Dominica

Tuesday January 18th, 2011

I’ve decided I’ll save you from having to read about my 2nd day of classes and just skip to telling you about the amazing tropical island of Dominica. For those of you I told I was visiting the Dominican Republic, I was wrong! The island of Dominica (Dome-ee-neeca) is only one of the many volcanic islands within the chain of islands south of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Along the route from Puerto Rico we were able to see the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, the island of Guadeloupe, and possibly the islands of Antigua and Barbuda all from the ship. If you’ve ever been on a trip with me you know that I end up taking a lot more landscape pictures compared to pictures with people in them. So basically, I have more than enough photos of the beautiful tropical landscape to show all of you. As I stood on the top deck watching these small yet mysterious islands pass by, I had fun watching the sea birds dive into the water as they attempted to catch the flying fish that were trying to swim away from the ship. Seeing a flying fish fly out of the water is incredible. They really do fly several yards above the water before they dive back down into the ocean.

Enough of life on the ship! Walking outside after breakfast to find an island sitting before me, waiting to be explored was a feeling I’ve never had before in my entire life! I probably felt this way because of how badly I wanted to walk on dry land after living on a ship for 3 ½ days. After running into some of my friends at breakfast we decided to pay a taxi to drive us up to Trafalgar Falls. The pictures of these twin waterfalls looked promising, but we didn’t expect to discover absolute paradise. The hike to the lookout point took about 10 minutes, but we wanted to get as close to the water fall as we could so we continued to hike. As we came upon the first pool of water and stuck our toes in we were delighted to find that the water was warm! We had just discovered a chain of natural hot springs! In other words we stumbled upon three of nature’s natural hot tubs! Since the island of Dominica has 9 active volcanoes, there are fissures in the ground that cause the water to reach temperatures around 90° F; therefore, creating these fabulous hot springs. I found it very interesting that a chain of hot springs could be located only yards away from a cold rushing waterfall. We proceeded to climb through these pools of hot water until we came upon an obstacle course full of boulders. The only way to get to the base of the waterfall was to climb over these boulders. Thankfully no one got hurt in the process of climbing these massive rocks; and within minutes we reached the base of the waterfall where we enjoyed a nice cool swim. Even though the water was cold, it felt amazing after hiking in the rainforest. Before our group headed back down the trail we ran into another group who had a local man as their guide. Experiencing the powerful gust of wind and water blowing in my face was an incredible feeling. However, while I was rubbing my eyes due to the mass amounts of mist blowing on my face, the local guide that was once with the other group suddenly disappeared before our eyes. Within the next few seconds his head popped out of the water, but some how he managed to get from one side of the waterfall to the other. (Let me first say that in all my life I never imagined swimming at the base of a waterfall, but what I decided to do next was something that I thought was on the brink of being impossible.) The guide proceeded to show us a hole that was located underneath the water. The next thing I knew, I was taking a big deep breath and entering the water in order to swim through the hole that honestly didn’t look big enough for any of the people I was with to fit through. The only instructions were to keep my eyes open under water and to keep left. Within just a few moments, my head was back above water as the currents pushed me out and I came up from swimming through the hole that went underneath the waterfall!!! This was an incredible experience, but my day wasn’t over. For this was only Tuesday’s morning activity and much awaited me as the day went on.

We arrived back at the dock just in time to grab a quick bite to eat before I left for the snorkeling excursion at Champagne Reef. Fun fact: This reef is called, “Champagne Reef” because the air bubbles that are constantly being released from the air vents in the ocean floor resemble the bubbles in a glass of Champagne. I love snorkeling so this was a treat for me! I saw all kinds of fish and sea creatures including: Parrot fish, Trumpet fish, a Barracuda, brain coral, a specific kind of eel that was black and white spotted, the black needle like sea urchins that are poisonous, a sea cucumber, the blue type of fish in finding Nemo that is portrayed as Dory, and many more. Another fun fact that our guide told us is that several scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean 2 were filmed in Dominica near Champagne Reef. Overall this day felt like a dream as the beauty of Dominica continued to blow my mind!