DOMINICA

Dominica Day One:

Yesterday (Sunday) we arrived at port in Roseau, the capitol of Dominica, around 7am.  We were scheduled to arrive around 8, so I woke up earlier to hopefully watch the process of docking the ship, but was disappointed to see that it had already happened.  It was rainy in the morning when I ate breakfast out on the deck, but as is common in many small Caribbean islands, the rain clouds roll in and out pretty frequently, and the weather ended up being beautiful all day.  I had signed up to take a catamaran cruise on a whale-watching safari that started at 9:30 that morning.  The ship was cleared by the custom officials around 8:30 and then the mass exodus of disembarking students began.  The whole process was a little hectic and was coupled with everyone’s excitement to finally be able to explore a new country.  The boat used for the catamaran cruise was pretty large, probably about 65ft long and 30ft across.  Unfortunately, the crew said we wouldn’t be able actually travel under sail power since the boat needed to start and stop quickly to track the whales, which was disappointing, but nevertheless I enjoyed the time climbing around the netting and rigging and watching and listening to the water pass by.  I admit that I had rather low expectations to actually see any whales, since the crew kept telling us that there was no guarantee.  It looked like those expectations were going to pan out about 45 minutes into the voyage, during which everyone was looking for the tell-tale signs of whales; puffs of water from the blow hole and the whale’s reflection on the surface of the water.  Sure enough, about two miles off shore, we spotted a pair of sperm whales; a mother and her calf.  Shortly after this, three other whales joined them, and we had the privilege of watching a group (pod?) of five sperm whales.  The whales would come to the surface and blow out water from their blowhole, so we could see the upper third of their body at the surface of the water.  The catamaran was able to get at most around 30 ft away from the whales, so it was tough to really see the creatures clearly.  Even tougher was trying to take pictures.  The boat was obviously rocking a lot since we were a few miles off shores and it was impossible to predict the precise moment when most of the whales body would be visible, so the pictures I have really aren’t that great.  Once we found the first set of whales we stayed in the area for the next hour or so, and spotted groups of whales about five more times.  It’s tough to say whether we saw new whales each time, or we just spotted the same group resurfacing over and over, but all totaled we probably saw whales 20 times.  Apparently the location we were at is one of the best places in the world to spot sperm whales.

        I got back to the ship around 12:30 for lunch and met up with some friends to go explore the island and town.  After negotiating with a taxi driver (there were literally 30 taxi drivers waiting and hassling us at the dock the whole time we were there) we decided to take a cab ride up to a hiking trail to Middleham Falls, the largest waterfall on Dominica.  The ten of us piled into the taxi and drove up the switch back roads, blind curves, dirt lanes, and steep inclines to a spot somewhere in the hills/mountains.  I couldn’t help but be reminded of my trip to the Caribbean two years ago.  The taxis, scenery, and weather were almost identical to the half dozen other islands I had sailed around aboard the Stad Amsterdam.  Our taxi driver dropped us off at a dirt pull off and said he would wait there for a few hours until we came back from the falls.  The hike up to the falls was pretty intense, at least for me, but after about 30 minutes of tree root and slippery rock stair cases, the trail leveled out and we had a nice hour hike to the observation platform overlooking the waterfalls.  Our taxi group actually caught up to a couple of other groups who had left before us and had hired a tour guide.  Once we got to the platform, it was pretty breathtaking to look at canyons and falls.  The cliffs went up about 300 ft on either side and the water fell from about 200 ft above.  It didn’t take us long looking from the platform to determine that it was possible to climb down the rocks and swim in the pool, and with the assurance of the tour guide, about 25 of us scramble barefoot down the rocks and slid into the incredibly cool and refreshing water.  There was a tiny little cave on the rock wall on the opposite side of the pool (closer to the waterfall) a few ft above the surface, which we swam over and climbed into.  There were a few rocks sticking out next to the cave leading up to a ledge about 10-15 ft above the water.  It was a blast climbing the rocks and jumping off the ledge into the water.  The jump wasn’t that high or intimidating, but the process of climbing barefoot up the slippery rocks into the pool was definitely a little challenging.  After about 30 minutes of swimming around the pool and exploring the river a little bit, we started our hike back.  It was really awesome hiking back through the jungle, since we all decided to spread out and enjoy the hike in solitude.  It was great to only hear the sound of my footsteps and the birds as I hiked back, and gave me some time to just think about and enjoy God’s creation and splendor. 
        I got back on the ship around 1900 and got dinner with Andrew Briggs and some other adults and them my roommate and I decided to go out into the town with them later that night.  It was a little strange being in a group of professors and faculty, and my roommate and I quickly left them after we found a restaurant full of SAS kids.  It was really crowded and hot, but the restaurant happened to be showing the Pats Jets game, so we stayed for a few hours to watch the game and then headed back to the ship around 2200.  Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted after the day’s adventures and went to bed before 2400. 

Dominica Day Two:

        I didn’t have any plans for today (Monday) and slept in a little bit (7:45am) but woke up just in time for breakfast.  It was raining more than it had yesterday, so I stayed on the ship till around 10:30 before heading out.  My roommate (Wade) and I both decided that we wanted to explore the city of Roseau, and didn’t have any desires to go to another waterfall (we already went to the best one on the island) or go snorkeling (I had been snorkeling a whole bunch when I was in the Caribbean two years ago).  The city of Roseau is literally feet from where the shipped docked, and we spent about two hours walking around and checking out the markets, street vendors, and shops.  It rained on and off throughout the morning, which caused a lot of humidity, but the rain felt good and caused a lot of rainbows.  In fact I have seen enough rainbows and double rainbows over the last 48 hours to last a lifetime (the cheers of “Double Rainbow!!” are getting played out.)  Wade and I managed to sneak down to a beach and decided to try to walk along it until we made it back to the main road.  After about ten minutes we met a group of Rasta who were working on some boats.  These guys were friendly, but definitely not a group I would want my future kids hanging around.  There were a number of sketchy looking dinghy boats moored about 50yds from the shore and I jokingly asked if they could take us for a boat ride around the island.  They of course said yes, which I guess I should have expected, and one of the guys had already begun swimming out to a boat to pull it to shore.  I had a suspicion that the men didn’t own the boats (enhanced by the fact that one of them scaled the 15ft wall of the shed holding the life jackets instead of using a key to unlock the door) but in the spirit of adventure Wade and I decided that we might as well go with them.  We were in a 12ft wooden dinghy, that had a lot of holes (which let a lot of water in), a 40hp hand start Yamaha, and two guides” named Mikel and Kelly.  The boat tour started off great until our engine cut off about ten minutes in and we were dead in the water.  We were only about 300yds off shore, and the tide wasn’t pushing us out to sea, which was comforting, and there were a bunch other boats close enough by that we could have signaled them with the safety whistle I had.  We drifted for about 40mins before we were finally able to start the engine.  Honestly, this ranks rather low on my list of boat engine breakdowns, since I’ve spent four years driving (or trying to drive) the CYC Club Tub, and I had had enough minimal experience with low horsepower engines to realize that the engine was flooded with gas, and we just needed to let the thing sit for a couple minutes before trying to start it.  Sure enough we were able to get the engine to turn over, and we asked that Mikel and Kelly to take us back to the dock where the MV Explorer was.  It was quite an experience and I’m sure will be a fun story to tell later on. 
        It’s kind of surreal that this is actually my life right now.  It already feels like I’ve been on the ship for months and it seems normal that we will be headed up the Amazon in a few days.  I guess I have to read some stuff for class tomorrow, but we will see if that will happen.  I’d much rather just keep looking over the deck at the ocean and hills of Dominica illuminated by the full moon. 

Keep it real.
-Ben