 years, and lay VERY few eggs -- I think she said only one egg every two or three years. If one of the pair dies, the other usually dies very soon after.
Our last stop on the tour was at a viewpoint where we could see the entire town of Roseau and the harbour with our ship docked. The town itself has almost all red roofs. It seems there are some contrasts here. Along our tour, we saw some beautiful homes and some very nice middle class type houses. Yet the town seems a bit poor -- broken pavement, old, crumbling buildings in spots and simple, unattractive booths for the market. The vendors and taxi drivers were much more respectful than in other ports. If we refused a taxi offer, the driver smiled and told us to have a nice day. The vendors asked if they could help, and when we suggested that we just wanted to look, they sat back and said that we were welcome. This is in contrast to most places where we are basically harrassed by vendors and taxi drivers.
We are about to dock on the island of St Thomas where we have a brief tour then will prowl the town of Charlotte Amalie -- apparently one of the best duty free shopping ports. St Thomas is one of the US Virgin Islands, so I expect services will be excellent. I'm going to run down and send this before the internet connections get busy.
Next stop after today is Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas.
No comments:
Post a Comment