Boating and Exploring

It has been an interesting couple of days on the island. I am starting to learn my way around town better, and am learning to sleep through the  rooster's daily 5:30 wake up call. Yesterday, Shirley arranged for us to go with the Dominica Forestry service birdwatching trip in honor of National Bird Week. So we woke up early, drove to some local roadside shops to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables, and then drove to Roseau to meet with the group. The expedition was not one on foot, but rather a nautical adventure promising a three hour tour of birdwatching out on the open sea. The professor in me warned me not to attend, but the Gilligan in me won my mental battle and I boarded the boat. Our vessel was christened "The Stingray II" with the captain providing little insight on the fate of "The Stingray I". Once we boarded, my group and I all migrated to the ships upper deck, however, seats were limited, and I had to stand holding onto the pole above the decks canopy. Once the ship took to the waves, my mind flashed back to the swashbuckling days of old when pirate fleets sailed the open seas. Leaning from my pole in a Captain Jack Sparrow manner, I played scenarios in my head as our ship splashed against the waves. A couple minutes into the trip, as my eyes scanned the horizon for Spanish tall ships, I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. A wave that simply looked odd in the distance. As I kept my eye fixated on the spot where I thought I saw the peculiar wave, I saw movement there again. I lunged from my pole to my fellow groupmates sitting down and muttered the two words any buccaneer would be thrilled to hear... "Free Rum Look! Dolfins!" As soon as I pointed, another dolphin's fin peaked above the crested wave. I notified the captains, who excitedly turned the boat around and headed straight in the direction of the mammals. Once our ship approached the initial site where I first spotted the dolphins, it became apparent that it wasn't just a singular dolphin we were looking at, but rather 2 whole pods of Dolphins, each probably 20 or 30 strong! They swam right up to our boat and showed their pink belly's as they would rocket by the side of our boat like torpedos. The water was so clear we could see them beneath the waves as they would pass our ship. They would then  proceed to surface in unison, as if they were doing a majestic synchronized swimming routine. Then the captain notified us that we were about to see a phenomenon known as "wave ridding." He fired up the ships engines and started to produce a strong wake. Like a magnet, the dolphins all gravitated toword the large waves at the rear of the ship, and began jumping high into the air as they would swim through them trying to catch the ship! They would jump in pairs, and swim through the wake for as long as they could. The captain told us that theyre were two species of dolphins present, and what we saw was a rare awesome sight.

Unfortunatly, the video uploaded in poor quality, I will try again when I have better internet.

After the excitement of the dolphins wore down, we sailed around ScottsHead, the dividing point between the Carribean Sea and the Atlantic. The waves were small at first in the Caribbean Sea, but once we crossed over to the Atlantic Ocean, the waves intensified, and I was being tossed around quite a bit from my pole. It felt like I was surfing, as the boat would lurch up super high and then crash down as the waves crashed against our boat. We then proceeded along the coast to see many flocks of sea birds, as well as a few points featured in the pirates of the Caribbean movies. While we were only viewing the locations from the ocean, we saw the general area of the cannibal village, aswell as the famous rope bridge scene.

The Second Oldest Church on Island

Let Me Take A Selfie

Pterodactyls Attacking our Boat.

Later that night, Shirley threw us a welcome to Dominica party/going away party for a lady in the peace core. The night was fun, we played Boggle, (a word board game) and chit chatted with a few locals who stopped by to enjoy the environment. The food was excellent. We ate homemade empanada's,  spicy cheese cookies, tuna sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, and two different kinds of cake. Accompanied with the meal was the homemade tamrin and guava juice. One interesting thing to note is that typically in Dominica, you do not sit down and eat meals. Rather, the eating is done while standing up and walking around.

This morning, we went to to a local church service on the Island. It was a special celebration commemorating 165 years of Catholics on the island, and also doubled as a conformation for 175 children on the island. The service was outside in the beautiful botanical gardens of Roseua. Everybody was dressed in fancy clothes, with women wearing colorful dresses and carrying sun paracels, with the men dressed in long sleeves and pants, some wearing sport jackets. We stayed from 9:00 until 11:15, however, we were told that the service was expected to go until 3 PM! Because we couldn't sit through 6 hours of church and because the temperature was in the 90's, and we were ready to leave, so we walked through the botanical gardens and were picked up by one of Shirleys neighbors who drove us back to our home in Eggleston. Once home, we ate a fantastic lunch, and then proceeded to sit on our porch and enjoy the views for the next few hours.

The View From Our Porch

After enjoying the porch life, Shirley took us for a walk down through the village to see a neighbor who owned a fantastic garden. After walking through his garden and gathering a bag full of fresh mangos, we proceeded along the road and stopped by shirley's mother's house. We visited her mother, who was in her 80's, and sat with her for awhile and chit chatted. Her presence reminded me strongly of my great grandmother GG's, as she was a sweet, strong, elderly lady who's eyes lit up when we told her we were catholics. Her whole aura was that of happiness, and when she spoke her voice and laughter radiated that she had lived a good life. She told us stories of her youth, and of the old ways of the island. She showed us pictures of her wedding in London, as well as told us stories of throwing rocks into clearwater lake, and having steam come up and surround them in her youth. She inspected the sugar cane I was carrying, and told me that it had too many nubs, and would be hard to cut. Also, she talked of the days before bannanas became the islands cash crop, and how sugar cane used to grow wild, and as children they used to eat it as they found it. Sadly she said now sugar cane is rare on the island, as the bannana plantations destroyed much of it's natural habitat. She then had one of her daughters show us to her store, which was located right outside her house. Many locals in Dominca seem to have little shops that are next to their house. They sell everything from cigarettes to rum, and canned fish and local vegetables. She has owned her store for many MANY years, and I plan to swing by in the next few days to pick up some tooth paste and maybe some canned peanuts that have probably been on the shelf for way to long.

The Shop, Just a Tiny Bit Bigger Than Our Pantry

This is the second elderly woman who has been kind enough to invite us into her home, and talk with us for awhile. When we were going to the beach in Merro, Eardly had us stop by an old elderly woman's house for water. She was also very kind, strong, and friendly, and was just an all around happy lady. She told us of how she used to walk with her vegatables to Roseua every saturday to sell her vegatables (which was a 30 minute drive through mountains for us). She said back then there was no paved road, and she would have to wake up by 3 am if she wanted to make it to the city on time. She then gave us water, and even offered us wine or food if we wanted any (which was extremely kind coming from someone who seemed to have so little). We declined and went to the beach, but it solidified in my mind how wonderful the population of Dominica is.

Tonight for dinner we fried some plantains in coconut oil, and ate leftover sandwhiches, empanadas, mangos, and guavas. We finished the meal off with a dessert of delicious coconut cheese.

Overall, it has been a very exciting two days. Our schedule is finally starting to get a little less chaotic as we settle into our new home. The highlight of the past few days have definitely been the dolphins, the food, and chatting with the local elderly population. I look forward to keeping you posted on my future adventures!

TTFN
TaTa For Now

-Michael Stewart