This year’s Caribbean winter get away starts in Dominica.
Several years ago I announced an ambiition to Mark that we travel to every Caribbean county. I have not idea if that will work out, or if somewhere in the processes we might fall in love with one particular location and “settle down” there for our winter break.
So far we’ve been in Jamaica, Cuba, Barbados, St. Lucia, and now, Dominica.
I have found that getting at least to this eastern part of the Caribbean, best done in two chunks. First to Miami (or for St Lucia, Raleigh NC). Sleep, and then head back to the airport for the trip to the Caribbean. Otherwise, if something goes wrong, it’s just exhausting.
We had a nice afternoon in Miami. We ubered to the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, and then had a good meal at Social 27 in Little Havana. Our hotel was like a dorm— Radisson Red. Don’t stay there.
The flight to Dominica was taxing. The plane had a repair issue, so American found another plane which was good, but also delayed us for a while. The small plane had more Dominicans returning home than it did tourists.
Thirty minutes away from landing the pilot let us know that the fuelers had just gone on strike. We needed to divert to San Juan to refuel and then return to Dominica to land. So, the three hour flight was more like five.
See what I mean? Being well rested for that trip was very helpful.
Our location in Dominica is in the northwest of the country— which is little known to most tourist. It was a quiet first day of hiking around Cabrits National Park.
The British and the French fought for decades over these islands. Fort Shirley was built to protect Dominica in the late 18th century.
The walk to the national park was nice and through the forest. Our map showed a trail all the way to the park, but when we tried to follow it, the trail had been covered by a rock slide and we abandoned it, to walk a bit on the road instead.
The park had only a few people visiting. There was a group that had kayaked the entire Caribbean side of Dominica this week; they were staying in rooms right at the fort while waiting for clearer weather to finish their trip.
We missed views from the top of West Cabrits and plan to try East Cabrits another day, when skies are clearer.
Half our walking was in the rain and we returned damp but at least feeling like we’d had a hike in warm weather.
The vegetation is taking back the smaller buildings of the fort. It’s an Ozymandius site for sure. With the squabbling and lost lives, it certainly make me wonder what it was all for.
Current day Dominica is being supported by China. When we arrived, we were taken by car and driver about an hour from the airport to the resort. Along the winding and mountainous road, we passed white truck after white truck. They run in the night, filled with dirt from the mountains in the interior. The Chinese are building an international airport here, and the fill is being used for the construction. Our driver thought it would be a seven year project.
We saw many agricultural stations in run by China while we were in St. Lucia last year. Apparently Dominica has these as well. So China has a strong presence and some infrastructure here.
We saw at least three rainbows during the day, due to the showers. This was the last one before sunset. A little faint in the photo.
