Lat: 15 16.8N / Long: 061 22.6W
One of our favorite Caribbean islands is undoubtedly Dominica, not to be confused with the Dominican Republic. The island belongs to the northern part of the archipelago and according to British custom of speech to the "Leeward Islands”.
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| Dominica |
Dominica, now independent, has belonged for seven times to the French and for seven times to the English as our taxi driver told us laconically. Columbus discovered it over 500 years ago on a Sunday (Spanish:Domingo). The island is blessed with an incredible natural wealth, rare animals and plants.
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| Maria discovered... |
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| .... a beautiful orchid, along with a Hummingbird |
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| Evanthis discovered... |
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| ... a colorful caterpillar that unfortunately later transforms into a gray moth… |
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.. and Regine discovered...a so-called "Sausage-Tree''
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Dominica is of volcanic origin and one of the wettest places in the world with annual rainfall between 10 000ml in the mountains and 2000ml at the coast
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…which came to our benefit because we took a bath in a natural cave-like pool
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| Sotos, Gerd and Mima enjoyed the refreshing coolness of the water |
The island is dependent of agriculture, mainly from the banana-growing sector. After Grenada, Dominica is the second most important spice island in the Caribbean. Many residents work in the neighboring islands such as Antigua or they migrate to the United States or England. Dominica’s tourist sector is still not very developed.
A certain contribution to increase in tourism was made starting in 2003 by the pirate movie series "Pirates of the Caribbean''; scenes for all three parts were shot on Dominica, for example, at the Indian River...
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| …together with our guide David we rowed up the river... |
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| ... closely passing jungle forests where the film’s scenes with the witch Calypso were created... |
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| ...we were suspiciously being watched from the river’s banks |
Dominica also has another side to it: On 19th August 1979, four months after its independence, Hurricane David was racing at a speed of 150 mph for a full eight hours over the island and left behind 42 dead and an image of destruction. Remains can still be seen.
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| Like the crushed school bus, which had been donated by Canada to the inhabitants of the island only four months earlier |
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| …Or the many fishing- and commercial boats lined up the along the beaches; they were pushed ashore by the force of the storm. Meanwhile, these rusty buckets are being split up with welding machines, dismantled and taken out of the country by Venezuelans. |
Another oddity:
When we praised the good quality of the streets, the taxi driver told us that these, as well as a large stadium and others were all gifts from China being built by Chinese prisoners. We asked him what China wanted in return, the answer was: "The Chinese want Dominica’s voice at the United Nations'' ...!?
Our next destination is our usual Caribbean Stopover-place St. Maarten. We then plan to be in Cuba towards the 25th March. Stay tuned!
Our current position (please click):
PLEASE ALSO SEE OUR BLOG ARCHIV WITH FURTHER REPORTS!
(at the bottom of the blog)
