We docked in the musty tumbledown capital of Roseau, Dominica. Dominica is the poorest Caribbean island save for Haiti. There is a visible lack of development compared to the other islands we would see. In Roseau not much has changed in the last thirty or forty years. It has a crumbling charm, but I wouldn't want to be out here after sunset.
We were immediately met by Nahjie, our guide from Extreme Dominica. I had pre-booked us an all day hike, 12 miles up and down mountains into the interior of the island, to a boiling lake. We drove for nearly an hour into the World Heritage Site of Morne Trois Piton National Park. Beautiful vistas of forest and jungle surrounded us. From there we hiked up and down up and down for 2 hours to reach Boiling Lake
The volcanic mud supposedly has great exfoliating qualities for the skin. I felt like Nahjie was having a laugh at us.
The hike was very tough. I was a bit out of shape, and I fell behind a couple times. I'd compare it to climbing an easy 14er in Colorado. Nahjie had no problems.
On the way back we climbed down into a hot spring waterfall fed pool.
At the end we drank a couple Kabuli beers and swam into a cold crystal-clear freshwater stream that ran through a 20 foot high smooth rock wall canyon to a waterfall. Amazing!
We were very happy with the service provided by Extreme Dominica. It wasn't cheap at $80 per person, but we really enjoyed our day. Give em a try. http://www.extremedominica.com/
Finally dropped off in Roseau we were immediately cornered by a hulking Rasta man offering us weed. Thankfully, he did take no for an answer, and we crossed the street to some bar that had been built out of cast-off plywood and corrugated sheet metal. The service was slow, the beer was cold, and our time was short. Back to the ship we ran.
