Many apologies, again, for the lack of blogs so far this
June. We have been busy enjoying
ourselves without much internet access.
We spent some time in Dominica with Susie, a cruiser we met
along the chain. Susie knows
everyone in Dominica. One local said
that if she ran for mayor, she would probably win. I’m sure he was right.
We spent a night out on the town with Susie visiting local bars, and
ending at reggae night on the waterfront. “Out on the town” is a relative concept in Dominica,
there are three bars to choose from.
The bars were full of only locals and only bush rum served as a “Step Up”
or a “Step Over” - the local specialty.
The barman tried to convince us that that the Step Up, “stepped up” your
mood, where as the Step Over took you to greater heights. Gary’s impression of a Step Over was
that once you drank one, people would be stepping over you on the floor. Before our next bar, we had a brief interlude
at the Snackette, for chicken wings and another local specialty, bakes (savoury
fried dough). Unfortunately, this
experience has began a wee obsession for Gary, who now checks every Snackette we
pass for bakes or chicken. Reggae
night was at the waterfront bar, with it’s thatched roof and sand floor. We danced the night away to Bob Marley. We felt truly welcomed by the locals,
and were glad to run into them time and time again during our week in Domanica,
always with a smile and a fist pump hand shake.
She also took us to the local’s hidden treasure – the hot
spring. Who knew it would be
relaxing in this heat to sit in a hot spring!
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| Shubi the dog leading the way to the hot pools |
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| (clockwise) Gary, Auti, Me and Susie |
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| The beautiful rainforest around the hots spring |
Saturday morning we went to the market. I was seriously impressed with the quality of the fruit and veges. Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, capsicums, leeks, potatoes to name a few as well as a number of unidentifiables. Everything cost no more than $5EC ($2.50 NZ) for a bag of whatever was going. Even the bakes that Gary somehow tracked down were cheap at 2 for $1.50EC.
That afternoon, Susie took us out for a jolly on her fabulous classic yacht, a Spirit 56. We played the soundtrack from the Queen’s 50th Jubilee concert as loud as it would go to get us in the mood for the following day. After packing up the boat we gobbled down the biggest, and juiciest, pineapple I have ever seen. That evening we invited Susie and Auti (her crew), and Andrew (one of the local PAYS tour guides) to drinks and nibbles on Toodles, a bit of a change from Susie’s classic yacht.
Our week with Susie was topped off with a garden party at a wonderful Manor up in the hills of Domanica to celebrate the Queen’s 60th Jubilee. The lodge was hand built by Yasmin, who dragged every heavy beam, and nailed every wooden shingle to the side of the house – an amazing feat. We cooled off in the property’s own bathing hole in the stream that runs through one side of the property, under the rainforest awning. We had to nip off just as they began the egg and spoon race.
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| The cottage annex |
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