Dominica | Dana's Destination Diary

December 1, 2010

Tuesday 11/16: Roseau, Dominica, in port 8am-5pm

For today, I had arranged a tour with Levi Baron of Bumpiing Tours. It cost $47 for a full-day group tour in an air-conditioned 15-seat van, including water, juice, and local beers. I met Levi right outside the port, and he introduced me to the tour guide/driver Gary. Gary was terrific! He answered all of our questions and he was funny and engaging at each stop of the tour. Dominica was my favorite island of the 5 ports I visited, mostly because of how much fun I had on this excursion! Here’s the view of Roseau from atop deck 11:

First we drove up a huge mountain and made a brief stop at Morne Bruce to see the view of all of Roseau (we could even see down to the cruise ship!)

Then we continued up to Titou Gorge. Levi asked us to meet him super early so we would be the first group to arrive at Titou Gorge, and it’s a good thing he did because we had the whole place to ourselves! I had read a few reviews that the water up there is freezing cold, but I honestly didn’t think it was so bad, and I got used to it after a minute or two.

Here’s a photo of me standing in the cold water (notice the flotation belt… no one was allowed in the water unless they wore one!)

We swam into the caves (where Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 were filmed!) and then had to swim against the current from a waterfall to reach a little alcove to stand on. Gary pulled people who weren’t strong swimmers through the current with a life preserver on a rope. Then Gary gave us the option of climbing up a 6 foot waterfall to another pool of water where we could stand under a second waterfall to take pictures:

To get back down, we had to jump off that 6 foot waterfall. It was rather difficult to get my footing through the rushing current of the waterfall, but once I had my balance, the jump wasn’t too hard. Once we swam back out of the gorge, there were a ton of other people arriving and I could see how crowded it must get there later in the day! We went back to our van, enjoyed some cold beers, and then drove off to Trafalgar falls.

To get to the falls, we had to walk through the rain forest for about 10 minutes along a dirt path, and climbed a bunch of steps too:

Along the way, Gary explained about different types of leaves and trees. Once we got to the viewing platform, we could see the two twin falls (also called the Mama and Papa falls) for a beautiful view and photo op:

Then Gary gave us the option to climb down a series of very slippery boulders into the hot springs. This was kind of dangerous but completely worth it as the water felt so nice and warm! We slid between some boulders, and continued climbing until we reached a calm pool of water, where Gary gave us time to swim and enjoy the sites.

These are the rocks we had to climb on in front of the falls:

Next, we climbed back up to the viewing platform and walked back down the stairs and trails to the van. We took a QUICK drive through the botanical gardens, took a quick photo with the bus squashed under a school bus:

and continued on to Champagne Reef for some snorkeling.

The shore near champagne reef was very rocky, so definitely wear water shoes if you have them! Once again, my snorkeling experience was spoiled by the rough current. Gary said it is usually very calm here, but we were rather unlucky as the current was rough and the water was quite cloudy so we didn’t get the full effect of the bubbles.

After a long, but fun-filled day, Gary drove us back to the port, and we were back on the ship by 3pm. I took a nap, got ready for the evening, and then went up to the deck to watch the sunset with my nightly sushi snack.

Tonight was the only time I missed the evening show. I was killing time by wandering around the ship, and as I passed through the martini bar, I ran into two ladies from my table, so I joined them and we talked for like 3 hours straight- right through the show! So my appologies that I can’t review it, but I think it involved more singing and dancing haha After drinks, we headed into the MDR for dinner…

Shellfish and Saffron Risotto (yes, this is the exact same dish as I had for an entree the night before… but it was so good the first time, I couldn’t resist ordering it again!):