Dominica Part 3

Today we end our visit to Dominica, which has definitely been one of our favorite islands.  We already talked about the famous Boiling Lake hike below, but we had a few more adventures on the Nature Island besides that.

After Heather safely arrived from Virginia and told us about her new business startup "Bridal Brokerage" (HERE is a link), we took a trip up the Indian River.  Since outboard motors and tourists are not allowed by themselves, we hired Andrew to row us up the creek.  Among the wildlife were fish, crabs, birds, and vegetation.  Alas we did not see any Boa Constrictors, which apparently live here.

We also saw the location of a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean 2, which was an old house on the banks of the creek.  Pretty neat.

That afternoon, we went snorkeling in Cabrits National Park, which was a great trip, featuring lots of fishes, coral, and two eels and a sea snake.  The mountain drops off directly into the sea, leaving a sheer cliff face from far overhead to about 100 feet below the surface.

The next day we started a 2 day driving tour of the island (driving on the left, with giant drainage ditches on the side of the road waiting to gobble up our tires).  We saw several waterfalls and were refreshed by swimming in the natural pools.  Since the driving times are quite long, we stayed in a hotel in the southern part of the island for a night and enjoyed real showers and beds before tackling the Boiling Lake hike on Saturday.

Sunday was a recovery day aboard Navigator, enjoying some sun and jumps in the ocean before attending the weekly beach barbecue that the local boat guys put on.

On Monday we dropped Heather off for her flight back to school (only 5 weeks until graduation!), and picked up groceries for the next week at the local markets.  A quick lunch of chicken roti in town and back to the boat to prepare for our departure.

Tomorrow we head out for the trip to St. Lucia.  We'll probably stop in Martinique for a day or two along the way, since the baguettes are too hard to resist, but when next you hear from us, we'll be in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia.

Hard to believe that in less than 2 months we'll be putting the boat in storage for hurricane season in Trinidad - many miles to cover between now and then!

In other news - we are finally far enough south (and in the right season) to get a good view of the Southern Cross at night.  Here is a picture of the cross rising over Dominica.