CARIBBEAN ADVENTURE – PART 3

Geologically speaking, Dominica is one hell of a hot spot.  An island country with a land only 13% the size of of Prince Edward Island, it has the highest concentration of active volcanoes (9) on earth.

Looking at where Dominica ranks in terms of economic and social indicators, we’d expected to see a much poorer country.  It may be poor by our standards but seems headed in the right direction, certainly if tourism and environmental quality are indicators.  The island bills itself as the “Nature Island”, a title well chosen based on our five-day stay.  Dominica boasts three national parks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Trois Pitons National Park, and the park infrastructure is world-class.  Despite having few beaches and high-end resorts, the country may yet carve a niche for itself in the competitive world tourism market.

We landed at the airport on the northeast coast of the island and took a taxi through the central highlands to the capital, Roseau, on the southwest corner.  Our hotel, the Fort Young, right on the waterfront beside the cruise ship terminal, proved to be the nicest one we’ve stayed in on this trip.  Downtown is a bit on the hardscrabble side, but better than some of the other capital cities we’ve visited in the Caribbean.  On our first day, we walked through the narrow streets to get our bearings and find out where to pick up local buses for our planned outings.

On our first full day, we took a local bus to Soufrière, a pretty seaside village on the southwest corner of the island.  We strolled the seawall on Soufrière Bay until we came to Scott’s Head Bay.  There, we chatted with fishermen mending their nets, walked to the top of Scott’s Head and got a glimpse of Martinique, the French island that lies across Martinique Channel.  We learned that the local Creole language contains many French words.

After a delicious lunch at a tiny snackette on the water’s edge, we walked back to Soufrière and headed up into the hills to the sulphur spring.  The volcano that feeds the sulphur spring is called Morne Plat Pays.  There are several pools you can soak in, if you’re so inclined.  The water is very warm - not the best remedy for a very hot day - and is said to have therapeutic qualities.  So I ‘took the waters’.  We then walked up a forest trail to the first sulphur deposit.  The rotten egg smell hit us first; then the soles of our shoes got very warm, reminding us we were on the slopes of an active volcano.

Next day, we rode the local bus all along the west coast to the second-largest town in Dominica, Portsmouth.  On first sight, it’s a hard-luck place, waiting for its turn to benefit from a stronger tourism business.  There are signs that its time will come: one planned and one half-finished resort; a cruise dock designed to service small vessels; and Cabrits National Park.  Interestingly, there's a medical school nearby, Ross University, which hosts 3,000 or so students from around the world.

We walked through the town, strolled along the abandoned beach, and made our way up to Fort Shirley.  The former military garrison was completely reconstructed and opened to the public in 2007.  The project, like many on the island, was funded in part by the European Economic Community.  I asked a local what Dominicans make of investment in public infrastructure projects by foreign governments, most recently China.  “We have a vote in the United Nations, you know.  Sometimes they need it,” he answered wryly.

At the top of the hill above Fort Shirley, I took this picture of La princesse du Cannontown.  In fairness to La princesse, she was really suffering from the heat that day. It seems we each have our 'hot' days.

On day three, we again boarded a local bus to cross the island to Kalinago Territory.  The Kalinago are the indigenous people of Dominica and theirs is the only reserve in the Caribbean.  Autonomous since 1903, they live on a 3,700-acre territory and number approximately 3,600, spread out over eight main villages.  We arrived at the Kalinago Barana Auté, a reconstructed village, and took an excellent guided tour with a Kalinago woman who explained the history of her people and how they live in the modern world. 

There are many parallels with our First Nations in Canada, but also some important differences.  They elect a chief and council who have the last word on everything that happens on Kalinago Territory.  They are full-fledged citizens of Dominica, paying taxes and receiving the same services as all Dominicans.  They have a guaranteed seat in the country’s 21-seat Parliament and a dedicated Minister.  They struggle with many of the same issues as our First Nations: unemployment, addiction, lack of economic opportunity, and the unequal rights of men and women.

Our visit complete, we trudged up a very steep hill in the pouring rain to get back to the main road.  We’d been told that a local bakery made cassava bread.  We relished the fresh, hot, tasty treat, more like a macaroon than bread, with a heavy dose of coconut and a bit of sugar.  My brother-in-law, David Thompson, serious coconut aficionado, would have been jealous!

On our way back to Roseau, we took a short hike into Emerald Pool in Trois Pitons National Park.  We haven’t seen better trails to a natural attraction in any of our travels.

Roseau is about the size of Summerside.  We walked to Windsor Park, the impressive 12,000-seat national cricket stadium and watched two teams play.  The game is a mystery to me and about as exciting as watching paint dry.  How did a small, poor country like Dominica come up with over $20 million CDN for a cricket Stadium you might ask?  The answer was right in front of me: a Chinese flag flapping right beside the Dominican.  They paid the whole shot!

On our last full day, we hired a taxi to take us to Middleham Falls, the highest in Dominica at over 200 feet.  It took us almost two hours to get there and back along a wet and treacherous mountain trail in the heart of the rain forest, but it was worth it.  

You have to take the good with the bad.  After getting soaked $80 CDN for the taxi ride to our hotel from the airport in Dominica, we inquired about other options.  “Local bus to Marigot.  From there, it’s a short walk to the airport,” one man told us.  “They won’t take you with your luggage,” another said.  Since we weren’t in a rush to get to the airport on our last day, we walked to the local bus station.  Just as we got there, a guy drove by and asked us if we wanted a lift to the airport.  He lived near Marigot, was a local bus and taxi driver, and had come to Roseau to pick up some parts for his van.  We hopped in and had a pleasant drive to our destination, all for $10 CDN!  Lesson learned: you have to ask.

Since an incoming Liat flight was late arriving, we were re-booked on an earlier one to Antigua, arriving there mid-afternoon.  The smell of money hits you as soon as you set foot in the airport.  Gleaming marble floors; everything just so.  Quite a contrast from our last few stops. The early arrival gave us time enough to get some grub for our six-day stay at Dickenson Bay Cottages.  So we walked thirty minutes to the supermarket, did our shopping, had a bite at the deli, and headed back before it got too dark.  A few minutes later, along came a local bus.  It was our lucky day!

St. John’s, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, is home to about one quarter of the country’s 92,000 inhabitants.  It has a very impressive cruise port and high-end stores carrying all the brand names, from Prada to Breitling and everything in between.  Unlike some of the more modest capitals we’ve visited on this trip, St. John’s has some nice downtown restaurants and a lively street buzz.

Dominica may have the highest concentration of active volcanoes in the world; St. John’s surely has the highest concentration of hair and nail salons.  Women here are very style-conscious.  Elva got her hair cut and her nails done and I got my sandal fixed before we called it a day.

English Harbour was our destination on day 2.  We took local buses to get there and arrived at the Nelson Dockyard UNESCO World Heritage Site mid-morning.  The harbour was of key strategic importance to the British in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries during the days of sail.  Admiral Nelson was stationed there from 1784 to 1787.  Many of the original structures have been re-purposed, now home to high-end restaurants and lodgings.

We took a water taxi across the narrow harbour and followed a cliffside trail through a cactus forest that took us to Carpenter Rock.  The views were amazing.  From there, we hiked to the Blockhouse, a high point from where we saw the Atlantic on one side and the Caribbean on the other.  Nearby Shirley Heights overlooks English and Falmouth Harbours.  The view literally took our breath away; the best we’ve seen on our Caribbean adventure.

While the boats moored in English Harbour were impressive, they were mere dories next to the ones tied up in Falmouth Harbour.  I took note of a couple of names and looked them up on the internet.  The Odessa is a charter yacht and she rents for $235,000 US per week.  That base charter fee doesn’t include food, crew, fuel and a few other odds and ends.  The Illusion V, a bit nicer I thought, will set you back a cool $350,000 for a seven-day junket.

And these two were in turn dwarfed by the monstrous grey affair in the photo below.  We asked a couple of locals who owned it.  “Some Microsoft guy,” they answered.  Again, I looked it up.  According to www.superyachtfan.com, the 232-foot Skat belongs to Charles Simonyi, developer of the Microsoft Office Suite, who’s worth a reported $1.6 billion US.  She set him back $75 million US!  And to think we can travel for $350 CDN per day.  A couple of regular hillbillies!

Antigua is a nice place to visit and we’re glad we came.  The weather's cooler and there's always a nice breeze.  There’s also money here, lots of it, but it’s not clear that it’s being spent wisely by government.  Again, there’s no sign of a middle class.  Roads are a mess, streets in St. John’s are terrible, the whiff of raw sewage downtown curls the nostrils, and several major building projects seem to be at a standstill.  The one project that seems to be coming along is the restoration of the Anglican Cathedral.  The roof has been replaced, all structural timbers had to go because of termites, they put in a new cement floor, and all the pews are new.  The oldest grave we found was from 1760, so the place has been around for a while.

Antigua bills itself as the island of 365 beaches, one for every day of the year.  Since our hotel was a fifteen-minute walk from Dickenson Bay Beach, one of the nicer ones, we spent time there on our last three days.  The azure water was crystal clear and just the right temperature, and the beautiful sand the perfect place for an afternoon nap.  Not Basin Head, but not bad.

One good thing about Antigua: all beaches are public.  So, like La Sagouine who observed the goings-on from the back of the church because she couldn’t afford a pew, most watch the rich play at Sandals from their vantage point on Pogey Beach, also known as La plage des Acadiens.  The photo below shows Pogey Beach, complete with wrecked sailboat in the distance.  People rent a beach chair for $2.

But we took our towels over to Sandals, squatted on the beach there, and watched the high class folk come and go.  Back at our hotel, I checked on the price of a one-week stay at the all-inclusive resort: a jaw-dropping $6,000 CDN!  They can have it...