The Saints and Dominica
14 April 2015 | Dominica
After spending nearly a month in Antigua, it was time to head south again. On our way to The Saints, we spent one very rally night in BasseTerre, Guadalupe. We watched the beachside fun from our cockpit. The beach was black sand which was different than any beaches we have seen to date. We arrived the next day in The Saints. We have very fond memories of this place as we were here eleven years ago together on Cheryl's first Caribbean trip. We met up with the crew if Mojo, John an Barbara and spent several days having three hour lunches at the waterside restaurants. While the food at these places was excellent, we both ended up getting a touch of something that didn't agree with us. We think it was bad chorizo we had in our fridge and not anything we ate at the restaurants. After shopping, eating, and walking all over the island, we headed south again to Dominica.
Dominica is a beautiful island with many trails that traverse the country. Our first tour was the Indian River tour, which was in a scene of Pirates of the Caribbean. No motorboat are allowed up the river and you have to go with a guide. They earn their fare as they have to row a boatload of tourist up the river and back. At the stopping point, there is a bar and a walking trail. We had the river drink "Dynamite". Tasty but strong.
Another day we took a guide up the Syndicate rainforest where we hiked up the trail to the tallest mountain peak, Morne Diablotin. We were hoping to see the Sisserou parrots. We didn't see any but we heard them singing high up in the treetops. We also visited Milton Falls which took us on a short hike through farmlands where we viewed more mango trees than you could count. We were shown the following plants; coffee beans, cocoa beans, papaya, avocados, grapefruit, cinnamon, lemons, bananas, nutmeg, almonds, and ginger root just to name a few. Much of these plants and trees are growing wild on the island. That's my kind of farming. The falls were breathtaking and maybe the coldest water we have ever swam in. Brrr, but it felt so refreshing for a few minutes.
We took a bus ride to Roseau which is about an hours drive and cost us 18 EC which is about $7 US. Ed went to a local dentist there to get his crown sealed back in place.
We really enjoyed Dominica and could have stayed longer if not for the extremely loud local music we had to endure till 4 AM two nights a week. The local establishments either think cruisers like this noise or they are trying to run us off as the insist on pointing the speakers out towards the bay where all the cruisers on trying to sleep.
Next stop Martinique.