After my near-mugging in St Lucia, I felt I needed something safe. Visits to waterfalls and hot springs via P&O-Carnival cost £82. I found a local guide for £15. Better to give money to locals than P&O-Carnival shareholders. Luckily, the guide spoke English – the local language, Patwa, is only learned through friends.
The journey was vibrant and varied. On Mount Bruce I just had to buy chocolate tea from a stall run by lovely Samantha. In surrounding mountains, rich wildlife includes 177 species of birds, possum, mountain crabs, and endangered parrots. In botanical gardens, hanging from cannonball trees, were ‘elephant sausages’, named for their long, brown, very smelly ‘fruits’.
We passed vine-clad valleys, overgrown undergrowth, fields for coffee beans, palm and coconut oil, limes, 40 types of mangoes, trees with melon-sized yellow or brown cocoa pods, and bananas. Green banana pie is a local delicacy. As is ‘mountain chicken’, a large frog. Its main vein must be removed before cooking otherwise it jumps from the pot.
The tour highlight was clambering up a 4,700 feet volcanic rain-forested mountain to see Dominica’s natural wonders. In the hot humid air I breathed and sweated hard long before the end of 500 irregular earth, tree-root, and boulder steps.
Two sparkling waterfalls, Father (long and slim) and Mother (short and fat) jetted from the centre of lush green, tangled vines. The island is made of 99% volcanic rock, and 1% sulphur. Water cascading down the mountain, is trapped in a series of descending Jacuzzis and calm rock pools that release volcano-sulphur steam. Half-hidden by rainforest trees, bikini-clad girls laze in hot pools. Come, and enjoy sulphur baths, boiling steam cave, natural hot water tubs, steam grotto sauna, sulphur crystal cave, and a natural wonder, Boiling Lake, that bubbles at 200 degrees centigrade.
Many people swear pure sulphur paste relieves pain. I rarely have pain, but could not resist the label, ‘Scent from Heaven’. Because the island of Dominica seems ‘scent and sent from heaven’.
The journey was vibrant and varied. On Mount Bruce I just had to buy chocolate tea from a stall run by lovely Samantha. In surrounding mountains, rich wildlife includes 177 species of birds, possum, mountain crabs, and endangered parrots. In botanical gardens, hanging from cannonball trees, were ‘elephant sausages’, named for their long, brown, very smelly ‘fruits’.
We passed vine-clad valleys, overgrown undergrowth, fields for coffee beans, palm and coconut oil, limes, 40 types of mangoes, trees with melon-sized yellow or brown cocoa pods, and bananas. Green banana pie is a local delicacy. As is ‘mountain chicken’, a large frog. Its main vein must be removed before cooking otherwise it jumps from the pot.
The tour highlight was clambering up a 4,700 feet volcanic rain-forested mountain to see Dominica’s natural wonders. In the hot humid air I breathed and sweated hard long before the end of 500 irregular earth, tree-root, and boulder steps.
Two sparkling waterfalls, Father (long and slim) and Mother (short and fat) jetted from the centre of lush green, tangled vines. The island is made of 99% volcanic rock, and 1% sulphur. Water cascading down the mountain, is trapped in a series of descending Jacuzzis and calm rock pools that release volcano-sulphur steam. Half-hidden by rainforest trees, bikini-clad girls laze in hot pools. Come, and enjoy sulphur baths, boiling steam cave, natural hot water tubs, steam grotto sauna, sulphur crystal cave, and a natural wonder, Boiling Lake, that bubbles at 200 degrees centigrade.
Many people swear pure sulphur paste relieves pain. I rarely have pain, but could not resist the label, ‘Scent from Heaven’. Because the island of Dominica seems ‘scent and sent from heaven’.
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