Dominica : Rainforest Paradise

Sailing from St Pierre to Dominica was a wild ride. The winds picked up to 25 knots and the seas were 6-8 feet. We started out with a single reefed main and a full jib but soon I was having a real hard time steering our course because the gusts of wind kept pushing us around. So we brought the jib half way in to reduce our sail area. Then we were able to steer reasonably well. The waves were wind driven over ocean swell. There would be gaps then you'd get hit with 3 or 4 at a time. It was like surfing a bucking bronco in a super speed canter with that extra step throwing you off. As if you were taking three steps for every normal two. But it was a beautiful day for it. Not a speck of rain came our direction. We kept up 8 knots the whole way and had burned some cd's of our own finally - so we had great music battling the winds for supremacy as we charged forward through the onslaught.

Our first day in Roseau, at the south end of Dominica, was spent doing laundry. Every piece of cloth on the boat was at the laundromat. We were wearing our swimsuits so we could wash ALL our clothes. Of course, the laundromat had 20 or so washers and dryers but only three of them worked. So, it took all day.... In between we wandered the town of Roseau 4 or 5 times. We know it quite well now. We had a chicken and rice meal with plantains and taro and beans at a small restaurant and tried ginger wine which was extremely refreshing.

The next day was to be a day of new adventures. We decided to visit the crater lakes in Morne Trois Piton National Park which was a UNESCO world heritage site. We found the bus to the nearest town and sat on the bus not going anywhere for nearly 2 hours. Apparently the bus doesn't go until it's full. We were beginning to wonder what our day would be like when finally a crowd of locals piled onto the bus and we headed up into the mountains. This driver was much more relaxed than the ones in St Vincent. He took his time going around curves and avoiding pot holes. The jungle vegetation and the steepness and the narrowness of the road were awe inspiring. As we drove around hairpin switchbacks we would look down several hundred feet to the ground below. There was nothing but jungle everywhere, with the occasional villager walking by on the way to who knows where.

We got out at the village of Laudat and had to walk about half a mile down an incredibly steep road to a cafe in the middle of nowhere that sold site passes for the park. Then we had to hike back up that incredibly steep hill to where we started and continue up the road into the park. Along the way we met a couple who were "developing" a property along the road with an incredible panoramic view all around. There was no sign of any building happening so far. They DID have a trowel and they had just finished planting a fern by the side of the road. In the meantime they were living in a storage shed which appeared to have a metal folding chair and a tripod in it and nothing else. Mostly they just seemed happy to sit and enjoy their view.

The road was not super steep but wound endlessly upwards. Then it did get ridiculously steep for a while -like the roads in Bequia where the moke would have tipped over backwards. We reached the highest paved point in the country and, just our luck, we had to go down again. Finally we reached Freshwater Lake. There were large moss covered stones scattered about the shoreline and stunted trees with odd fern-like branches. There was a constant mist moving through the area as we were now within one of the ever present clouds that tend to crouch upon high places. Because of this mist it was a bit dark and there were no people around and we knew how long it had taken us to walk there. Altogether these things lent a spooky quality to the place. It was also rather windy and cold, and Sam was starting to grumble about the long hike back, when a four wheel drive vehicle pulled into the lot at the visitor's center (which was closed.) A local couple jumped out, looked at the lake for a few minutes, then headed back to their car. I ran up to them and asked if we could catch a lift back to Roseau. Sure, no problem. The guy was from Anguilla, so we spent the whole ride talking about the St Martin area. In the end, he drove us all the way to Trafalgar Falls which was where we had wanted to go next and a good bit out of his way... trail magic.

Trafalgar Falls is one of the most popular tourists spot on the island and we had thought about skipping it to avoid the cruise boat crowds, but the couple had said it was worth seeing. So we wandered back through the jungle on the short access trail and arrived at the "tourist viewpoint." Oh look! A waterfall! I have to admit, I wasn't too impressed. I had seen much bigger and more showy falls than that. So, we continued on down the trail past the sign that said "Continue at Your Own Risk" and eventually reached the boulder field below the falls. From there you could see the base of the falls up behind a pile of jumbled rocks. It looked like a whole lot of clambering. Sam said, "We're going up there." I was a bit tired I guess, and rather reluctant to be crawling and leaping over a wet slippery obstacle course. But Sam was sure it would be worth it. So we climbed and crawled and leap frogged our way up the landslide to where there was a giant pool right where the falls came crashing down. Some people were just coming out of the pool, so we stripped down and jumped in. The force of the air flowing down almost made it hard to breathe - like too much air was being forced into your lungs. And the water was just streaming out at the base. It seemed like 70% was going straight down and the rest was spraying out fanlike horizontally in all directions. The pool itself was refreshing but not too cold. Standing in the middle of the pool on a rock with just head and shoulders above the water and a funnel of wind and water howling down on you - was a bit more than refreshing. It literally took your breath away. I realized I had never swam at a waterfall before - and was thankful Sam had talked me into making the climb. It would have been a damn shame to have missed out on such a tremendous experience because I was too lazy to see what was up there. On the way back down through the jungle we stopped off at some natural sulphur springs that were steaming and inviting. I had a lovely bath lounging with the crickets and the tree frogs.


On our way out we managed to get a ride with one of the small tour buses leaving with only one person. It turned out quite well for us because we were just paying for a ride back to town but we got to see several more sights because they were going there first. So we stopped off at another sulphur springs where you walked through a tunnel of bamboo into a dark woodland scene. All around were fumaroles, little holes with sulphur steam rising out like the vents on the street from the great furnaces under ground. There was a blue grey pool that had bubbles the size of a fist churning and bubbling and bursting into froth and foam. The steam rising off of it rose up through the trees and bamboo and caught the light of the setting sun. It hung there and illuminated every ray of light cut into a million beams by all the vegetation - like a haloed star with a thousand glowing tendrils of light radiating from its heart.


The last stop on our trip was to take a look at a cashew tree. I never had any idea how cashews grew. I guess I thought maybe they grew underground like peanuts. They grow on a tree at the end of a fruit called a cashew plum which is bright yellow and slightly pear-shaped but less round at the bottom. Wedged into the base of the fruit is a nut the shape of a lima bean but brown and very hard. Inside is the cashew. The fruit is extremely juicy. You bite into it and suck hard and get a whole mouthful of tangy sweet juice. You don't really eat it so much as drink it.

We watched the sun set from a viewpoint over Roseau where Mother Nature was encroaching on some ruins above the city and applauded the end of a long and fruitful day. Later that night we had a few more gems to add to the treasure chest. As the moon rose over our anchorage we saw a moonbow in the harbor. I had never heard of a rainbow at night but apparently they are quite common in Dominica, where it rains for about 10 minutes every 20 minutes or so.... It was the night of the full moon which made it even more clear - and then, to our delight, the moon eclipsed. I watched the shadow move slowly across the face of the moon until it simmered a reddish brown shade before the clouds finally swallowed it up. Quite a day.