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A mud facial in Desolation Valley
The island of Dominica (Domineeka) is a tropical paradise; it has crystal clear water, rainforest covered mountains, mineral springs, and everything is green. Especially the algae growing on the bottom of the boat - we really need to buckle down and do some work. We’ve only been here a short time but we’ve seen a lot. On our first day we hiked to the Boiling Lake, a hot sulphur lake in the island’s national park. It was a six hour trip, three there and three back, and it wasn’t easy. The trail started at the base of a hill and went straight up for about two hours. We climbed through the rainforest up “stairs” cut into the mountainside and lined with palm tree logs. We reached the plateau at the top gasping for breath and then descended down into Desolation Valley, so named because the sulphur in the air has damaged the foliage in the area. As we walked we could hear the bubbling of geysers under our feet and we could see steam coming up out of the ground. The water in the streams was grey and was hot to the touch. As we got closer to the lake the smell of sulphur became overwhelming and as we looked out over it we could see, through the intense and stinky steam, a pool of bubbling grey water. The lake is apparently aptly named as it is in fact boiling. Swimming is impossible and not just because it is so unappealing - were told that a man had recently fallen in and badly burned his legs. On the way back we stopped at one of the mineral pools and Adam splashed around in the warm sulphur water for its healing and beautifying properties; however, he reports that he does not feel more beautiful post swim. At the end of the hike we swam against the current through the Titou Gorge which is a narrow passage between rocks about 2 m apart in water 6 m deep. It ends at a waterfall which we climbed up to a second waterfall. It was great, one of the highlights of the trip. Our only regret for the day was not going with a registered tour guide, we had someone who was not on the list and I am sure that we would have seen more wildlife if he hadn’t been playing music on his cellphone as we walked.
On the second day we took a bus to one of the island’s largest waterfalls, Trafalgar Falls, and tried to climb up huge boulders to swim in the pool at the base. Adam was the only one in our party who made it to the top though because the rocks were too high and slippery for those of us with shorter legs. It took him a long time and he nearly broke his neck but he made it to the top and back. His reward was a three hour hike back into town – he was not as pleased with his prize as he would have liked.
Our next big excursion was to the Champagne Reef which has underwater volcanic bubbles that rise up out of the sea floor and looks like a glass of Champagne. Or gingerale, but maybe that would be harder to market. It was really amazing, loads of colourful fish, strange coral formations, definitely another highlight of the trip. I particularly like the enormous sea plants and Adam enjoyed herding schools of fish.
Our last adventure in Dominica (if you don’t count the hand crushing incident as we tried to tie up to the dock of death in Roseau) was to take a rowing tour up the Indian River. It is billed as the Dominican mini Amazon and it was used for filming parts of one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. We saw crazy trees, giant termite nests, and our guide didn’t even scare away any of the wildlife. It can’t get much better than that!
On the second day we took a bus to one of the island’s largest waterfalls, Trafalgar Falls, and tried to climb up huge boulders to swim in the pool at the base. Adam was the only one in our party who made it to the top though because the rocks were too high and slippery for those of us with shorter legs. It took him a long time and he nearly broke his neck but he made it to the top and back. His reward was a three hour hike back into town – he was not as pleased with his prize as he would have liked.
Our next big excursion was to the Champagne Reef which has underwater volcanic bubbles that rise up out of the sea floor and looks like a glass of Champagne. Or gingerale, but maybe that would be harder to market. It was really amazing, loads of colourful fish, strange coral formations, definitely another highlight of the trip. I particularly like the enormous sea plants and Adam enjoyed herding schools of fish.
Our last adventure in Dominica (if you don’t count the hand crushing incident as we tried to tie up to the dock of death in Roseau) was to take a rowing tour up the Indian River. It is billed as the Dominican mini Amazon and it was used for filming parts of one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. We saw crazy trees, giant termite nests, and our guide didn’t even scare away any of the wildlife. It can’t get much better than that!