Finally, a chance to be on the internet and to catch up on everything, internets, the most important Skype calls, and finally finish telling you all about Dominica. Christmas, the beach was hopping, and we recovered with fully bellies. And we learned that mulled wine looks great in Pewter goblets but is easier not to burn yourself using wine glasses with insulated stems! Managed to hike up the west side of the Cabrits, to see some great views and some of my favourite little mountain crabs. The next day we headed back to our favourite hike and took the side trail up the Indian River tributary, saw buttress roots instead of paying $20.00 each to get rowed up the river. We would have done the tour but unfortunately we never saw our friend Fire who would have taken us after Christmas eve morning at 7 am when he was still drinking, so managed to find the scenes ourselves.
We decided to try to see some of the other views and Phil found a place called Lodat that had incredible scenery and was off the beaten track, so back to the bus we went, crammed in 4 people across (seats were definitely made for 3 people) and off we went. The first 30 minutes was flying along a paved road, the last was bumping along a dirt road. We got into Rosseau and tried to find a bus to lodat. The problem with the buses being vans is that if it isn’t your route no one seemed to know where to catch the bus from. So we walked and walked and eventually found a bus to Trafalgar falls after we decided that there were no buses to Lodat. I love taking the bus, you meet such interesting people and see so much more than if you just sat in a taxi.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how much you love people watching) there were 2 cruise ships in that day so it was PACKED. We asked the trail guide if we would need the hiking boots I so lovingly had carried from Portsmouth and he just laughed. So off we went on a very developed trail, past some of the slower tourists and finally got the waterfalls, they were amazing. My favourite part was that we could go right down to the water and I sat in a wonderful hotspring, it was the first fresh water rinse I had had in days and it was brilliant. The tourists were amazing to watch, a very European family who hadn’t worn swimsuits was prancing about in very fabulous underwear, others were looking so well put together, despite sitting in running water, how they do that I will never understand! It was very interesting watching how people navigated rocks with no trails, like watching ants crawling around. After the hot spring I sat in the cool water that came from the waterfall, so refreshing.
We were still hoping to hike but no one knew any hikes near by, thankfully we saw our favourite blue and yellow trail marks marking the Kabuli trail and off we went. It is like a magical trail that takes you down roads that you would never get on otherwise. We saw a huge mountain and realized we must be walking around it and off we went, up and up and up. Then we realized we weren’t going around the mountain, we were climbing up it! It was incredible, parrots, smooth billed anis (a bird my dad studies) and we looked down on a rainbow. Hiking and hiking, watching our watches, we realized we would have to turn back if we didn’t find a village, just then the skys opened and we realized that while hiking in a rainforest you should always take a raincoat. So there we were, drenched to the skin and finally saw houses and realized we had reached Lodat, unfortunately no time to explore b/c the bus that we hadn’t been able to find was coming at 4:30 (luckily everyone in Dominica was so fabulous at helping us find our way around). So home again we went.
The next day, we went into Portsmouth and searched for a bucket with a lid, our high tech holding tank that we needed for Bonaire, despite seeing them around town everywhere, we couldn’t find one to buy. Finally went into a fabulous electronics store and were given one. Then that night met some lovely new friends Boris and Julia who had us over for delicious sausage and a delicious rum drink from Martinique – good luck on your journey guys! Afterwards, preparations made for our passage and off we went, into the blue.
The passage to Bonaire was lumpy at first, lots of waves coming from different directions, so lots of holding on b/c you couldn’t quite figure out where the boat was moving to next. But a good quick passage none the less and we made it to Bonaire in 3 days, it was very cool watching the salt flats come into view and I thought I saw giant birds that were actually kite surfers (may have already written this, who knows!). Okay, so with that I should check what I have told you about Bonaire and get back to filling in the rest of our adventures to date, thanks for keeping track of us!
We decided to try to see some of the other views and Phil found a place called Lodat that had incredible scenery and was off the beaten track, so back to the bus we went, crammed in 4 people across (seats were definitely made for 3 people) and off we went. The first 30 minutes was flying along a paved road, the last was bumping along a dirt road. We got into Rosseau and tried to find a bus to lodat. The problem with the buses being vans is that if it isn’t your route no one seemed to know where to catch the bus from. So we walked and walked and eventually found a bus to Trafalgar falls after we decided that there were no buses to Lodat. I love taking the bus, you meet such interesting people and see so much more than if you just sat in a taxi.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how much you love people watching) there were 2 cruise ships in that day so it was PACKED. We asked the trail guide if we would need the hiking boots I so lovingly had carried from Portsmouth and he just laughed. So off we went on a very developed trail, past some of the slower tourists and finally got the waterfalls, they were amazing. My favourite part was that we could go right down to the water and I sat in a wonderful hotspring, it was the first fresh water rinse I had had in days and it was brilliant. The tourists were amazing to watch, a very European family who hadn’t worn swimsuits was prancing about in very fabulous underwear, others were looking so well put together, despite sitting in running water, how they do that I will never understand! It was very interesting watching how people navigated rocks with no trails, like watching ants crawling around. After the hot spring I sat in the cool water that came from the waterfall, so refreshing.
We were still hoping to hike but no one knew any hikes near by, thankfully we saw our favourite blue and yellow trail marks marking the Kabuli trail and off we went. It is like a magical trail that takes you down roads that you would never get on otherwise. We saw a huge mountain and realized we must be walking around it and off we went, up and up and up. Then we realized we weren’t going around the mountain, we were climbing up it! It was incredible, parrots, smooth billed anis (a bird my dad studies) and we looked down on a rainbow. Hiking and hiking, watching our watches, we realized we would have to turn back if we didn’t find a village, just then the skys opened and we realized that while hiking in a rainforest you should always take a raincoat. So there we were, drenched to the skin and finally saw houses and realized we had reached Lodat, unfortunately no time to explore b/c the bus that we hadn’t been able to find was coming at 4:30 (luckily everyone in Dominica was so fabulous at helping us find our way around). So home again we went.
The next day, we went into Portsmouth and searched for a bucket with a lid, our high tech holding tank that we needed for Bonaire, despite seeing them around town everywhere, we couldn’t find one to buy. Finally went into a fabulous electronics store and were given one. Then that night met some lovely new friends Boris and Julia who had us over for delicious sausage and a delicious rum drink from Martinique – good luck on your journey guys! Afterwards, preparations made for our passage and off we went, into the blue.
The passage to Bonaire was lumpy at first, lots of waves coming from different directions, so lots of holding on b/c you couldn’t quite figure out where the boat was moving to next. But a good quick passage none the less and we made it to Bonaire in 3 days, it was very cool watching the salt flats come into view and I thought I saw giant birds that were actually kite surfers (may have already written this, who knows!). Okay, so with that I should check what I have told you about Bonaire and get back to filling in the rest of our adventures to date, thanks for keeping track of us!
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