Sat 18/2/12 – Roseau, Dominica

Having enjoyed a great lunch out in St Pierre, we settled down for non-eating evening whilst our digestions recovered. La Tamaya was an excellent discovery, and will be well-remembered….

It was time, however, to move northwards and escape the first French colony of Martinique (plenty more to come later), and we had a great sail to Dominica on Friday 17/2/12.  We picked up a mooring off Roseau, the capital of the island, with the help of Marcus the boat man (of which more later), went ashore to clear in at the port building, and returned for a relaxing evening.

One of the “attractions” that Marcus did not mention was the live performance of the tin drum bands, with the tuneless singers, just ashore from us. Starting late evening, the cacophony went on till just before 7 am this morning – ear plugs deployed, but not enough to keep out the noise, unfortunately! We are in the local posh hotel – Fort Young – to get internet access, have a snack, and contemplate alternatives!  A great benefit of the Fort Young Hotel is the shady courtyard we’re sitting in and having cool drinks whilst we wait for our lunch… 

Carnival

Apparently, the party doesn’t really get going properly until Monday or Tuesday, as the island-wide carnival takes place - last night was really just the warm-up – how many earplugs can we deploy at once?  There may be no escape!  We are contemplating the trips available inland but the ‘hot slog’ doesn’t  appeal , so maybe we’ll have to consider carefully…

Architecture and Culture

We walked a little this morning around the town and were aware of the strange juxtapositions of ‘British’ and Caribbean: an old Tennent’s lager sign, Hillsborough’s tobacco factory, a tailor’s called George Warrington and the buildings which are reminiscent of New Orleans with the intricate balconies and ‘gingerbread’ fascias in vibrant colours.   

Alan took photographs of a lot of the buildings today – we hope they are on the disc because the camera has a screen viewer problem, just like the last camera.  So it looks like there will be no more Fuji finepix cameras for us.  We have spotted more turtles in the bay here and so we may try to get a picture of one, but as Alan says they are almost as hard as dolphins to photograph.  The beach is rocky so the water is very clear which may help us catch a picture of one, maybe there will be an excuse for a swim later although we don’t have a waterproof camera!.  

Cruise Ships and Tourism

When we woke up this morning, a huge Thompson’s cruise liner loomed over the port, having docked last night. It was disgorging thousands of passengers, some of whom seemed to be leaving the boat with baggage, whilst others were going on trips and scouring the stalls for local trinkets. Apparently they leave this afternoon, but 2 more liners are due in tonight. We wondered just how much income this kind of tourism generates for the local community, but could not really understand the equation. It is clear that the local community welcomes them with open arms, and there were markets and shops catering for their interests all around the port area. It does, however, bring sharp focus on the difference between the “wealthy” visitors and the desperate small businessmen – taxi drivers, guides, stall holders – who were fighting for their attention and custom.

Watergaw