Dominica

Pronounced Dom-uh-neek-a, opposed to Doh-min-i-ka. I stumble in writing about this island because I'm not sure how to express our impressions succinctly.

We have heard so much about how wonderful it is…so much hiking, so many beaches, so much to do. We were excited.  In fact, we only met one boat that said "meh...we could skip it." After being here for four days, we tend to agree with the latter. That is not to say it's not beautiful and there's not a lot to do. However...all hikes require that you hire a guide to take you and most trips cost $25-$50 USD/person - not expensive but having the adventure of self exploration taken away and having to pay someone to tell you a banana tree is a banana tree isn't exciting for us. After hiking through the S. Pacific and quite a few islands in the Caribbean we would rather just get lost, wonder about strange plants and animals and go find out for ourselves. For us it is part of the mystique of exploring.

Since Dominica is volcanic, the beaches are not like those we love. They are black gritty sand and the ones we have been to all have glass, debris and garbage bags floating around. 

None the less, we really enjoyed the market on Saturday.  There was so much local activity…we couldn't describe it if we tried.  It was electric!  Dominica is also truly beautiful.  The rain forests and mountains are enormous and the island seems to go on forever.

We absolutely appreciated the island for what it is but we're excited to move south to Martinique.

Taking Kala for a ride.

Different than other beaches.

The mouth of one of the rivers with a wreck to the left and tree in the center.  Very lush rain forests throughout the island.