Location: Roseau, Dominica
It’s really hard to justify a 6:45 a.m wake-up to a bunch of exhausted college students. Luckily the staff put together a very convincing argument by explaining that we would be doing our deepest and most unique dive of the trip thus far. After a groggy breakfast, we piled our dive equipment into the dinghies and set off to a local diving company called Dive Dominica. The motor over to the dive spot gifted us with views of deep blue water and the picturesque bright-colored roofs that dot the lush mountainous terrain of Dominica. The very accommodating staff of Dive Dominica explained that we would be diving a trench of sorts that descended over 1000 feet below the surface and that we would be going about 100 feet down it. On the dive, we saw a lot of very interesting sea creatures, the highlight of which was a few very exotic-looking lionfish. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to look at them for too long as the staff of the dive boat speared with harpoons when we saw them because they were invasive to the area and very disruptive to the local environment.
After the dive, we got an opportunity to roam the exotic and oftentimes hectic streets of the island nation. We were greeted by very welcoming locals and a whole lot of stray chickens. Many of us purchased exotic trinkets and clothing from the local street vendors as mementos representative of the culture shock we experienced, but as for myself, I just bought three very touristy, yet very comfortable tees that read Dominica in block letters and sport a very badly photoshopped parrot on them as I had underestimated the amount of laundry I had to do in Nevis. One of the most rewarding parts of the day was coming back to Ocean Star and sharing the unique, memorable, and oftentimes funny instances we had on the island. Tonight we have our first night out of the trip, followed by even more adventures to come in the next few days, so stay tuned.
-Brandon