Danny, our "boat boy" and Indian River Guide
Danny, peeling sugar cane
The Jungle Bar
Spanney Falls
Cooling off in the pool at Spanny Falls
Banana Man
Crossing the river (one of five times) on our hike to Victoria Falls
The group eating lunch at Moses' Rastaraunt after hiking to Victoria Falls
Carol and Moses in his kitchenThe sail to Dominica was, as they say, boisterous! We had 20+ knots of wind with rough seas the entire way. Wet, salty, and crusty once again! As we finally rounded the corner into Prince Rupert Bay at the town of Portsmouth we saw friends anchored in the bay. We called them on the radio to let them know were heading in, and Jim on Emerald Seas said “oh good, we will tell Danny to come visit you”. We didn’t know who Danny was, but we had heard about boat boys so we suspected he was “their” boat boy. As soon as we dropped the anchor and with the engine still running here comes Danny paddling his surfboard towards us and at the same time here comes Antonio in his boat. They arrived at the same time yelling at each other about seeing us first….. “first come – first serve” and “I saw them first”! To settle things down we bought some fruit from Antonio and told him that our friends had arranged for Danny to work with us, so Antonio collected his money for the fruit and drove away disgruntled.
Dominica has a good group of young men who provide yacht services for yachts. They will help you get fruit, bread, and ice, take your laundry, act as a water taxi, and take you on island tours. They act together in the group called PAYS which provides security; help maintain dinghy docks and work together to make sure yachts have a good stay. Most of the time the boat boys who approach you are a member of PAYS, but occasionally you will get someone who is not (like Antonio). It is a good idea to deal with those who are members so you get the best service. There were some who would come by our boat wanting us to buy something and while they were talking to us they would be checking out the boat and everything in it, and not looking us in the eyes. That was a bit unnerving, but we were sure to lock up tight when we were away and we never had any problems.
The evening we arrived, we told Danny we wanted to take a tour up the Indian River. He said to be ready at 8 AM the next morning and he would be by to pick us up. We weren’t exactly sure what that meant since he was on a surfboard, but we were ready at 8 AM! Danny and his brother Lawrence (otherwise known as Lawrence of Arabia) pulled up in Lawrence’s boat a few minutes before 8 to pick us up. He dodged the waves at the entrance into the river and then pulled up to the dinghy dock. Lawrence jumped out and Danny pulled the engine up and arranged his oars. You are not allowed to use your motor on the river, so Danny began to row. He took his time and pointed out birds, trees, land crabs, etc. as we went along. The river was running slow since rainy season had not started, so we slowly moved along dodging tree limbs and roots. We reached an area at a narrow part of the river where a dock was on the side of the river. We stopped and followed Danny up to a really cool bar (called Jungle Bar) and a few guest rooms in the jungle. The woman who runs it greeted us and her two small children ran around and around us as we walked along sampling sugar cane and spotting parrots high up in the trees. Before we left, we had some juice and a rum drink as we listened to some Reggae music. After hanging out for a while we rowed back to the mouth of the river to pick up Lawrence. Our tour lasted about 2 ½ hours.
Later that day we needed to check in with customs so we headed out in the big swells to find the customs office. We checked in shortly before they were leaving for lunch so the reception was a bit “chilly”. As we were finishing up, the woman told us we had to go to immigration at the police office in town. Our timing must have really been bad, because they send very few people to immigration. That was even more obvious when we arrived there. We told the man who waited on us that customs had sent us there to complete our check in. He seemed very perplexed and asked us what he was supposed to do! We said we didn’t know but asked if we could have our passports stamped. He said “Oh, you want your passports stamped? Ok, I’ll stamp them if you want me to”. He was very nice as he fumbled around trying to find his stamp and sign our clearance forms. So much for immigration!
We met up with all our friends that evening and decided we should rent a van and go check out the island that National Geographic named the “most environmentally sustainable island in the Caribbean. The next morning Lawrence picked us all up and took us to the town dock so we could get a van. After renting the van, Jon (the designated driver) had to go back to the police station to buy a local license. Finally, with license in hand and careful instructions from the car rental attendant (“stay on the left side of the road, don’t pick anyone up, and don’t give nobody nothin”) we were ready to hit the road. The first thing we noticed is that there are NO straight roads in Dominica. We wound around and around, up and down steep hills and curves as we made our way around the island. At our first stop on top of the volcano, a van pulls up to sell us fruit (we just broke rule number three, I think). We bought bananas and grapefruits and shared them before taking off again. We drove through unbelievable countryside where people were farming on the side of steep hills. Dominica grows just about everything that you find in the Caribbean. In fact boats full of women leave every week to sell their fruits and vegetables in markets in St. Maarten, St. Kitts and other islands with little agriculture. Our next stop was a tiny town where a visitor center was located. The center was created to share information about the Caribs, fierce warriors who predated the Europeans. The Europeans began to massacre the Caribs and the ones remaining were given a territory on the windward side of the island. This center sold books and small handicrafts including Oil of Ojai. This oil is used by locals and is good for just about everything that ails you. Of course, we bought some.
We wandered across the street to a small market that had a tiny family restaurant on the back patio overlooking the water. We ate a yummy lunch of roast chicken, rice and peas, dasheen, plantains and beer. Full and satisfied we continued on our journey. We meandered along the east side of the island and then came to a fork in the road. One road goes over the island to the other side and one continues to follow the coast. It was already late afternoon so we decided to go over the island. We all kept talking about wanting to hike to a water fall, so when we came across a sign that said Spanney Falls, we had to check it out. We paid to walk to the falls in a tiny bar/store at the head of the trail and took off on the short walk. Spanney Falls was a surprise to all of us! It was the most picturesque waterfall you could ever imagine. The water tumbled down about 100 feet through a crevice into a beautiful, clear pool. There was a mist coming off the falls and plants grew all along the walls surrounding the pool. The walls created a little box that made it feel like we had discovered a hidden treasure. We all jumped in and swam around in the clear, refreshing water for a long time until we just had to leave so we could make it back before dark. We were gone all day and only covered half of the island. There was so much more to discover!
The next day we sailed to Roseau, the capital of Dominica, on the south end of the island. When we arrived in the bay we were met by Pancho and his three children in his boat. He welcomed us and then helped us tie onto one of the mooring balls he owned. After settling in, we took off in our dinghy to explore the area. We decided to go to a dock at a hotel so we could walk to the street and see what we could see along the road. As soon as we tied our dinghy up we heard a man yelling “HELLO, HELLO” and then saw him walking quickly down the dock to where we were. He said his name was True True and he was selling calabash bowls and mangoes. We bought a calabash bowl that he made from a calabash gourd and quickly made a new friend. Later we saw that he lived on the beach under some trees near where we were in the bay. His bed was a platform on top of huge boulder. I’m glad we bought the bowl.
In the morning we wanted to explore the city, even though we saw a cruise ship in port. We made our way through the gobs of people walking around and the locals selling everything you could imagine. The town was so crowded that we decided to head back to the boat. As we were leaving we discovered a coffee house called Rituals. We went in to have a look and cool off. When we walked through the door it felt like we had walked into a Starbucks! We ordered a blended mocha and a sandwich and sat down to watch CNN on TV. We were a little in shock, but it was sooooo good.
We relaxed on the boat the rest of the day and that evening our friends wanted to know if we wanted to go to KFC!! Really?? Well, of course we couldn’t pass that up, so we headed into town again. We wandered through the local market with hundreds of people selling fruits and vegetables and finally got to the KFC. We definitely stood out in the crowd. We gobbled up our chicken, cole slaw, fries and biscuits (no mashed potatoes and gravy) and felt like we had a “very American” kind of day! Heading back to our dinghies, we passed through the market again and since it was Friday night the local party was beginning. Music was blaring and everyone was cooking and eating fresh fish that was caught that day. It looked like everyone in the entire city was there!
Since we had only explored a small part of the island we all decided it was time for a tour and Sea Cat came highly recommended by the author of our Cruising Guides. So the next morning the 7 of us who had rented the van together met Sea Cat, otherwise known as Octavius, for a tour of the south end of the island.
One thing is for sure, taking a tour of the island is the way to go! Octavius knows everyone and as we drove around the island he would stop about every 15 minutes to let us try herbs, or fruit, or mountain water that we drank from a leaf, or coconut water, or even moonshine! We met people everywhere we went and we ate and drank our way around the island. We drove and drove and finally reached the trailhead for Victoria Falls, one of the more well-known falls on the island. At the trail head there was a little shack with a kitchen and a dining area with a bar. A Rastafarian named Moses came out to greet us. Moses is quite famous on the island and with cruisers. Moses lives on that land and grows everything he eats, and serves, in his Restaurant. He was just getting started on a meal for us that we would eat after our hike to the falls. Shortly after we arrived our guide for the falls showed up and away we went. The hike to Victoria Falls was the most strenuous hike I had ever been on. We crossed the river five times and climbed up, and slid down, boulders. We all helped each other up and over and across as we made our way to the falls. Finally we arrived and were greeted by the most majestic of falls. The power of the falls created a current in the water below and a mist that reached far distances. The guys in the group decided to tackle the falls. They made their way down to the base of the falls and eased their way into the water being careful not to get overpowered by the strong current. After their brief swim we all headed back. Up, down, over and across once again. It was much easier going back since most of it was downhill.
Once back at Moses’ Rastaraunt we were all feeling exhausted and hungry. We were enjoying some local beer when huge calabash bowls were brought to the table. Inside the bowls was the most delicious meal we have had since arriving in the Caribbean. Moses had collected all the ingredients from his gardens and made the most incredible soup. It had lentils, dasheen, callaloo, plantains, herbs, spices, arrowroot, and the list goes on. Incredible! We ate with “spoons” made from coconut shells and every single one of us had seconds! After eating, we all staggered back to the van for the ride back. Octavius continued to stop to show us remote beaches or to explain about certain things going on around the island. Our last stop was at one more falls! We all wandered down the trail through a rainforest to Emerald Pools. One last swim in the most freezing water!! We walked back to the van through drenching rain and Octavius was waiting with fresh mangoes for everyone. Wow, what a day! We arrived back to our boats at sunset overwhelmed by the amazing day we just had. Satisfied that we saw more than we came to see, we all decided to leave first thing the next morning to sail to Martinique.
