Our first stop on this amazing voyage was in Dominica (pronounced Do-mi-NEE-ka). Dominica is a lush tropical island in the Caribbean, with lots of vegetation and has a big export industry of bananas to the UK. When we first arrived, we wandered around the town, spoke to the local people, who speak English, and got a nice feel for the town of Roseau. Dominica is 65% Catholic, and 35% Protestant, which came with the French and Spanish colonialists.
Everyone we ran into was very nice, and strangers even stopped to say 'Welcome to Dominica!' I guess it's no secret when a huge ship like the MV Explorer comes to town increasing the number of people in town by 1000. Roseau's population is only 17,000.
A young boy pointed out where the markets were, and spoke with us for a bit. I loved meeting different people. We also met a few women at their market stands who taught us different words, and exchanged stories with us.
Our first SAS adventure on land was snorkeling in the Champagne Reef, and it was wonderful. They call it the Champagne Reef because of the bubbles that come from the sulfuric hot springs under water. It is supposed to be like swimming in a glass of champagne. There were just a few bubbles, but very cool nonetheless. We also got to trek to the Emerald Pool and Trafalgar Falls the following day. It was truly a tropical rainforest, hence the large quantities of rain that came down throughout our little hikes.
This first stop in Dominica overall was great - the students all got back to the ship on time (yay!) and generally everyone was healthy. Now we are on to the Amazon River, which is already a lot smoother waters.
The MV Explorer at the dock in Dominica
A first look at the dock in Roseau...
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