Marriott & beach: future tourism?
A more typical view – Windward Beach (Below)
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The places we stayed are interesting and value for money but you have to accept the Caribbean, like the pistes in the Alps, demands a premium. We met several Brits living out here and the consensus of opinion is you have to keep interests back in the UK or you’d ‘crack-up’; ending up where the ‘live music night’ is the highlight of the week!
I am now known as “one shoe Philip”. I had just ‘broken in’ a new pair of Timberland boat shoes and stupidly left them out side with the old pair. Next morning one of the ‘new’ pair was missing (The dog wasn’t totally stupid!), and despite vigorous attempts to locate it I now only have the old, sad looking pair...if anyone is going to Mo-Zi-Mo’s in Chester could you reserve me a size 9 ½ ..., dark brown please! I had to take off the said old shoes at the airport for security and pleaded that they didn’t lose them, sending all the security staff into fits of laughter when I told them my predicament...I am finally getting into Carib mode!
I’ll admit that we have had a little wobble again when we realised we still have 440 days left of travelling to do; living out of a suitcase..., yes I can hear the comments now...”He’s not actually whinging about it, is he?” OK, I’ll shut up!
Then we arrived in Dominica..., well, where do I start? It has taken us a couple of days to ‘adjust’; this is no ordinary Caribbean island. The landing was fantastic; that is if you’re not a nervous passenger. The runway is short and runs out to the sea at one end and has tall mountains at the other. The plane literally skims the tops of the tree canopy and dives down to the runway whereupon breaks, anchor and anything else available is applied; or it’s an early swim... Dominica is abundantly lush and, fighting against the ever encroaching rain forest, nestles pockets of banana plantations, fruit trees and coconut groves, in profusion.
Jeep and Banana plantation
The scenery however is simply stunning:
The old bone rattler of a Suzuki Jeep we hired has seen better days but an absolute must for the roads, or more accurately, tracks. The drive to our villa did make us both gulp a few times. We took the wrong turning down into a small fishing village where people, mainly male, of all ages just sat staring at us. Our obvious tourist ‘look’ made us especially open to curiosity and initially we found it quite intimidating. Once again after a couple of days you realise they are fervently more willing to help than do any harm, but usual caution is advised, you never really know.
It is possibly the poorest country we have visited and some of the ‘shanty’ type homes make you really appreciate our own living standards.However once again we saw nothing but smiles and heard laughter everywhere. On Saturday we noticed many people in the rivers (there are 365 on Dominica) washing their clothes; not just one or two but large groups, joviality and ‘horse-play’ abounded. I would have loved to stop and take a picture but we had been cautioned that such actions can be demeaning and to tread very carefully. I suspect that, like in parts of southern Italy where this practise still goes on, it may also be a social occasion. We have become quite insular in the UK and such sights pose the question that more communal activity could bring us closer together. I am not sure I’d want anyone to see my undies...well at least I won’t be washing my long-john thermals! (See Post 28th January!).
We rounded one corner to be faced with a fast moving pick-up truck almost pushing us off the road, waving an old rag vigorously. We stopped and he pulled up beside us, shouting a warning which neither of us could understand. Bemused we nodded politely and agreed to be careful, carriing on blissfully innocent only to be faced at the next bend with a huge wide tanker hurtling at break-neck speed directly towards us. I had been struggling with the Suzuki’s gears until this moment...well, I had it in reverse and manoeuvred off the road faster than you could say “Be garn, mon...”
Talking of languages once again English has been used as the base language here, as well as French, and meanings have changed, occasionally causing some misunderstanding. I was filling the car with fuel and when the young attractive attendant arrived, it wasn’t self-service but we have learnt if you want it done, do it yourself. I said to her as I finished off filling the jeep up, “She’s nearly there; I’ll just squeeze a little more in her...” “What’d you say?” demanded the girl, angrily. I was confused and re-iterated that it was almost full. She smiled and laughed realising I was some crazy Englishman so heaven only knows what she thought I had meant; I’m not sure I want to find out. FOG, on another occasion, also had asked at a hotel whether any of their rooms were free. “No, you have to pay...!” came a confused rely.
Harmony Villa
We are staying at Harmony Villa right in the heart of the island, up in the mountains carpeted in rainforest. We are lucky to be the only guests here and we can relax and unwind. As usual the manageress and the housekeeper are very welcoming and helpful. We needed food but the road to Roseau was closed for road works and meant a very long detour. “Not a problem,” the manageress said, and told us to follow her and her husband; they were local residents and were allowed through. All I can say is I am glad we had four wheel drive and were following the locals, FOG kept her eyes tightly closed, I wish I could have; we returned by ourselves the long way! Intrepid? Daring? I’m not so sure...
We have looked at many other hotels, lodges etc, mainly for the blog:
http://www.facts-oldgitsgapyear.blogspot.com/
Most are very quiet (meaning nobody around!); some are almost like ghost towns. We certainly can’t claim to have seen all and we did stumble on Beau Rive, half way up the West coast which was delightful; so far it is the only place that matches up to Harmony. We pulled into an ECO village where upon FOG insisted we drive to the centre...not exactly ECO friendly! We expected to see a grey pony-tailed, Jesus wellied, khaki short wearing ageing hippy to greet us. We were disappointed to be confronted with yet another ghost town...; the credit crunch is reaching everywhere.FOG in Sun silk advert...., so what happened to the hair! (oophs maybe this is an ageing hippy, clout around the ear holes coming!)
We toured the island in typical OGGY gusto and after 3 days had covered every road, so maybe nine days on Dominica is, for us, a fraction too long, but sod’s law all flights out of Dominica are fully booked...hope there isn’t a hurricane coming...
We then ventured out to explore one of the famous Dominican waterfalls on our own. We didn’t need a guide..., yes, right again, we should have taken a guide. Not only did we venture out alone but we chose one of the hardest to get to. Sari-Sari falls are on the South East corner of the island and as we were becoming adept and more at ease driving on the narrow roads we breezed there without a care in the world.
The guide map said it was only 30 minutes to the falls but it would be rough and strongly recommended a guide. We only read this last sentence after half an hour into the trek..! Fortunately we stumbled on a small camp where two men were preparing some lunch in a large metal pot...it smelt good, but there are limits even MOG wouldn’t ask for!.
Al fresco Dominican style: The ‘pinny’ doesn’t do a lot for him!
They helped us over the river and bestowed fresh grapefruit juice upon the weary travellers, plus allowed us to take a photo of him.
FOG with rope...
On reaching the falls, rounding the last bend in the river, one gasps at the spectacle; it is a heart stopping moment. MOG stripped off (another heart stopping event, but for the wrong reasons!), and tried to reach the pool underneath it but was forced back by steep, slippery rocks and squadrons of mosquitoes. The water was exquisitely cool and so pure it seemed to cleanse the soul as well as the body.
Sari-Sari waterfalls and MOG
We then moved onto the Emerald Pool, a lot more ‘touristy’ but it did allow MOG to shower under a real waterfall...and it hurt!
MOG & Waterfall
One aspect of Harmony Villa is the abundance of wild life. We have parrots cawing in the morning and dusk; frogs that make a din all night (!); bats that hunt in the house at dusk; the veranda ‘rat’ (well, we think it is) and our guard dog who is a real cutie..., he doesn’t frighten me or I suspect anybody else! Make no mistake we are ‘lovin it’... I will finish with a magic moment we experienced here. Naturally it rains a lot in the ‘rain’ forest but the other night it was still and not a cloud in the sky. I have not seen such a canopy of stars for many a year but the highlight were the fireflies darting around like fairy spirits...; yep, the rum is good in Dominica!
I’ll sign off now as the bats have started to ‘chatter’ above my head which must mean it’s nearing cold beer time.
(Once again, apologies for the quality of the photos. They will be properly edited etc when we return and I have my photo-software available)
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