“Do you think these roads can get any steeper” I commented to the others three people in our tour group. “ I would have a really difficult time walking up this road. The wheels keep spinning out and we are on asphalt.”
My question was soon answered when the asphalt changed to concrete. They use concrete in order to put groves across the road to give the cars more traction as the roads get steeper.
Dominica is 16 miles wide and 26 miles long. It is one of the largest islands in the Caribbean with eight active volcanos. None have erupted in recent history but are all monitored constantly. The mountains are steep and the country side is lush green. A true rain forest not like the one in Antigua where we ended the day covered in dust.
We left The Saintes and sailed 20 miles down to Plymouth, Dominica. the predicted 15 knot winds quickly turned into 25 knots. The sails were reefed and we had a nice sail. There are three other people on the boat beside my self. One will be sailing with me all the way to St. Lucia and the other couple will leave after 10 days. The two are total newbies and are now hooked on the cruising life.
“This is our fifth day with you and we have only been moving or sailing on the boat for four hours. After today it will make a grand total of eight hours. Is this normal” Colleen asked
“It is for cruisers” I reply. “The idea is not so much to get there, but to enjoy the islands that we come across.”
We rode scooters all around the Island of Terre d’en Haut in Iles Des Saintes, checked out all of the beaches and swam in the most beautiful ones. The four of us took the dingy over to Isle Cabrit to enjoy some amazing snorkeling. The deeper crystal clear water was filled with colorful fish, waving fan corals, tall tube corals, immense brain corals and no one else there but us. It was a snorkeler paradise.
Happy hours with friends finished off the end to a fabulous day.
The next day we did a four hour cruise and reached our destination in Dominica. Here in Dominica we have had more wonderful snorkeling, stand up paddle boarding around the boat, beach party barbecue on the beach and more happy hours on the boat. My liver is going to need a break. Maybe tomorrow.
The island tour with our stoned taxi driver gave us a little more excitement than we really wanted. We did see the island, had lunch at a quaint little restaurant overlooking the Atlantic, and hiked to a jungle pool with a sixty foot water fall crashing down upon us to massage our bodies and make our heads hurt.
As we are having lunch, Chris looks at us and says ”we have really been traveling inland since took that last turn.” The three of us look at him with a confused look and then turn to look at the ocean next to the restaurant. He slowly turns his head and says ”Oh, I guess we haven't turned inland yet.”
Last August Dominica was hit by Hurricane Erica. The wind was not the problem but the 12 inches of rain in five hours was. People died, homes were lost, and roads were completely blocked or literally washed out to sea by the torrential rain. The roads are now passable but in terrible condition. You add this to steep curvy roads (the longest straight road in the country is two miles long), traveling straight up or straight down and a cab driver that needed a little extra hit in the afternoon to keep on trucking led to a most interesting day.
We made the decision to sail to Roseau instead of tempting fate with another cab driver to get Chris and Colleen to the ferry on time.
They sadly are leaving us and heading back to Wisconsin. We have had a wonderful ten days together.