Blogs from Rosalie, Dominica, Central America Caribbean

Monday July 23 - Meagan's been having pain in her tooth, and it has been getting worse. She thinks she needs a root canal, and at least wants to get it looked at while here and get it sorted out enough that she can fly home next week. Charlotte arranged for her to go into town to see a dentist today, and I tagged along to get some wifi for a change. Jackie drove us, Kersel and Shelly into town, and our first stop was the rental car shop, where all of our vehicles come from. They must regret ever renting us cars, as the tires are always flat and there are multiple other car problems associated which I'm sure our driving has caused. We stayed there for a while before moving onto the tire shop. ... read more

Monday July 16 - Sleep was crap, as always. Jackie moved into our room last night and I heard her get up this morning. I tried to stay in bed, but it did not last long. In the meantime, Jackie came back and woke up Lisa to ask her if they could take out all her bat equipment and use the car today. After that I did get up. Breakfast was porridge, but someone dropped a watermelon, so that was available to eat as well. I spent the morning talking to Shelly and Ben, and in the late morning I met Gary, the donkey on site. He didn't seem to like me, or he liked me too much. Either way, I think I am done with Gary. But he had stepped in a coconut shell that ... read more

Sunday June 24 - (continued from Martinique) Charlotte, the woman organizing the biodiversity surveys in Dominica, picked me up at the ferry and we drove back towards the 3 Rivers Ecolodge where we stay. It took an hour to drive there, but we could not drive the entire way. Last year the island was directly in the path of Hurricane Maria and was quite devastated by the storm. You have to cross two rivers to get into the ecolodge, and the bridges are still out, so we had to walk in. Although I knew this, I did not know exactly what it meant until I saw it. I had to cross a river with my two bags holding onto a rope so I wouldn't fall. In the dark. I changed into my shorts and sports sandals, ... read more

We are living in a bamboo tree house, in the rain forest on the island of Dominica. The house is set alone on a hill, high above the actual lodge. Up in the house we have a bed, a hammock ,a composting toilet and a large balcony. Below, there is a cold shower! Lizards keep us company and an agouti (a long legged guinea pig) lives underneath the house. But the forest comes to life at night. As the sun sets, the quiet of the day is replaced by the sound of raucous insects, frogs and toads. They sings us to sleep – under a mosquito net, in our little tree house in the middle of nowhere. It is a full moon at the moment and we spend the evenings on our balcony watching the fire ... read more

We had to move on to a new island and new accommodation, this was a trip! We left our tasteful chambre d’hote, drove the hire car to the airport, took a courtesy bus to the terminal and caught a taxi to the ferry port in Fort de France - simple. The ferry trip gave us great views of the departing Martinique and approaching Dominica. We disembarked at Roseau and our hire car was waiting. Straight to the supermarket for supplies because this was self-catered, then an hour across the island to Rosalie Forest. After Martinique’s freeways, the pot-holed roads of Dominica really slowed us down, but at least we have a 4 wheel drive this time, a good decision. At Rosalie we met Leon at dusk who guided us the 15 minute uphill jungle trail with ... read more