Location: Roseau, Dominica
Did someone say early wakeups?! That’s my kind of day to be skipper, that so-much-fun-to-be-had we needed to get ahead of schedule kind of morning. Today, everyone was crawling out of bed by 06:15 for 06:30 breakfast so we could be on our way bright and early to either A) munch our way around the island on a fruit tour, including massive beautiful waterfalls, or B) hike over ridge after ridge to arrive at a quite literally, boiling lake.
The fruit tour adventure includes a lot of delicious local favorites, including fruits such as oranges, grapefruits, tangerines (cooked-up breadfruit is often a favorite), fresh chocolate, chicken, warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven cassava bread, and other treats. Stops include local spice markets, backyards, and even a lovely kitchen of a local family preparing food for us. Sometimes, tree climbing is needed to get to the ripest of the fruits. Although these are all delicious stops along the way, the favorite moment of the tour is often laying eyes upon two of Dominica’s most beautiful waterfalls. It’s a bit of a steep rocky scramble up to the top, but swimming and splashing around with the most breathtaking rainforest views makes it worthwhile. If you venture off to the left side of the falls into some bright orange mud, there is even a hot spring from all the geothermal activity around the island.
Those of us on the boiling lake hike (arguably the most strenuous hike of our semester) enjoyed going over several ridges, wandering through dense forest, then winding down through the valley of desolation. As we walked through the valley, just inches above boiling water, we could see steam pouring out from the cracks in the rocks and small pools boiling. Our guide even hard-boiled us some eggs in the stream, although they were only halfway boiled at first… and we found that out the hard way (but left them to cook for a snack on the walk back). Our lunch stop, and the turnaround point, is a cliff that overlooks a massive lake boiling at the center. We tried to time our photos when the clouds would lift so you could see the bubbles, so look closely. The hike was great fun, and we kept quite a speedy pace, but it was not without a few (harmless) falls and many muddy feet.
Everyone was back on board by mid-afternoon and eager for an ocean shower, although some of us were more muddy than others. Following dinner, we had a brief presentation by Meg and me about how AWESOME sperm whales are (based on facts, of course) in hopes of preparing for seeing them tomorrow on our whale-watching adventure.
Just one of those days when you can’t help but appreciate just how beautiful the Caribbean is, especially Dominica. 🙂