Dominica

On Monday and Tuesday of this week our ship was docked in Roseau, Dominica. We departed Tuesday night and are heading further south to Brazil. Right now, we are entering the main waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the Northeast corner of South America. The weather is getting hotter by the day as we approach the equator. I am very excited because this is a continent that I have not visited before. After arrival, I will now have traveled to five of the world’s seven continents (Only Australia and Antarctica remain). The ship is supposed to enter the mouth of the Amazon River on Saturday in which we will travel up the river and arrive at a city called Manaus on Tuesday, Jan. 31st. But enough about the next stop, I’m sure you are wondering about my two days in Dominica.

My first impression of Dominica after leaving was a feeling of being pleasantly surprised. For some reason, I was not expecting what I experienced from the island. Dominica is one island in the Caribbean that you don’t hear much about but everyone on the ship agrees that this place is truly a gem that no one knows much about. Dominica is the “Nature Island.” The island is very green, pristine, and mountainous. It is actually 99.7% volcanic. When we first pulled into port I was amazed looking up deep into the mountains into the lush rainforests. Low hanging clouds covered the mountaintops providing the forest with its rain that makes the island so green. I had known the island was full of nature but I didn’t expect it to feel as if I was in a Hawaiian island or rainforest setting.

Both days we had great weather both hot and sunny. I woke up early on Monday in order to watch us arrive and dock on the island. The sunrise was great as it started to peer over the tall green mountains and reveal what the island had to offer. I started my time on land with a tour of the capital city of Roseau. I walked around the town, which has both British and French influences. The British part of town actually has straight streets and the French parts are curved. Once again, as with the Bahamas, the locals were very friendly with taxi drivers constantly wanting your business. As I expected though Dominica was a lot more affordable. One reason is that your dollar goes a lot further with vendors who go by the Eastern Caribbean dollar. I was able to buy a delicious local lunch for only about $4. In the afternoon, I had scheduled a snorkeling trip with other SAS students to Champagne Reef, supposedly one of the top spots to dive and snorkel in the Caribbean.  The reef gets the name Champagne because in the reef sulfur gases release out of the ocean floor and produce bubbles that rise to surface. I found this part to be the most unique and interesting part of the reef. The bubbles actually rose up and tingled your body when they hit you as you swam around the reef. This was another beautiful setting on the island with the ocean almost appearing as glass. The ocean water was also avery comfortable 80 degrees. The beaches are black sand but there aren’t many of them, which may be why it is not a tourist hot spot.

The evening in Roseau was very exciting. Obviously with a bunch of college students together on board a ship going out in the town is a big deal. Apparently, SAS has a reputation in this city from previous stops and one of the local clubs was set to let the club be a SAS-only night. The name of this place was the Krazy Koconut, which happened to be one of the top clubs on the island and they gave all SAS students the VIP treatment. The entire place was flooded with students from the ship. I enjoyed listening to different music that wasn’t always the typical American styles that you hear. Before we went to Koconut’s, we went to this downtown bar which was interesting too because it was a local dive called, J.R.’s. The local beer on the island is Kubuli, which was just like your typical light beer but ittasted pretty good. The island also produces its own rum, which was tasty as well. I did notice that they make their drinks very strong with the bartenders being very generous on the pours.

The next day I awoke early to go into town once again. I wanted to see the local markets where I tasted somelocal fruit. Bananas are one of the main fruits that they grow. In the afternoon, I found the taxi driver who we had met the previous evening who called himself Ninja Man. He told us he would take us to a gorgeous gorge and show us around the island a bit more. Dominica is actually one of the main spots where they filmed parts of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie and this place was one of the main spots. He also showed us a nice quick place for lunch where I ate a dish called, Peleau, It was a dish with spiced rice and chicken that tasted very good. The drive up into the mountains was beautiful up winding roads in the middle of the rainforest. We came to a trailhead where we got out and hiked a few minutes to the gorge. At the gorge, you can take a 15-foot plunge into very cold fresh water. It was very refreshing after the initial shock. We then continued back into this carved out cave like area where the water is 10-15 feet deep underneath while you are swimming up stream. As I swam, I looked up and saw the gorge carved in the forest; the rock walls are 40-50 feet high with the rainforest canopy above that. It really was a surreal scene. Our guide, Ninja Man, was awesome because he is one of the only guides that swims with you and knows to swim back here. In the back of the gorge there is a small waterfall, which you can climb up that leads to another even larger waterfall. Thanks to Ninja Man we were able to get up in this awesome spot. Words really can’t describe the setting and I don’t have pictures to show because my camera isn’t waterproof. On our ride down, you can see the mountain roll all the way down into the sea. As we headed back to the ship, Ninja Man sang his own songs that he wrote and offered words of wisdom. Thanks to him we had an awesome experience on the island and saw some very cool spots. I’m very grateful that we crossed paths with him.

The ship departed at 8 p.m. but you have to be on board by 6 p.m. One of the rules is that you must be on the ship before that time or else you get penalized in the next port. So you actually need to make sure you get to the ship well in advance of 6 p.m. in case there is a line. Unfortunately, this cuts into your final hours a little bit. After our trip up in the rainforest, we had an hour to kill so we checked out this bar one final time. We started talking with the bartender and he actually made his own rum and he let us try it, one that was rosemary flavored and the other a sweet fruit flavor. Both were very interesting. He then prepared us a drink for the walk to the ship that was his own specialty. It was good but very strong, definitely unique.

             Now that I’m adjusting back to ship life, one of the hardest parts of being of being on the trip so far is how disconnected you feel from the world. It is very hard to get news because they restrict our Internet time on the ship. They do provide one free news site but it’s not tooextensive. So I feel it’s a bit ironic that we’re going around the world but it is really hard to find out information about it. For example, I couldn’t tell you who was playing in the Super Bowl until 24 hours after the games were decided.  It is odd but also very refreshing to be so disconnected.

            On a side note, I have to mention that I was devastated when I found out yesterday that Prince Fielder signed with the Detroit Tigers. I was not expecting that to happen. So that only makes the Indians chances to win the AL Central this summer even harder. The Tigers appear to be major contenders with the bats they have in their lineup.

            It was tough to leave Dominica because there was so much to see and more that I wanted to do there. I definitely recommend that people give this island a shot. The people were great and welcoming of us coming to the island. I’m going to try to attach a picture to give an idea what the island looked like.

The program is also very fast paced and its extremely hard to focus sometimes when you want to go out and look at the ocean or sit in the sun. Days and time almost don’t seem to be much of a factor and mix in with one another. We lose another hour tonight as we head into another time zone. Signing out from Dominica, I’ll update you from the Amazon.