Cruising Day Seven

Good morning Rosseau, Dominca!

 This was the most 'rustic' port yet and the town sure looked charming from our veranda.  I couldn't wait to get off ship and explore by foot.

 Always nice hearty breakfast to get us going for the day.  I don't think I felt a true hunger pang our entire trip.  Again...not good!    Oh well...this was a holiday and there was to be no dieting at all!

 We disembarked and only had a short walk down the pier to shore.  This was a tiny port and we were the only ship in town.

 What we weren't prepared for was the absolute onslaught of very aggressive tour operators and taxi drivers desperate to have our business.  We couldn't walk more than a few feet without being accosted and they don't take 'no' for an answer.  It was not a good feeling.

 Once we walked out of the main part of town it became all quiet.  But too quiet for us.  We couldn't see any other tourists and the streets were a tad scary with homeless people sleeping in gutters and beggars.  My woman's intuition told us maybe this wasn't a great idea.

 We quickly looked at a few churches and then high-tailed it back to the main street.  You can see from the above photo we aren't too far from the ship.

 The island is 65% Catholic and this church was under renovation.

 Just trying to figure out what to do next!

 We went back to town and browsed the market a while.  We approached a taxi driver to see how much it would be for him to drive us to Champange Beach and he said $50 which we thought was too high!  At this point we decided to run back to the ship and see if there were any more ship-sanctioned excursions for sale. 

There were two spots left on a four hour sight-seeing and beach tour that we quickly signed up for.  We had 10 minutes before they left so raced to our room, grabbed our beach gear and high-tailed it back to the docked where we were hustled into a mini-van that was already packed with folks and away we went.  The driver was a lovely older gent named Lambert who made sure we had a great tour.  He was very knowledgable and a good driver too. 

 This was one of the shops we passed.  As you can see this port is a 'diamond in the rough'.  So different than the posh ports of St Thomas or Barbados! 

 This was one of the secondary schools.  The government on the island is very serious about education and the goal by 2015 is to have every household have a child with a university education!

 We drove up a windy, windy road (thank goodness I didn't get car sick at all) to this viewpoint.

 As you can see in the right hand side of this picture, they had a huge stadium for cricket.  Most of these islands are of the British Commonwealth and still hang onto English ways such as cricket and driving on the left hand side.

 He drove us through the botanical gardens which weren't as green and lush as I would have imagined.  The island is mostly rainforest, rivers and volcanoes and most of the people live on the outer edges of the island.

 Our final destination was a black sand beach about 35 minutes from town.  We were provided with chairs, an umbrella and each a cup of strong rum punch. 

 It was very hot and we enjoyed relaxing, wading in the ocean and walking up and down the beach.

 I read quite a bit but the three books I had downloaded to my Kobo were horrible so that could have been better.  Just back luck random choices from the Kobo store...ugh!

 

 Sinead, this picture is for you!  Now we've been to Belfast Ireland and Belfast Dominica! 

 Quite of bit of the second 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie was filmed on Dominica.  Lambert told us this coconut tree grove was in one of the scenes.  If he was pulling our leg, we wouldn't know.

 We arrived back to port in good time and got back on board for a late lunch.

 This was the Solstice Deck which was always pretty crowded with sunbathers.  As the day came to close it would finally empty out.

 We watched the ship pull away from port.  Dominica wasn't our favorite port but it had been an adventure!

 The 'best' hotel on the island. 

 

 So long, farewell!

 We were treated to a beautiful sunset.

 We didn't go to the show tonight so had a leisurely evening of getting ready for dinner and hanging out on our deck.  My appy was a spring roll.  Fresh!

 I had the grilled steak off the classic menu.

And my dessert was soufflé with Grand Marnier sauce.  My first time eating soufflé and it was so good!  The lady at the next table had to tell me how to eat it.  Poke a hole in the top and pour in the sauce. 

And then off to walk the ship before bed.  We watched the dance party at the pool deck for a while and then headed to bed.  Next port was our last.