DOMINICA: Three Times a LADY

      
      ^{This was our third visit to Dominica, and we have learned something new about her every time. Upon our arrival in Prince Rupert Bay which is located in the northern section of the island, Martin Carrierre (AKA Providence) greeted us with a wide smile and freshly cut stems of ruby-red ginger lilies.  We first became acquainted with Martin, our P.A.Y.S. (Portsmouth Association Yacht Services) rep, on our initial visit in 2012. Over the years, we have depended on him to advise us on where to go hiking on our own and has taken us touring off the beaten track on many occasions, as well.  He beams with love for his Dominica and is well-versed in her history and, interestingly enough, the medicinal qualities of her plentiful flora and fauna. Our time with Martin on this trip was as pleasurable as expected.
      So, dear Lady Dominica, we will surely see you again during our travels because we’re certain that our excursions have only scratched your surface and a stop here always leaves us wanting to explore more of you!
     We’ll let these photos do the talking-}




Martin suggested that we snorkel the cruise ship pier to look for sea horses
 and batfish.  I think I spotted a batfish, but it was extremely shy

Danny spotted this hairy shrimp in the reef.

Coffee Tree with red ones ready for hand picking;
 now you know why it is expensive.

Martin always feeds us well with roadside finds.

 


These colorful moth caterpillars love plumaria leaves.

Blood Root Tree roots on the way to the "hot tub".

The first of two Spanky Falls in central Dominica.

         


View of Dominica's eastern coast from our lunch stop.

Carib Tribesmen, often mistaken for Japanese,
 still process and bake cassava bread in the traditional way.

 


This Baobab Tree fell on an unoccupied bus during a hurricane.

  


Part of Jack's Walk in the Botanical Gardens

Don’t come this way!!

       EONS ago, we were skiing in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with two other couples.  Near dusk one day, Charlie blazed a trail for us skiing through the woods as we returned to our chalet on the outskirts of the resort. We were all in need of some warm fireside chatting and wine sipping as we flew through the woods, deep with new snow.  I was a few seconds behind Charlie and watched as he went air born over a small ridge. A nanosecond later he yelled, “Don’t come this way!”  I stopped and crept up to the top of the ridge as the others joined me.  Below us Charlie lay spread eagle, laughing whole-heartedly, and waving his poles in warning. His jump had landed him in a pile of thick brush and rough branches. (Later, when he took off his ski pants, he discovered that his calf had been impaled by a stick!)
                                 


    

Le Chameau

        Last week on a hike, Charlie’s warning rang over and over in my head.  The one thing I wanted to do more than anything else in Iles Des Saintes was to climb Le Chameau, the highest point of Terre De Haut at 309 meters.  We had a tourist map indicating that there were two ways of getting there.  One was a road on which no vehicles were allowed and the other was a trail that started off the Crawen Plage (beach).  I preferred the trail from the beach and was prepared to climb it alone since Dan said he had no interest in going prior to our hike.  But he had a change of heart, and began leading the way… the way that I didn’t think was the way.  There was a bench there and a single marked stone, but nothing else that looked like a clear path. We hadn’t even reached the beach yet where the map showed the beginning of the hike. How could THIS be the path? 



White square is summit of Le Chameau.
White solid path is road to top.
White dotted path from Crawen is beach trail.
Red dotted path is Dan's trail.
Black dotted path is where the trail really ended.
Black triangle is ES at anchor. 

       Dan, the Cub Scout reasoned, “We just have to go UP.”  And up we went on a incline so steep that my thigh muscles still stung days afterward. Through the bottom third of the ascent, the bush was thick and some of the branches I used for handholds were dead, breaking in my hand.  Other shrubs were thorny, so I began studying branches more before grabbing. 





This was taken after we crawled through the bush. 

       I asked, “Do you even see any signs of goat traffic?  (I hadn’t.)  Dan admitted that he saw only a single turd. Onward I followed.
      “Don’t come this way!” Charlie whispered again.
      “Surely,” I insisted,”we’d see some sign of others who had gone this way before.”  Minutes later we saw part of a green bottle, perhaps from a celebration at reaching the summit. That’s encouraging!  How much longer could it be?  There appeared to be a clearing ahead- yes, we’re almost there.  No, just the top of a ridge from where we could see that the peak of Le Chameau loomed still upward.
      The terrain looked clearer and easier to the left of us, but I urged Dan to go right in hopes of intersecting the REAL trail.  Another piece of discarded wine bottle surfaced and then- and THEN lo and behold….. a stone marked with yellow paint!  A few steps more to the right brought us in full view of more yellow spots and the REAL PATH!!!



Note the yellow spots to mark path.

   



Exit Strategy is in center anchored at Pan De Sucre.

Another view from the peak

        
      The views from Le Chameau left me speechless, or perhaps I was overcome with finally reaching my personal goal!  I was so glad to have Dan share this adventure with me, even though his trail added to the challenge.


This is NOT the only shirt Dan has although he's often wearing it in blog shots.

   
PS:  We did see a nanny and her kid on the way down.  And guess what?!  The yellow path led us back to the BENCH.

Guadeloupe’s RIGHT WING

Newly cultivated field with cane crop beyond.

     Day two of our land tour took us through Grande Terre which is flatter region that is more suitable for agriculture.  Dan drove us past countless fields of sugar cane and through villages, large and small.  At the center of the island (the “body of the butterfly”) the highway widened and then branched off in different directions to feed travelers northward, southward, or due east toward Le Moule, our first destination.

A few of the many Carib Indian artifacts found on Guadeloupe

A similar tool like this one was found on our family farm decades ago. 

    
     Le Moule was the first capital of Guadeloupe situated on the far eastern shore of the right wing.  Today, Pointe-à-Pitre, which is situated near the island’s center (“butterfly body”) is the bustling capital city.  From what we saw of Le Moule, it remains a pleasant coastal town.  We stopped there to visit Musée Edgar Clerc which had recently undergone an extreme renovation. The museum artfully displayed the ancient tribal artifacts found on the island and also described some of the fascinating cultural practices. Now I believe I know why the early explorers thought that the Carib Tribes were cannibals.  From what I learned at the museum, there is evidence that they weren’t.

Cane stalks being elevated into the crusher.

The witch's brew of which we saw about eight vats. 

   
     Not far away was the Distillerie de Rhum Damoiseau where visitors are welcome to do a self-guided tour.  We have been to so many rum distilleries that this was easy for us. We watched huge wagon loads of cane being dumped onto an elevator for processing.  We wandered through the facility at will and noticed that they age their rhum vieux in used Kentucky bourbon barrels.

A good old tractor for my brothers

 
     The fishing village of St. François was our lunchtime stop. Many simple restaurants and grills lined the dock area with their catch of the day menu prominently displayed on a sandwich chalkboard on the sidewalk. It was hard to chose a place to eat, but we finally moseyed into one with traditional Guadeloupian plaid table cloths and ordered our 3 course fresh fish meals for 10 Euros each. We were welcomed and well fed.

Fish nets waiting to be cleaned in St. François

These were the largest fish traps we've ever seen!

   
     From there we headed toward the south-easternmost point of the island, to search for La Maison de Noix de Coco.  The online information about this shop made us curious and it turned out to be more than imagined. It housed 4 or 5 small rooms whose walls were lined with shelves full of all sorts of handmade things.  Elite craftsmanship was evident in most articles and many were made out of coco (coconut) shells or trees.    

Point de Châteaux

    Richard drove us on toward Pointe de Châteaux where we walked to the rugged-rocky coast of the Atlantic.  From there we looked out to spy Guadeloupe’s out islands of La Désirade and Marie-Galante. Other than that, this narrow tip of the right wing appeared to be not much more than a tour bus stop, as souvenir shops were plentiful.

Ilet du Gosier

Even the cemetery in Gosier is a tourist delight.

    
     Rowena and Richard were curious about Gosier for a possible future anchorage.  Gosier is colorful and quaint, but probably one of the most touristy destinations in Guadeloupe. We parked and strolled down to the beach of this popular seaside town.  As it was nearly 5pm, some of the evening swimmers were already in the water stroking their way the 1km toward îlet du Gosier, a small island off the shore.  Dan and I anchored here a few years ago and noticed the swimmers every morning and evening.  It was refreshing to see such a huge number of people that dedicated to staying fit and by what better way than swimming.
     Back on the road again, Richard wove our rental back through a bit of rush hour traffic on the outskirts of Pointe-à- Pitre.  Thanks to the well-maintained two-lane highway, it decongested relatively soon. Then we crossed back over to Basse Terre and, finally, to our homes on the water in the bay of Deshaies. It was a grand two day tour!

The LEFT WING of Guadeloupe

Voici la "BUTTERFLY"

   
     The island of Guadeloupe is often described as butterfly shaped.  Recently, we toured it by car with our British friends Rowena and Richard from the good ship sv Galene. They had spoken to the local car rental shop and arranged a car for two days, saying they’d return in the morning to pick it up. When we arrived the next day, the rental agency was closed.  We waited for nearly an hour and then Richard set off to find a phone to call the agent.  No phone was located, but he did learn that the shop was most likely closed because it was a national holiday celebrating the island’s emancipation of slaves. We took it in stride, as such is often our life when cruising the islands.
      The following day, we entered the rental shop bright-eyed and bushy-tailed fueled by espresso and sweet rolls from the local boulangerie. No mention was even made of the previous day.  Richard took the wheel for the first half of the day as we headed south along the coast from Deshaies to the Route de la Traversée that cuts through part of Guadeloupe’s extensive tropical forest just north of the island’s midline. The roadways were smooth and surprisingly well-maintained. We kept the island’s ever cloud-shrouded La Soufrière (volcanic peak) on our right.


Could use these for an umbrella...

Lots of bromeliads and spent orchid blossoms

            
     La Maison de la Florêt was our first stop where we gathered specific information and maps for the many sights in the Parc National de la Guadeloupe. The rain forest region gets an average of 10 meters (yes, METERS) of precipitation each year and is home to many feathered creatures.  While there, we strolled a 20 minute trail that took us twice as long because we were so taken with the natural beauty of our surroundings. (Well, at least Rowena and I were appreciating nature.  The men were discussing golf…)

Dan and Richard pause to wait for us.

      A short drive down the road was the Cascade aux Écrevisses (Crayfish Waterfall).  The walk there was shorter and fully equipped for handicapped individuals, including the blind!  The waterfall and pool were inviting, but none in our party jumped in.  I did step along the river for a bit searching for écrevisses, but didn’t spot any.
       
     Our lunch stop was selected and we drove for miles with anticipation following the signs for Le Grande Café Plantation.  However, when we finally found the café, the clerk at the tourist shop there informed us that those signs were very old and the restaurant was no longer in operation.  She did recommend another place to eat and gifted us with luscious bananas, as Le Grande Café Plantation was still a working banana farm.

        Lunch at Le Dame Jeanne was just right and I finally learned how to order dark rum in the French islands.  You must ask for rhum vieux which means “old or aged” rum instead of trying to use words for “dark or brown”.

This water apple tree was unfortunately on the wrong side of a high fence.

     Back on the main road, with Dan taking a turn at the wheel, we were now rounding the southern tip of the left wing with Le Soufriere’s peak still looming on our right.  We watched for the cut off toward Le Grande Étang, but discovered we’d gone too far.  Dan back tracked to the correct road, but it was closed off, so no Grand Étang this trip.  Onward we continued veering upward toward La Soufrière and away from the coastal villages. As we ascended into the verdant rain forest, the road grew more narrow and we were relieved that there were no oncoming vehicles.

         The road ended at the base of the trails that snaked their way around to the top of La Soufrière.  It began to rain just as we exited the car, so we took shelter under a pavilion. A few moments later, it looked like the shower had stopped, but it still sounded like it was pouring.  Yes, the water was pouring loudly down a stream not far from where we were standing. We elected to walk the shortest trail, the Savane-à-Mulets, because it was already late in the afternoon.


The boys always took the lead.

       At last, Dan skillfully maneuvered the car like a man possessed by the spirit of a grande prix driver back up the easternmost coast of Basse Terre.  He safely snaked us around hairpin curves and steep inclines ascending and descending to our anchorage in Deshaies.  And our first day’s land tour was put to bed.