Day 4:

Dominica:
Pronounced like the girls name Dominique, with an “a” at the end. This was a much more tropical looking island. When we got off the ship wit was pouring but five minutes later nothing. We got on our tour van it was 15 passenger van with seat belts!!! We first went into a tropical rain forest. It was much more tropical looking than Puerto rico. Very tropical flowers all over like birds of paradise and ginger and some other very pretty ones you only see in tropical arrangements. There were also many grapefruit trees, papayas and pineapple fields, cocoa and coffee beans, but mainly bananas. Miles and miles of banana trees. It was huge bunches from each tree probably 50+. Something very interesting was that once the bananas are ripe and cut down they cut the whole tree down and it grows back in 9 months and bares more bananas. These trees were 15 feet tall. I cannot believe they grew back so fast. We went to a fruit stand where we could taste the fruits it was the best banana I have ever had; sweet but not at all mushy. Then we tasted raw coconut and cooked coconut with cinnamon. They had cinnamon trees too. I ate a roasted cocoa bean. Bitter but good. Also we tasted pineapple and grapefruit. It was all very good.
We went to a high point in the rain forest called emerald pool. We took a short hike 15 minutes to the pool through the forest. It was very tropical. This was only ten minutes after our driver told us of the bounty of snakes they have but I do not need to worry because they are not poisonous they are boas they will greet me with a tight hug and kiss. Awful! But I was brave and ventured out and once again saw nothing. With the islands being so small there are not big wild animals like monkeys, or large jungle cats. A monkey may not be too bad to see though. The emerald pool was a large water fall with a pool beneath.



It was very pretty.
We then road down to the mountain to the largest river of all 350 on the island. We were told anything we did not want wet to leave in the van so we walked with our suits and no shoes down the path to the water where we see large boulders and many small rapids. We put on life vests and helmets and I was a little scared. Not sure why I guess a combination of snakes in the water, they kept saying the water was freezing (maybe it was for them, but it was nice for me) and flipping and hitting a rock whatever they thought the need for helmets was. The water was wonderful, the views were spectacular and the rapids were fun. A few ladies were not very good swimmers and somehow they were the only ones who flipped. Both were after a huge bolder and almost hit rocks. They had so many guides everywhere to guide us along through the rapids and help us when we got stuck it worked really well. It was a beautiful view all along the river looking on at the steep cliffs and rain forests all around us. After our ride the bus picked us up and drove us back to our ship. We didn’t really see a city by the ship worth walking through so we got back on and ate. We were starving. That night after dinner the entertainment was a comedian named “Philadelphia”. He was hilarious.