Dominica the nature Island

Dominica the nature island

Okay wauw wauw wauw. My brother and I just landed on St Maarten again after a wonderful week on Dominica.

The island is called the nature Island, and they are absolutely right about that. The island is full of bright green colors. Everywhere you look are trees and flowers, the eco land is really fertile. We arrived on the airport near to Roseau. We were able to find a bus instead of a taxi, which saved us around 80 US dollars. When the taxi driver offered us a ride we were shocked by the price he gave us. The transportation system on Dominica isn’t quite as good as St Maarten, but when you’re not in a rush it’s okay. Sometimes the busdriver decides to wait 2 hours to wait until the bus is filled. That’s why we hitchhiked a lot. People just stop their pick-ups in front of you and you can climb on it. When you feel like getting of the truck you just punch the roof of the Pick-up so the driver knows to stop.

Roseau is quite a big city compared to any other city on Dominica. They named it after the sugar cane tree. This tree is kind of funny since it is flexible and not originally from the island. We had a chocolate banana smoothie at the reggae ruins rock cafe, which is seriously a super nice raggae kind a place + there is free wifi. After meeting with the people from airbnb we went to our apartment. The apartment had a beautiful see view and the facilities were amazing. We figured we deserved a nice place before we travelled further into the Wotten Waven rainforest. We tried to look for nice dinner places in Roseau, and finally we found a cheap restaurant with great food and a nice vibe around, it’s called fusion. We were so surprised that there weren't lots of restaurant opened at night.  Yeah sometimes we ended up in really crappy ghetto places where they only sold fried dry chicken.. Their eating habits are sooo bad in the bigger city's.

After Roseau we went to the tropical rainforest of a small village called Wotten Waven. We first made a stop at Champagne reef were we went scuba diving! Again: Wauw. With a short introduction we stayed under for 48 minutes (what is quite long we were told for beginners). It was so beautiful. I’ve seen like 100 species of fish, it was like Nemo the movie. The brown reef with different coral and plants lighted up because of the sun that shined into the sea. The underwater world is so much fun, so quiet en colourful. Unfortunately my brother and I can’t share the view with anyone since we didn’t have a Go Pro… But at least we have a wonderful memory!

Wotten Waven is so small and quiet. Within the day you learn names of the locals. Wotten Waven has a restaurant, hot baths (they are amazing. Sulfhur is so good for your skin) , a small shop and primitive little shacks for rentall. All of these things are runned by the same family, which is a great word for this small village "family". This is just one big happy family. Everyone knows each other and helps one another with everything they need. Everyone has its own specialty, and when you walk down the mountain roads of Wotten Waven, the people make you feel like you're part of this happy small community. It's wonderful.

It sure is a rainforest haha. It was raining so hard and so much. Me and my poncho were like besties, I didn’t go anywhere without it. The cabin we were staying at was made out of wood. Kim the owner made us feel really welcome. His uncle Michael gave us a tour to the boiling lake and the Valley of Deselation. In the morning we went by taxi to the Waitukubuli trail. It was raining again when we started the tour but it was dry the rest of the day what made me really happy!  We boiled some eggs in the boiling water, I had a facial mud mask and Michael gave us some organic plant tea which was the best tea I have ever tasted.

After Wotten Waven we went to the South of Dominica to a small village called Soufriere. We stayed at a Banana camping side, which looked wonderfull. The garden was really big and the owner was once again really welcoming. Unfortunately the tent was soooo hot and mosquito’s everwhere so we didn’t sleep much. We had a little lizard pet though, it liked getting into the tent, or the toilet, shower, on my bag haha.  My brother unfortunaly sprained his ankle extremely on the boiling lake tour so we had to go to the hospital in Roseau to do an Xray like the house doctor suggested. It was a nice day though, we met lots of people in the hospital, and everyone had adventurous stories about why they needed an Xray haha. After the hospital we decided to rent a car for the last 2 days because walking much wouldn’t work. We got a nice SUV, we called him Mr.James Dipsey.

With James and my brother we drove all the way to the North to Portmouth. On the map the island may not seem so big, but it’s incredibly big! I think we should have rented a car in the beginning of the week cause in two days we’ve seen so much more. Portmouth is really small. We arrived around 7:30 PM and once again we couldn’t found a normal restaurant, so we ate junk food again. Johnny’s cake though, much better than fried chicken. It was hard finding our new place but luckily people on Dominica help in any way they can! We had a good night rest and the last day we went to the Indian River. When we arrived all sort of people came running to our car, to give us a tour. Gregory was first, so he gave us a wonderful tour. We’ve seen an Iguana in a tree which was kind of a miracle he told us. On St Maarten they walk around so much, on Dominica you hardly see them. The river had big curly trees and the water was almost green. The reflection in the water was amazing itself, and the rainforest sounds were just really calming. You heard different birds, the wind and the trees. We have seen some Pirates of the Caribbean scene’s locations.

After the Indian River we drove over to the Carib territory which is on the north east of the Island. It took us longer than we thought again. But it didn’t matter because the view we’ve seen that day was incredible!! Was just nice to drive around on small mountain road (on the left side) in the sun watching small villages and banana & mango trees.  We arrived at our last airbnb, which I thought was one of the nicest. We stayed in a family, with them in their house. Irvince was actually in the old days the youngest chief of the Kalinago tribe ever. He was 21 when he became Chief. They  have democratic elections every 4 years. When we arrived in the territory you could just tell by the people. They have a different bone tructure, different eyes, different skin color and they all have long beautirul black hair like Indians. The Kalinago people have a great history. They were first on the island of Dominica and survived by hunting, fishing and farming. Justin the guy that showed us around one of the villages showed us canoes they make out of trees. They carve it out until it’s a long canoe. Justin told us he likes to tell younger Caribs everything about their culture and history. There are now days lots of influences from the western world. Kalinago children go to normal schools and they see more of the other world. They have great traditions and history left, what distinguishes them from others. That night we had a homemade meal: rice, mahi mahi, potatoes and peas. Was nice to hear a lot of stories and have nice company.

Oh and on our way back, they transferred flying agencies so we actually flew back to St Maarten by a bigger plain. Yea we upgraded a lot since we were able to sit in front with sooo much leg space.

I recommend Dominica to them who like nature, wanderlust, who are flexible, don't mind waiting, who love social luxury and a primitive, eco and organic lifestyle!