We recently had the opportunity to go to the Caribbean Island of Dominica.

Here are some of the pictures from our adventures throughout that day!

 

Per their request we took a picture of Jerm and Amber reaching through the bars on the end of the pier.  It was a pretty funny sight to see as we were walking down the pier, they crack me up.  If you notice to the left you’ll see the barb wire on the outside of the bars.  Always an adventure.

Dominica had several beautiful churches on their island.  This one was the oldest and largest.  It had a lot neat flowers around, an iron fence with crosses on top along with several other neat features.

Dominica is well known for their schools, some of the surrounding islands will send students to Dominica to study.  All the kids wear school uniforms to school.  Above is a group of girls from school blowing us kisses as we drove by.  Cute kids!

Above is a large tree we saw in the park.  The tree was so big you could walk through part of the tree at the openings.  We noticed a lot of neat trees during our time in Dominica.

A few years ago during a hurricane this tree fell onto the parked school bus.  Thankfully the kids were in a safe shelter during the storm not riding on the bus.

In the middle of a park they had a “tree house” literally.  It was a spot with a lot of dense trees and vines that they made into a hut.  It was pretty neat.  The black hole in the middle is the doorway.  If you are looking to have an “on the ground” tree house this is a great idea, no more falling out of the tree house!

A large volcanic rock on a railing as we were hiking through the rain forest.  Dominica has active volcanoes although it has been many years since an eruption on the island.  Thankfully!

I honestly did not know that there were fresh water land crabs!  We saw a couple on our hike but this guy was pretty courageous, he came right out in front of us.  He didn’t run and hide when he saw us either, he just moved to the side.   I would say he was about a 4 inch land crab which from the couple we saw was pretty big.

There were parts of the rain forest that was more dense.  Here is one area that we could see up to the clouds.  The line across the middle is a vine, the vines were so think you could swing from them and everywhere.  They had amazing foliage, trees, flowers, ferns, plants, etc….and everything was big due to all the rain they receive.

One of the Trafalgar waterfalls at the end of our part of the hike.  You could actually bring your swimsuit and towels up to go swimming at the pool at the bottom of the waterfall.  It was gorgeous!

This is the second waterfall, they call the two falls “twin waterfalls” because they come out of the mountain almost side by side.  There is only a little bit of greenery from the rain forest and lava rock between the two waterfalls.

Here is our crew that went on this excursion.  We had fun hiking, looking at the amazing creation, and learning a lot of interesting facts about the Dominica rain forest.

A picture of the twin falls.  It was  hard to get a good angle to take a picture of the falls and it was raining.  The picture is pretty but the look, sound and everything was even more amazing.

Greenery in the rain forest.  There were a lot of beautiful plants and greenery on our hike.

It was not uncommon to see fresh fruit hanging from the trees in the rain forest and all over the island.  Some of the fruits I recognized while others I did not.

The sulphur springs hike was pretty quick and we didn’t spend a lot of time hanging out once we arrived.  If you don’t know anything about Sulphur Springs then you will be surprised by the smell.  It was neat to watch it bubbling for a few minutes but we were glad to get away from the stinky smell it creates.

On the way back down from our hike to the Sulphur Springs we noticed several sugar cane patches.  This patch had been picked and some of the stocks were laying down in the water.

Here is a picture of the water from the Sulphur Springs running through the island.  It was a beautiful sight with the springs bubbling down through all the rain forest greenery.

Dominica had a clean coast line.  This location had a sidewalk next to the road with some green grass and palm trees.  It was close to the port as you can see from the cargo crates in the background.

Here is a picture of one of the villages on Dominica.  This one was built into the mountain where other villages closer to the heart of the rain forest were actually built in the valleys due to all the rain.

Dominica has a lot of private and family fisherman.  The small boats in the picture above go out daily and catch fish and seafood right off the coast.  The ones not on the water are placed under a tin roof as shown in the picture above.

There were several signs on Dominica (and other islands) that made me laugh.  In case you cannot read it says “Management is not responsible for drugs sold to visitors. – by Vendors  They are not part of management.”  I think they maybe had some problems with this issue in the past.  Kind of sad they have to put out a big sign.

Amber and Jeremy swimming at Mero Beach in Dominica!  Amber, Jeremy, Jake and I swim for a couple hours while Mom and Dad relaxed on the beach.  It was fun hanging out, swimming, and relaxing for a little bit.  Although Amber never did get her dreadlocks done.

We stopped at Mero Beach for a couple hours to relax and swim after we took our hikes to the waterfalls, rain forest, and Sulphur springs.  The water wasn’t as turquoise as some of the other islands because of all the volcanic rock and black sand beaches.  The was a little less salty here due to the all the rain forest water that dilutes the salt in the ocean.

Dad and Mom relaxing on the  beach under the shade of the palm trees while we went for a swim.

It is hard to see from the picture but Dominica had beautiful black sandy beaches.  The sand really sparkled in the sunlight.  It was neat to see and I had a couple cups worth of sand still on me when we got back on the ship, seriously, ask Jake, Amber or my room attendant!     I had a little stash of black sand that came out of my sandals once I made it back to our room!!!  I had a lot fun exploring Dominica, it is a beautiful island!

A Vacation To Remember series is a reflection on our recent trip and ways we relaxed.  Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away.  Go with a good attitude and looking for fun and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories.  It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine.  Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn.  You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!