It had appeared that we might get rained on again, but by the time we boarded the bus for the day's excursion, things had cleared up quite a bit. We were taken up a mountain overlooking the city and got to enjoy a great view of the capital, Roseau.
While we were up there, we saw the most colorful caterpillar I've ever seen in person, just trying to cross the road. Always cool to see things like that when they're not in a zoo or a museum.
Afterward, we were taken further back into the mountains to Trafalgar Falls, a double waterfall in the rainforest. As we were walking to the falls, our guide pointed out a type of crab that lives in the rainforest. The picture isn't the greatest, but I thought this was pretty interesting, as I'd never heard of such a crab.
Here are the falls:
I believe it was at the entrance to the path to the falls that we picked up our first edible souvenirs of the trip, some hot sauce and some vanilla extract. I'm not big on souvenirs, but I'm always up for trying the local foods and seasonings.
We were taken to a kind of rest area for a snack, and this is what it looked like outside:
Dominica was the lushest and greenest of the islands we visited, and for my money, the most beautiful with its mountain terrain and rainforests. The terrain also made for very windy roads, and with the roads not being kept up very well, I experienced a decent amount of carsickness as we made our way around the island.
Our final stop of the day was the Emerald Pool, a blue-green pool at the bottom of a waterfall inside a rainforest. Here's a piece of what the walk to the pool looked like:
And the pool itself:
Becca and I went swimming in the pool, and it was a tad cold but felt great after 30 seconds or so. We took the underwater camera in, and it gets surprisingly decent quality shots. And, of course, the nice thing about it is that you get photos you otherwise couldn't get.
No one else in our group had come to the pool prepared to swim, so we didn't stay in the pool very long so as to not keep the others waiting.
Back at the entrance to the pool there was a snack shop, so we picked something that seemed local, a fried fish sandwich, and chowed down. It was a bit dry, but actually not too shabby. I'd add some mayo next time. We also shared some plantain chips, which are kind of like potato chips but a bit starchier. I was surprised at how much I liked them, considering the fact that I typically hate anything banana-oriented.
When we got back to Roseau and the cruise pier, we decided to wander around for a while, starting with a short, pleasant walk along the pier.
We then went into town to look around and see if we could find something to eat. Roseau's brightly colored buildings are fairly typical of what you see in the Caribbean, and they looked especially bright on that day due to the sunny weather.
For food, we eventually settled on some Jamaican patties that we found being sold out of a cart on the street. They're very much like pasties, which are kind of like the British version of a pot pie. We got curry chicken and beef and shared them. Becca preferred the former, and I the latter.
After that, we headed back to the ship to rest. I don't think we did anything special the rest of the day, but I did get a few more photos of the area.
All in all, I liked Dominica the most of any of the places we went, and it was the first of the islands we visited that I thought might be decent for a return visit. The people seemed friendly and the place was relatively clean. And, of course, it's very pretty. I'll give Dominica a solid B+.
No comments:
Post a Comment