Tubular

I was awake early and watched us approach Dominica, with the island of Guadeloupe passing by to the east. I sat in Horizons, drank some coffee, and typed up yesterday’s Find Penguins post on Sint Maarten. We had breakfast delivered to the rooms as we wanted to be ready to head out at 9:30 for our first scheduled excursion: river tubing and the Emerald Pool.

We met up with our excursion group in the Insignia Lounge, then headed out to get on the bus. Both disembarkations thus far have been incredibly easy. We simply walk to the gangway, scan our cards, and walk out. No lines, no wait. Neither Sint Maarten nor Dominica had any form of immigration or customs in place. That will certainly change at other ports, but so far so easy.

Our first stop on the excursion was for river tubing on the Layou river. We had about a 40-minute
ride to the tubing haul-in spot, during which our guide Kerlin delivered a string of interesting facts about Dominica. Once at the river, we were equipped with helmets, life preservers, and paddles, given a tube, and launched into the river (shout out to Wacky Rollers, the company that manages the tubing. They were great!). The tubing was a blast! The river was fast enough to be fun but not so much as to be treacherous. DJ was fully in his element and was determined to stay in the lead for the whole group. All in all it was a very nice float down the river. Dominica is referred to as the “nature island” of the Caribbean, and that name seemed well-deserved from our river vantage point. The island is more mountainous and covered with much denser forest than other Caribbean islands we’ve been on. It’s quite beautiful.

After the haul-out we had a quick beverage – rum punch or water; we all opted for water! – and then boarded the bus for the trip to the Emerald Pool. During this quick stop I spotted a life bird – the
Antillean Crested Hummingbird. Always nice to get a lifer. The ride to the Emerald Pool was about
45 minutes, with the van’s air conditioning making things a bit chilly as we were wet from the river.

The Emerald Pool is part of Trois Pitons National Park, which covers a big chunk of central Dominica. We unloaded, were issued entrance vouchers, and then walked down to the pool. DJ was the only one of us brave enough to get in. It wasn’t overly warm – not cold, but not so hot that we
were dying for a swim. DJ got in for a photo op, though. While it was a beautiful location, I’m not
sure it was fully worth the drive time. I did get another life bird here, though: Plumbeous Warbler, a bird endemic to Dominica and Guadeloupe. Not a species I’m likely to see again!

We were back to the cruise port a little after 2:00, which meant food options were limited to what
we could grab in town as the ship’s restaurants were closed. We walked down the waterfront street to a place called Alex Cuisine, which had good reviews on Google Maps. Neither DJ nor I were overly hungry but Thomas got a cheese pizza and Liz a veggie burger. It was good, and there was a local clientele. We then headed back to the ship for showers. Thomas’s priority was to get his CapCut software installed (which we had sadly failed to do prior to departure) so he can start posting some videos.

We enjoyed our brief time on Dominica. The tourism industry is much more nascent than what you see on most Caribbean islands. That means that if you visit you may have fewer options, but it also means far fewer tacky tourist traps. We were the only ship docked at the port, so it was a very chill vibe along the waterfront. There was a ship from the German cruise line Aida docked at a separate port, but the lack of a central cruise port that can support multiple ships is indicative of the smallerscale tourist infrastructure. Per Kerlin there is a desire to build such a port and further develop
tourist services on the island. That leads to more jobs and likely a higher standard of living for many Dominicans, but of course also means more crowds and greater environmental impact, potentially destroying the very thing that makes Dominica special.

Tomorrow we have an early port call in Barbados where we plan to get some more beach timeRead more