First Port: Dominica!

>> Back on the ship now after 2 days in Dominica. The island was incredible to say the least and I would love to return someday. Dominica is an interesting place and its history is truly special given its location in the Caribbean. Christopher Columbus landed here on his first voyage meeting the natives and eventually moving on with his journey. Dominica is named for the day Columbus arrived, Sunday which in Spanish is "Domingo". The island resisted the slave trade for quite some time since its pretty south and off the beaten path of the regular trade winds. Eventually the French prevailed and the island was used for sugar cane and bananas. Upon receiving independence, tourism has really been the most viable option. Bananas is a big export for them but trying to compete with monopolies like Chiquita Banana is near impossible. Also Dominica doesn't really have a big airport so in order to get here by plane, you must make a few stops and fly in on a smaller jet. The Chinese have given Dominica $120 million a year for recognizing their government in Beijing and denouncing the government in Taiwan. That might not seem like a lot but for an island with a population of 70,000 it is.
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>> The first day we woke up bright and early to see us dock but the ship arrived in port a bit earlier than expected. After a wonderful breakfast, I was off on my first trip called Emerald Pool and Wati Kabuli river tubing. The drive to the Emerald Pool might have been my favorite part of the trip. Lush rain forest everywhere and amazing mountains and cliffs seemed surreal. Our cab driver told us he has a PHD in driving. In Dominica that means "pot hole dodger". Some of the roads were nice but much of the drive was spent weaving through the road. The Emerald Pool was a beautiful waterfall into a crystal clear pool. The water was a bit cold but so refreshing. After that we travelled to the Wati Kabuli river and got in our tubes to travel about 3 miles. It was great fun, a bit touristy but we all had a good time. The water was clear and warmed by the sun it was more of a lazy river trip. After making it back to the ship, we walked into the capital, Roseau and had lunch. Rice and chicken with bananas was pretty good and filled me up. We headed back to the ship after wandering the town and ate dinner on the boat. That night nearly everyone on the boat went to a placed called Krazy Koconuts to have some fun. It was good, what I expected but it was basically a ton of white kids invading a club. Probably didn't set the best example for America but its pretty hard to not be a tourist when you really just are one.
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>> The second day I wanted to do some Scuba so I got off the boat at 8 and while attempting to negotiate a cab to go to a dive shop when I ran into a friend who I had talked to a few days earlier and ended up hitching a ride with him. It turned out to be the best decision so far. We met up with 5 other SAS kids hopped in the shuttle and rode to Aldive. Our guides were great very friendly and the equipment was nice. We rode out on the small dive boat to a place called Dangle Bend and got ready for the first dive. After a buoyancy check and safety stuff we descended down a gigantic reef wall. We reached a max depth of about 90 feet deepest I have ever been and slowly made our way to the surface. Their was lots of fish and coral life, the thing about diving on reefs is the closer you get to the coral the more you see. So as you put your face right up in the coral you can see so much more going on. Its really something out of this world. Overall the first dive was amazing. For the second dive we moved done the coast a bit to Champagne Bay, which was a place where a lot of people went snorkeling so it was relatively shallow. We started further out and got down to 50 feet and then making our way towards the shore seeing all sorts of fish including eels, a seahorse and tons of fish. Champagne Bay is known for the bubbles it emits from the volcanic activity under the island. After the dive we had a great lunch in town and then walked about Roseau until it was time to head back to the ship for our departure.

Dominica was really something, I wish we had one more day so I could do some hiking but I feel like i'll be back one day...