Commonwealth of Dominica
a trip by Andrew and Kate Thorley
From: January 8th 2010
Until: May 18th 2010
Dominica - the nature isle of the Caribbean. Described also as the "Caribbean like it used to be" or, as I heard once, “If Captain Cooke was to return to earth, it’s the only place he would still recognise”. The island has no direct flights from Europe or the US, has no "resorts" and hardly any hotels, plus limited beaches. So it is undeveloped as a tourist destination. So it is, of course, wonderful. Beautiful scenery, crystal clear water and friendly people. Local fruits in abundance and fresh fish every day. And the limited stock in the shops and the pot-holed roads only add to the charm. Remember, once you are here, you are on island time!
After 4 months of continuous work on the house last year, we returned to enjoy the island, Mango Lodge and having some guests. So it’s visits to Cabrits, to waterfalls, to lakes and to mountains. It’s also building furniture, adding finishing touches to the house and continuing to develop the garden.
This winter has been particularly dry so fruit and plants in the garden have struggled. The results of our planting last year have been dramatically different. Large numbers of plants and flowers have disappeared, some trees and plants are still here but have hardly grown at all and then there are some, like Kate’s bananas, that seem to have thrived in the dry weather.
We love it here so much that we are now talking about staying a whole year instead of just the winter (the dry season). Having guests has been great fun and an adventure. As we move around in our nomadic life we are usually ready to move on when the time comes - but here, I think we will be sad to leave this time.
Trip Length: 4 ½ months
Blog Entries: 9
Photos: 177
Words: 3387
Blog Entries
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