Dominica

Dominica has one of the highest concentrations of potentially active volcanoes in the world. There are nine volcanos on the island.

If I wanted to do my homework properly, I should have re-watched the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, much of which was filmed here.

Dominica is great for hiking, also because there is nothing dangerous to worry about. Some of the hikes were just too far (Boiling Lake=6 hrs). I don't actually know whether that is worth the effort, but I just did not have the time, so I settled for a few waterfalls.

I stayed at the Rosalie Bay Eco Resort because I didn't want to be in town (this is on the east coast) and because they are well-known for the turtles coming to nest. This is the season, and particularly the large leatherback turtles can be expected any time.

This is the beach where they come onto land to leave their eggs.

and a view to the other side. Having said that, I put myself on the list so that when they saw them coming in, (that could be in the middle of the night) security would call me and I could go have a look.

An interesting-looking church. Since we cruised by on the boat, I could not have a look inside.

After the whale watching I drove north to Portsmouth and got myself some very succulent conch with a creole (tomato) sauce, accompanied of course by Kubuli, the local beer.

I'm not sure how reasonable the fear of tsunamis is here in Dominica, but they certainly have the volcanos in the area that are still active.

From this rock people used to push off unwanted spouses, so the story goes.

I don't know about the current they were warning about; the pools were quite calm-looking, but I did not bother to get in when I read that they were cold.

Much of Dominica is still very undeveloped and charming.

I decided to go whale watching, as Dominica is known for its resident sperm whales. These would all be females adults and calves of either sex. The males are chased away when they are around 8 years old.