So Dominica was amazing. Minus the pretty solid sunburn I got, I really really enjoyed my time there. Dominica is a small island nation that quite frankly, until this trip I never knew existed, and I would be surprised how many Americans really knew anything about Dominica. In fact, most people( I and nearly everyone else on the ship included) pronounced it wrong. It is actually pronounced Doe-mon-eee-kah, not like the root of the word Dominican. I’ll break down my time in Dominica here for you.
We pulled into port and a group of us grabbed breakfast then headed off for our field programs, most of my friends were doing an independent trip, but I had signed up for the Whale and Dolphin Safari, cause quite frankly, we don’t have a wild whale or dolphin within a thousand miles of my home. This trip was awesome. Within the first couple minutes of the ride out from dock, we saw one dolphin. This one dolphin swam in front of the ship for a few mins, and I was lucky enough to be able to jump up front of the 60 foot catamaran we were on, and was mere feet from this single dolphin. From here however, many dolphins joined in, and at one point my buddy Bennett and I counted over 16 swimming in front of the ship as we sailed in circles. From there, we went over to another spot and after a dead hour or so, we saw whales, and then more whales, 5 whales in total. I got pictures, a video, everything, it was awesome.
We ended up being 45 mins late to the dock from coming in, and we got more than we paid for I’d say. I was supposed to meet up with people at 12:30 to head into town for lunch, but since I was 45 mins late, I had thought I missed them. Thankfully I didn’t miss them, and we walked for about 2 miles into town. The town was like any you’d expect in the Caribbean, seemed old, run down, but had an island charm about it. We found this pier where we were able to jump off and do flips and swim in the ocean with a bunch of German tourists.
After a few hours we came back to the ship, changed, ate, and went into town for Kaels 21st! We had heard of a bar called Krazy cocunuts that was opening just for us that evening, so we decided that instead of running up an $80 bar tab that we would instead run by a store and go have a few drinks by the pier. It was amazing. It was so dark, I’ve never seen stars like that ever before, and hanging out with cool people made it all the sweeter. We went to Krazy Cocunuts and it was an all-out club, music bumping, everything. At midnight the DJ announced that it was Kaels birthday and he got a ton of free shots, which lets just say made the rest of the night rather interesting for me. We got home safe, and I think Kael had a birthday to remember, but I’m still proud of how he held it together to get on the ship with as little of a scene as he did.
Day 2 we went to these amazing falls where right under the waterfalls is a hot spring. It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. Absolutely Gorgeous. Fun Fact: Pirates of the Caribbean 2&3 was shot all over Dominica, just to give you a glimpse at what I saw. We hung out and swam for 2-3 hours, then we had our cab driver take us back into town, where we walked around and generally were touristy for a few hours, including trying out some local food, which was…. Alright. Then we got back on the ship and are on the way to Manaus Brazil!
I had such an awesome time in Dominica, and its crazy to think its just a beginning!
Much Love,
Matt.
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