It's not rain, it's liquid sunshine...

It hasn't been the sunniest of days. We arrived in Dominica yesterday and anchored just off the town of Portsmouth, the second largest on the island after Roseau, its capital. After a stormy night, the weather hadn't improved much but we still wanted to get a good taste of all the island has to offer, having heard so much about it. We contacted a local tour guide called Martin Carriere, who runs the Providence tours, and arranged a boat trip up the Indian River and a half day tour by car around the north peninsula.

Martin came to pick us up in his water taxi at 8am and we motored across to the mouth of the Indian River. As outboards are forbidden by law up the river, he lifted up the engine and got out the oars and we were immediately immersed in the atmosphere of the rain forest.

After only about thirty seconds, Martin pointed out a group of land crabs. As we were admiring their little crab convention on the river bank under the coconut trees, our attention was brought to the other side of the bank, where a blue-backed heron was overseeing her nest of chicks. Every few feet of the river, there was something new to see, to learn and to be amazed by. As the river narrowed, Martin explained about the ficus trees and their fabulous buttress roots, which form intricate patterns along the river's edge and help to strengthen the river bed around them.

He also showed us the wild sugar cane growing alongside and pointed out hundreds of tiny Fiddler crabs, as well as termite nests and symbiotic plants growing on a trapeze of hanging vines.

We arrived at Le Troquet de Radjah, a bush bar situated on the bank where the river gets too narrow for boats to pass. We walked up into the jungle and stopped now and again to examine Bird of Paradise plants, banana trees with their huge hanging flower blossom, Heliconia and many other tropical species, too many to name... and remember! We stopped at the side of the river where Martin prepared fresh grapefruit, which were the juiciest and sweetest we had ever tasted. We reflected on the culture back home where you go to the supermarket in search of the most perfect- looking fruit and vegetables with no blemishes or bad spots.

You wouldn't have thought that there would be so much perfection inside these imperfect-looking grapefruit. We wandered back to the bar and sampled their home made fruit punch, while Martin weaved strips of banana leaves into intricate shapes of a humming bird (to make up for the fact that I didn't manage to get a photo of the tiny elusive bird during the whole trip!) and a parrot, Dominica's national bird.

We returned to the boat and made our way back down the river, trying to absorb as much as we could from Martin about the culture and history of the island. We moored up and saw a group of men of all ages, one of which was selling young coconuts. After a moment's banter between Martin and 'The Farmer', we were handed the big yellow fruit with a hole cut into the top, which we took it in turns to drink from and then pass round. It must have held about a litre of coconut milk. Once we'd finished, The Farmer then cut the coconut in half, whittled a spoon out of the skin and we tucked in to the gelatinous, milky coating inside.

After a spot of "provision" for lunch in a back street restaurant, we started out on the road going north from Portsmouth in the direction of the Cold Soufrière, one of the island's eight sedentary volcanoes. But this is definitely a volcano with a difference. Although it bubbles and boils with the sulphuric gases which seep from the depths of the earth, the mud and water surrounding its surface are cold... a very strange sensation.

We stopped every now and again to be introduced to the natural form of many medicinal plants and herbs that we could only recognise in tablet form – and even then it has to have a label on the packet. Having trained as a Botanist, Martin could point out castor seeds, aloe, lantana and thyme and explain their usage in complementary medicine. He also drove us to a house/shack, owned by a friend of his, surrounded by a forest garden containing an abundance of fruits, vegetables, plants and flowers. We discovered pineapples, papaya, saparillo, limes, sweet sap, dachine, wild mint, vanilla and nutmeg and he carved some cinnamon straight from its tree for us to take back with us.

We drove back through the villages of Capucin, Cottage, Morne Soleil, Tanetane and Cabrits. The people of Dominica are friendly and welcoming and always returned our waves with an 'Alright ok' or a 'Yeah man'. We returned to Portsmouth with our heads swimming but our eyes opened as we motored back to the boat through a sheet of misty rain... sorry, liquid sunshine.

"Katie's Guest Blog"