We have now enjoyed a couple of days of getting out and about in Dominica. On Tuesday afternoon we took a boat trip up the Indian River with one of the PAYS guides, Avin (son of PAYS guide Albert).

Avin rowed us up-river, among the herons, the egrets, the pelicans and the iguanas (engines are not allowed). This gave us some up close insights to the effects of a category 5+ hurricane. At a distance from the shore you see quite a lot of broken and downed trees but there appears to be a fair covering of greenery. What we now learn is that in many places the entire upper canopy of the rain forest has been snapped off; this time last year we would have been travelling through a tunnel of treetops, but now there's clear sky. After the hurricanes came through, the forest was just broken brown tree stumps, all stripped completely bare of branches and leaves. What is left is showing amazing resilience, and is re-growing at pace - especially the creepers, the palms and the mangroves. It is so fertile here. Many of the seedlings on the ground now have enough light that they can really get going, and positive-thinking Avin says that with the thinning of the forest everything should grow back stronger than before.

Everywhere along the banks you see the signs of chainsaws at work; it was a few weeks' work to clear the river of tree trunks and debris, and what a challenge that was in this environment. Even now we were having to scrape our way round fallen branches in the stream. There is a well-known hang-out called the Bush Bar part-way up river, where it is traditional to stop and enjoy life, but for now it is closed (re-opening shortly!) - there is nothing at the bar but three empty stools, a Bob Marley LP cover and a skull.

It will be some years before the Indian River is how it was, but for now you get to enjoy it with more sunlight than before. The Indian River was used, along with various other locations here, for filming of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we did a full day trip of the island with guide Paul. It was good to see - still very beautiful but so much natural destruction. Many houses without roofs, most villages without power, trees down everywhere, metal roofing sheet scattered to the winds - and all this after a lot of clean-up has been done already. Yet the lovely Dominican people are getting on with rebuilding their island and getting their tourist industry back on track. They are growing what they can and planting things that can grow quickly, such as tomatoes and salads. It will take a while but they will get there. They seem to be very happy to have yachties coming in and we are very happy to support them. We have been trying to see if there is something specific we can support but it seems that coming here, taking trips, using their bars and restaurants and generally supporting their vendors is a major part of helping them get back on track to re-building their future.