Friday 24 January 2014

One day in Dominica, the nature island of the Caribbean

Dominica boatDominica Indian river



Dominica, Porthsmouth

Dominica
Dominica is the big island south of Guadeloupe, on clear days one may even see it from both les Saintes and Marie-Galante...and this year finally I took a boot for a day and went to discover it. After 3-hour-catamaran crossing (the sea was pretty tough) we saw the rain clouds hugging tighly Dominica. And this is the moment when you understand why the island is sooooo GREEN, it rains really every 30 minutes (sometime you get a break of 1 hour)... So we arrived in Portsmouth, which is in the northwest. The city has some 6.000 inhabitants, the whole island has 71.000 in total. The people were very friendly, we passed by the local market, I did some fruit& cacao shopping and then we went for a small hike and then a river tour. The local langauge is English. Dominica is now independent, in the past English and French have changed several times ownership over the island.
Dominica is the youngest of all Caribbean islands and has been nicknamed "Nature island" for its unspoiled nature beauty: plenty of lucious rain forest, waterfalls and rare plants&birds. Definitely worth a longer stop one day:-)) The Sisserou parrot (featured on the flag) is found only here and its islands national bird!
Dominica boat

Dominica, market in Portsmouth

Dominica
Dominica Jungle bar



13 comments:

Barb said...

Jana, You are always on the go! I love when you take me along to a tropical clime. What a cute little crab. I'm not sure I could have done a 3 hour rough crossing though...

Jeanne said...

Looks like a colorful and quite amazing trip!

Erika said...

I like all of your shots. Wish you a nice weekend.

LilliStJohn said...

I would have so enjoyed the water crossing, being a Pieces and a water baby :) What a wonderful way to spend the entire day. And how beautiful to spend it in such a natural forest - the wee crab looks like he has lunch in his claw :)Sometimes we drive to Saint John (City) and take the ferry across the Bay of Fundy to spend the day in Nova Scotia and then come back on the night ferry. Same idea as you, but definitely different climates. Thanks for the lovely post and beautiful pictures.

kulasa said...

Love the oh so green waters and the oh so bright crab! ♡ Thank you for taking me there virtually! The people in the shots seem so happy! Have a great weekend! ♡

Filip and Kristel said...

Nice crab and what a mangrove.

Greetings,
Filip

Lies said...

Je toont mij mooie stukjes wereld, Jana...
Lie(f)s.

Jana said...

@Barb: the latest 4 posts are all part of our Xmas-Caribbean-island- hopping: Guadeloupe-lesSaintes-Dominica-Marie Galante!
@Jeanne: indeed very colourful!

papillon said...

Hi Jana,
so schöne Bilder. Erst vor kurzem haben wir eine Reportage über Domenica gesehen. Diese Insel muss ja nur so von Leben aus dem Erdinnern sprühen.
Happy new week.
J+C

Dietmut said...

wat leuk je bent in een warm land. Hier in Nederland is het koud en nat. Ik houd van mangroves, heb verschillende tochten door mangrove landschappen gemaakt. Leuke foto wandeling heb je met ons gemaakt. Fijn weekend, lieve groeten Dietmut

helen said...

Love the green pick up!

Koryn said...

You are going to all my dream destinations! Haha. Well, until I can finally save up for those, I will live vicariously through your posts.

I like how everything is so rustic and raw. So where did you stay? Are there hotels or are the accommodation, bungalo type too?

Koryn said...
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