Blogs from Dominica, Central America Caribbean - page 5

Our two-week cruise came to an end, if you ask me, way too early. Our last stop was the small island of Dominica. We decided to not do a tour today but just took the shuttle to the inner city of the capital, Roseau. We had enough time to walk around the city, did some last souvenirshopping and reached the harbour of the city, where a huge american cruiseship had arrived. This day was very hot and the small city started to be flooded with the tourists, so we decided to head back to the ship. The ship left a bit early and we said good-bye to our last stop. The next day was another passageday and on Saturday we arrived at the harbour of La Romana, Dominican Rep. again. In the afternoon we started our ... read more

Well we are here in Mango Lodge and tonight all seems right with the world. We arrived on Monday and it’s now Sunday - we’ve had a few things to sort out but hey ho that’s life. It’s funny but you feel lucky if your luggage arrives with you at the airport. The added bonus was that our car was ready to pick up from our friendly mechanic, it started first time and he’d even cleaned it!! Bonus!! We drove to the house and there it was Mango Lodge all in one piece, and not blown away by a hurricane - anything else is manageable. The things we had to sort out seem long ago now, but basically they were: No cooking gas for 4 days - one empty gas cylinder and our spare cylinder has ... read more

This is my first official post from a port! We arrived in Dominica very early in the morning on the 16th and were cleared by 8 am. I remember looking out my window and seeing nothing but ocean, but soon I realized that my window on the ship didn’t actually face Dominica. I decided to get out to the balcony and see what was on the other side. It is really hard to explain to someone what coming into an island port feels like. You feel so small! You’re in this tiny ship in the middle of nothing but endless water and out of nowhere there is this huge landmass. I've got to admit it felt really good to see land after all the rocking and sea sickness in the past few days (even though now ... read more

So I've officially been in Dominica for 1 week! Wow! Better than a lot of other students. After talking to a couple of 2nd and 3rd semester students I found out that a lot of new students come to the island and within a few days decide to leave because it is a 3rd world country. I love the 3rd world country part of Dominica. The simple life. If you're intune with things here you "feel the vibe?", explained Gregory, my Indian River tour guide today. I'm feeling that vibe, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon. It was a rough start getting here! Holy crap, Caribbean airlines are MISERABLE! My flight was last Thursday, it read Boston-->Charlotte-->San Juan-->Dominica. We get to San Juan late bc our flight was delayed. We hop on another flight ... read more

Clem drove us to Dive Dominica today. We boarded a boat and went to Champagne Bay. After a couple of hours snorkeling at Champagne, we sailed west towards Martinique to go whale-watching. A guide swam with us in Champagne, pointing the various marine organisms. We saw a sea cucumber, swam over a wrecked British ship, and enjoyed the warm bubbles that give Champagne Bay its name. During our whale-watching trip, our captain would continuously stop the boat and place this device in the water used for listening to whales. He would then follow the direction of their sounds, until we finally saw a sperm whale breaching. We followed her for a while and caught glimpses of what was probably her calf. The first whale was almost 9 m long. Journal Entry 20: 06/13/10 Today was our ... read more