Dominica

True Colours
James Scrimshaw
Tue 4 Mar 2014 14:26

On Sunday we woke early for our trip up the river.  Lawrence of Arabia arrived on time, having picked up two American ladies who were also on the tour.  The river was quiet (no outboard motors, Lawrence had to row), quite beautiful, with some wildlife (James was disappointed that they saw no parrots) and included a little shack (home of the witch Calypso) that had featured in Pirates of the Caribbean II.  At the end of the navigable part of the river there was a jungle bar where we had grapefruit juices, before returning to the boat at about 09.00.

We then went for a long walk, past the customs dock and up to the main road to a supermarket, then back to the Blue Bar where the dinghy was moored, and we had a couple of beers before returning to the boat for a swim.  In the evening there was a barbeque, a regular Sunday night feature hosted by the boat boys.  We returned to the boat quite early after a long day, but the music lasted quite late, to be replaced at 03.00 on Monday by really loud music – It’s Carnival time!!!.  No sleep possible as the truck full of enormous speakers , and towing a generator to power them, went up and down the sea front, playing local calypso music at full blast.

At 09.00 Lawrence again collected us, this time for a tour of the north part of the island. We joined two Canadian couples, and were driven by Sam.  Sam probably had his mind more on the Carnival than the tour, and we seemed to stop many times when he spotted one of his various girlfriends, but despite that the tour reinforced our belief in the beauty of the island. We stopped at several beaches on the east side of the island, where we also had a Creole lunch, and also at a waterfall (quite a treck from the road) where the men swam in the pool.  Most scary point  was when we went through the Carib (original island inhabitants) reservation.  There were several groups of people, clustered around music trucks, in fancy dress, with face masks / painted faces.  They stopped our car and tried to extort money from the driver (one of the Caribs opening the passenger door) but the driver was having none of it, and after some heated exchanges we continued on our way.  The tour finished at about 17.30, and we returned to the boat (The Blue Bar being closed due to Carnival).  Out at night, eating at the Purple Turtle (the only restaurant open), leaving quite early as the cook wanted to go to Carnival.   Meal of chicken with beans rice and salads, followed by a grapefruit cocktail.  Total cost, including 2 beers, was less than £8 each   The music in Portsmouth started again, but thankfully finished at 22.00.

Today the plan is to fill up with water and generally hang about – we’ll probably leave in the morning.

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