The Nature Island

Today we took our “land” tour of Dominica.  Columbus named this island Dominica on November 3, 1493.  He was not a very creative fellow as Dominica means Sunday and November 3, 1493 was a Sunday.  The island has 365 rivers and is known as prime Whale and Dolphin territory although I have yet to see either one.  First we passed by a small shack on which was painted a photo of an elderly woman.  We were told this is Elizabeth Pampo Israel who lived here in Portsmouth, Dominica her entire life of 128 years (she was the oldest living person in the world before she passed).  Moving on, we quickly arrived on the Atlantic side of the island.


Our guide showed us an old Sugar mill that is now in ruins.

Next stop was Red Rocks.  And no, we are not back in Colorado although it seemed very similar.  While hiking, our guide grabbed a fern branch and asked me to hold out my arm…then he held it to my skin and created a “temporary” tattoo…at least that is what I was hoping it was    We were all left to ourselves to walk around the red rocks and as I was returning through the “bush” something GROWLED at me and I screamed.  There were a few French tourists with us who stopped immediately and asked if I saw a snake.  “No” I said, "something went GRRRRR”.  So a friendly gentleman from Germany, named Clause, proceeded to go ahead of me the rest of the way.  When we gathered near our guide he informed me that it was HIM who was in the bushes scaring me to death.  My heart was still racing.

Further down the East coast we went to the Carib Indian Reservation.  We were told the true-blooded Caribs (ancestors of the 1st inhabitants of the island) get to live here for free.  We got several estimates of how many true full-blood Caribs still exist…anywhere from 200-2,200.  As soon as we were inside the reservation we stopped at a booth making “Cassava” bread.  The Cassava is a tubular root plant which is ground and dried and then made into bread.

The Carib Indians call themselves, Kalinago Indians.  They also specialize in basket weaving and canoe making (out of a single log).
We enjoyed a local lunch with the local beer “Kulubi”!  Lunch (from the Mahi-Mahi fish clockwise) was salad, rice, dashine, bread fruit, plaintains and yam.  We even enjoyed seeing the local hummingbirds.


After lunch we stopped at The Emerald Pool Waterfall. it is a quick hike to the falls and worth every step!