First, a bit of context. I’m actually writing this on Monday, January 10. We’re docked in St. Maarten (the Dutch side)

But enough about me. Here’s the deal with Dominica.

Our excursion wasn’t till 1:30 so we took full advantage: Up, 3 miles, breakfast on the veranda, linger over hot beverages, read, post to the blog, listen to the Caribbean music coming from the dock, eventually up to lunch, then back to the room to get ready for our river trip.

The so-called river trip was actually a rowboat ride on the tranquil Indian River.

We saw (and identified) various types of birds and fish and lizards as he rowed us along.

Eventually we arrived at a rickety old dock

We took a break and enjoyed a rum punch while chatting with our guide and fellow sailors. Back in the boat it was time to head downstream to our dock. But along the way we took a bit of a side trip to see

Back at the dock it was onto the van and a quick 40 minute drive back to the ship.

Dominica is perhaps the most volcanically active of the Caribbean islands. The big ones were shrowded in clouds most of the day but occasionally one made an appearance:

Back at the ship we were too late for the “Explorers’ Society” reception (for past Viking guests) so we showered, got dressed up, and headed to the specialty restaurant – The Chef’s Table for an excellent five course Chinese dinner. Actually I’d class it as Asian with a Caribbean twist, but it was good nevertheless. Dinner took a long time so we missed the 8:00 “Name That Tune” trivia. We were, however able to make it to the “Behind the Pen” performance by the resident vocal quartet (accompanied by the resident instrumental quartet). It was an excellent retrospective of the works of some of the great songwriters of American music (including Carole King, Burt Bacharach, Billy Joel, Dolly Parton, and Barry Manilow). These musicians have real talent and we had a great time.

So…that’s it for Dominca. Tomorrow is St. Lucia.

Till then, nite all.

Cheryl comments:

Dominica is an island made up of NINE volcanoes! The island is very vertical with very little flat land so most of the houses have the front of the house on the street (with NO sidewalks) and the back of the house balanced up on spindly legs made up of cement blocks – in case of earthquake the whole house would come down. Several of the island guides have mentioned with great pride that they have filled in the ocean around the harbors to give themselves more flat land. They also have built desalinization ocean plants as the only fresh water is what they catch from rainstorms.

These islands were settled originally with natives from Venezuela! The Carib indians were often cannibals and wiped out the earlier Arawak natives. Then the Europeans wiped out most of the Carib indians (The Batik place we visited was one such chieftain’s settlement) and many places are named after the bloody battles. Pirates also were based in the islands (including Sir Francis Drake – a crown sponsored pirate after all) going after the silver and gold shipments to Spain. African slaves were brought in by the Europeans to make the huge sugar plantations profitable and when beet sugar made cane sugar from the islands no longer profitable there were no jobs for all the freed slaves. Eighty percent of the population now work for the tour business – and since Covid hit have not had a paying job for 2 years.

All the islands we have been on so far have been fought over many times between the Spanish, the French, and the English (Tortola has changed hands 33 times!) but seem to have wound up with the English. Their architecture has balconies over the street, like the the French, but do not have the long double doors and windows like we saw in New Orleans – they have just a single regular front door. And most drive on the left-hand side like the English. The streets are only two lanes wide but they park higgly-piggily out in the street and you just swerve around them when they are in your lane-which is pretty hair-raising some times (reminds me of the scene from Harry Potter when he is riding the Night Bus).

And…

It’s 4:45 PM on January 8 as I’m typing this. We just got word that St. Thomas has closed their port – so we will have a Sea Day tomorrow (January 9). The captain promised that they have selected a route that will take us by several islands so we should get some good photos as we lounge the day away on our veranda. It’s not the same as our snorkling excursion, but such is life. We’ll just have to come back.