the Bahamas and two days of classes, we arrived in our first port,
Dominica. Dominica may seem at immediate glance to just be an
abbreviation of the Dominican Republic, but it is in fact an entirely
different island. Pronounced Dom-Min-Ee-Ka, this is an island that many
Americans have not only not heard of it, but probably will never visit.
It is a minor tourist destination, but it doesn't offer international
flights in nor do any American cruise ships dock there (though there was
a German ship docked there at the same time we were). It only receives
about 60,000 visitors per year, which is absolutely crazy since tourism
is a major industry here, and working at Disney I know that at least
60,000 people are there PER DAY on even the slowest of seasons. But I
think that is part of Dominica's beauty. Yes, it's a tourist destination
and that's very apparent, but it has also retained some of its natural
beauty that other islands seem to have lost.
On day 1 in Dominica I woke up at 6:00 to try to see us pull into port,
but it turns out we got there early and were already there!
Nevertheless, I was one of the first people up on the deck watching, and
was able to see our actual approach from the sea into the dock. We
aren't allowed off the ship immediately after porting, and have to wait
until we are cleared by customs. So after watching for a while, I went
to breakfast on the deck and then went into the union to wait for my
trip. This morning I went on an SAS trip to a few different places.
Initially, I hadn't registered for any SAS trips here but I ended up
doing a last minute sign up for one. First, we went to the top of Roseau
(the capital) and were able to just glance down at the city and our ship
in the distance. There was a small market there and we also got to see
some natural vegetation. Next, we went to the botanical gardens, which
is a collection of plants, animals and a lot of other nature-related
beautifies in a public park. There was a group of school kids having gym
in the park too, and it was really cool to watch the different exercises
that they were doing. All the kids wore colored uniforms based upon
their grade year, and they were all doing a different version of cardio
that US students don't normally do and I don't even have a name for.
Also in the botanical gardens is an old crash site from a hurricane that
hit in the 1970s. A bus, with no passengers, crashed into a house there
and it was never moved. The bus is still sitting there, deteriorating
against the house. The tree is still split in half, although very
rotting, and the windows of the bus were all busted up and broken. It
honestly looked like something straight out of a movie scene (or, as my
inner Floridan comes out, the Twister ride at Universal). Our next stop
was to a place called Trafalgar Falls, which is a duel waterfall site
you can get to after a hike. It was beautiful to see, and I got great
panoramic shots of it , but I was disappointed that we weren't allowed
to walk past the bridge part and onto the rocks near the falls. This was
because we were on an SAS trip and they take safety really seriously,
but there were a lot of other students there independently that got to
walk up and I'd by lying if I said I wasn't really jealous. In fact, we
actually got yelled at on the way back because our tour guide thought
some of the kids walking up were from our group (they weren't), which
made me wish even more that I had done it! After the falls we went to a
local restaurant where we got beverages and watched a cultural
performance. Most of the people in my group got Dominican Rum Punch, but
I settled for some Passionfruit juice, which was really, really good.
The cultural performance was of 4 women, singing and dancing, a man
accompanying them playing the drums. The songs were a mix of Creole and
English, and mostly about Dominica. At the end, we got up and got to
dance with them, which was really cool and definitely an experience. I
also thought it was really cool that the performers danced with no
shoes, but I don't really understand the meaning of it. The restaurant
we went to actually had free wifi, and the majority of our trip pulled
out their phones right after and started using it. Although I had my
phone on me, I was able to suppress the urge and instead enjoyed the
views and talking to the performers. I was really proud of myself for
this simply because I thought I would have SUCH phone withdrawals, but I
didn't care to pull it out. Go me! One thing I do have to say about this
cultural performance, though, is that I wish it felt more cultural. A
lot of the songs seemed to be about visiting Dominica and bringing your
friends and coming back for a vacation and so on. Though that of course
is part of the industry and something they are trying to promote (as
well as everyone on the island was, I noticed how many people said "tell
your friends to come to Dominica"), I wish I had been able to experience
more of a native culture rather than a desire to impress Americans.
Our last stop on the SAS trip was to what is called the "hot springs."
The springs are literally that, a small water mass that boils at 95
degrees CELSIUS. You could smell a scent of burning from a mile away and
the site was a lot smaller than I expected, but its hard to imagine how
that happened or how it continues. There were vendors actually selling
some of the salts and things from the waters, but I didn't buy any
because I didn't actually believe it. After this we bordered the bus to
head back to the dock but not before stopping along the way to smell
some local lemongrass, which smelled delicious and I totally wish I
could bring some home. Surprisingly, all this happened in 3.5 hours so
it was only 12:30 by time we got back to the dock. There were a few of
us on the trip that didn't have any plans for the rest of the day so we
decided to venture into downtown to walk around, explore, and maybe try
some local cuisine. We walked around for a few hours, and ended up
eating at a place called "The Garage." I unfortunately could only eat
french fries, since no one seemed to know what gluten was, but the rest
of my group got to try some local foods. Although, local food in
Dominica isn't really that different from American. There was a few
different meats, like dolphin and pig snout (which no one in my group
tried), but most of it was very familiar. After lunch, Kevin and Megan
decided to go scope out the internet cafe, but Quincy and I had no
desire so we decided to see what else we could do. Unfortunately, a lot
of cab fares in Dominica work on a group-based system, so it was going
to be really expensive for us to go anywhere and we really only had a
few hours before our plans for that night started. So, after making the
20ish minute trek back to the ship to find a cab, we decided to drop off
our heavy bags from the morning and head back into town to walk around.
On the ship we found one more girl, Lindsey, to join our group too.
While in town we decided to go to the local fruit market, and try some
of the over 200-varieities of bananas they grow here. Over the course of
my trip here, I tried 3 different types of bananas, 2 of which were
great and 1 of which wasn't. After the fruit market we walked around and
checked out the vendors. I was really tempted to buy some of the
dresses, but I resisted knowing that they were very typical-beach
vacation and not really representative of the country. I did, however,
add to my magnet collection (it's sort of an obsession). We also walked
up to the big Cathedral and when we got up there we heard something
going on in Creole. We got really excited and wanted to go in and
listen, but it turned out to be a funeral so we didn't. Outside of the
church is a MASSIVE banana tree that I wish I could post a picture of,
but I surely will in May. After that we walked along the coastline back
to the boat, and a few interesting sights, including a man running
around the beach completely naked while his dog followed along the shore.
We headed back to the MV around 6, ate dinner, then went back to our
cabins to change and get ready for the night. Pretty much the entirety
of the MV Explorer was going to a place called Krazy Koconuts that
night, including us. I ended up going with Quincy, her roommate
Christina, their friend Ryan, my roommate Robin, Dain and Will. We got
there around 9 and were kind of taken off guard at first. We walked in
and the place was literally like a tent over a bar with a random DJ
stand in the middle. It's the first club I have ever been to that sold
chicken fingers, french fries, and popcorn, too. After a few minutes of
confusion, we found our way upstairs. Upstairs there was one room with
an actual club, and another room that was just an empty room with a
stage. From that room with the stage we could oversee a room on the
bottom floor too with people playing games. The girls ended up finding
our way to the dance floor, where Dain and Will quickly disappeared. We
met a Dominican girl on the dance floor that totally taught us a bunch
of Dominican moves, and after a couple hours went downstairs to find
where the guys went. Dain and Will had actually ended up getting
involved in the Dominos game going on downstairs and had been playing
with the locals for over 2 hours! I actually thought it was super cool
and was kind of jealous of the experience they were getting with
natives. Being exhausted, the girls ended up leaving about deciding to l
leave about an hour later, and Dain and Will decided to stay and
continue playing dominos. Somehow, though, in the process of walking
around finding the boys...we had lost Quincy! We searched for her for
about 45 minutes, and then decided to hope that she had just made it
back to the ship. When we got back to the ship we found her safely in
her bed, thank god. The next morning we found out she was also looking
for us and had assumed we left! But as long as all got home safely.
It ended up being a 6am-midnight day, so I came home and crashed for a
few hours to wake up early the next morning. All in all, a very fun
first day in port.
Coming soon - Day 2!
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