Dominica

To date, our highest recommendation to anyone wishing to visit the Caribbean would be to visit Dominica. We found Dominica to be a friendly place with beautiful scenery and amazing plants to satisfy all appetites and medical ailments. Our guide, Stowe (who was the brother of the husband of a cousin of Leonie) took us around to some amazing sights.

He drove around stopping frequently to pluck a branch or some fruit, giving us a smell or a taste and the background of the uses of each one. Dominica has nine (inactive) volcanoes and the mountainous landscape, frequent rains and rich soil result in beautiful lush and colourful landscape. Our first stop was the Titou gorges where we swam (with Emma and Macsen on our backs) through a deep gorge with crystal blue water and shimmering walls to a rushing waterfall. Incredible. We then took a short but complicated hike to the Trafalgar waterfalls and swam alternating between the warm sulphur pools and the cool fresh waters. The monkeys had a good giggle and so did we. Our final stop was at a geyser where we saw boiling water spurting from under the ground and warmed our hands on a natural oven.

Upon our return to the bay we stopped for a drink at the Anchorage hotel and just as were about to climb into our dingy along came Kees and Marta Slager from the big Pjotter. We turned around quickly and headed back to the bar for another drink and a good chat to catch up. We hadn’t seen them since early January in Suriname and there were lots of stories to exchange.

Emma and Macsen seem to be flourishing with the constant attention that they get from Seb and I at the moment. They are both becoming more competent with their swimming and castle building and they can really play together now. They wrestle like little tiger cubs and are sometimes quite competitive. Emma recently stated that she thought she had more toes than Macsen and had a little trouble adjusting to the harsh reality when I asked her to count them. But they are generally very good friends and frequently form an alliance against the adult members of the crew.