December, 2023

Dominica has been on my list of places to see for a while now. It’s hard to get to from Canada as It involves flights with lots of stops….etc. When cheap flight to St Lucia came up I jumped on it, then realized I can get to Dominica by FERRY! So, this trip was a 2 for 1. Find the St Lucia portion of the trip here: St Lucia on a budget? Yes! It’s possible! 
Once there I found out the ferry company has a special island hopper option. For $300 EC (about $150 CAD) you can visit Martinique, Dominica and Guadeloupe. There’s a trip for you! Find a cheap flight to one of the islands and visit them all! 

Travelling by ferry wasn’t as hassle free as I’d hoped. You still have to do all the security stuff and their xray machine was broken which meant searching EVERY bag that went through. After all that the ferry left an hour late. Once there I could walk to my accommodation in Roseau. The Roseau Hostel https://www.booking.com/Share-bPNUY5 was clean, fairly quiet and right on the beach and empty the 2 nights I was there. I walked around town, asked people and researched and still couldn’t find reasonable ways to access most of the popular hikes and sights. I ended up going through a tour company called Waitukubuli https://www.waitukubulitours.com/ which apparently also owns the hostel. The whale watching tour was really good and reasonably priced but the hike was really expensive. I did the Middleham Falls & Ti-Tou Gorge  Tours are obviously geared to cruise ships and priced accordingly. 

One day I tried taking a bus to see a waterfall. That was tricky. First you’ve got to find a bus stop. None are labelled so I just kept asking people till I found it. Don’t ask taxi drivers as they just tell you buses don’t go there. I never did figure out what a bus looks like. They’re just white vans and I couldn’t see any kind of signs on them or different licence plates. As in St Lucia they don’t leave till they’re full. There were only 3 of us in the 16 passenger van so it looked like a long wait. Then another couple showed up, also wanting to go to the Emerald pool. The driver offered to leave right away if I and the other couple paid double the fare. We were ok with that since it was still only $5 and the locals got to go where they needed to as well. The emerald pool was an easy hike and a gorgeous setting. Rather than wait for the bus back (who knows when it will show up) I hitched a ride with a couple of girls and their driver. I paid him $5 so it was all still a lot cheaper than the $50 USD a cab would have charged me.

After all that I decided not to pay a fortune for more hiking. The Middleham hike was tough enough but it was also hot and rained for half of it. It was gorgeous but I’ve decided hiking in hot weather is not for me, especially when you’re promised the guide will have water and he forgets it. You can hike free on the national trail which goes across the whole island. It’s call the Waitukubuli trail. https://waitukubulitrail.dm/

The next 6 days I spent at the Soufriere guesthouse. Most of the other guests were there either teaching or taking courses in free diving. It’s an interesting sport! they go down 50 METRES or more! Soufriere harbour is apparently the perfect place for it. It’s a lovely village and the people very friendly. I met and chatted with many different people. I swam and snorkelled at Soufriere beach, Champagne beach and Scott’s head. I walked about town and hiked a bit of the national trail. There’s a hot spring just up the road that I enjoyed one evening. Sometimes I took the bus. Sometimes I hitched a ride. It was a really nice, relaxing visit and I loved getting to know the locals. 

A major news event occurred during my stay. It was interesting to hear about it from the perspective of residents. It was devastating to the community as beloved residents were murdered. Read about it here: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67644263

Dominica rarely makes international news for good reason. It’s a laid back, safe place that’s wonderful to visit.

I might not have seen all the sights there are to see but I learned a lot about Dominica and it’s culture. Cruise ships appear to be a necessary evil. The total population of the island is about 74,000 people. The capital city of Roseau has less than 17,000 people and Portsmouth less than 4,000. Yet there can be 4 or 5 cruise ships at a time docked in those 2 cities. That is a LOT of people to dump on a tiny island for several hours most days during high season. It makes Roseau a zoo but the rest of the island is pretty much undeveloped so very hard to get around.

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