Travel Guide

Link: http://www.fuegoyagua.com/index.php/eastern-caribbean/dominicaphotos/?blog=8

The emerald paradise island of Dominica in the Eastern Caribbean

The island paradise of Dominica is notable for both its pristine natural beauty and for being home to a living Carib culture. This video discusses both some of the natural features of the island and the cultural legacy of the mountainous, rugged and wildly beautiful terrain - the continued existence of the Carib population - a culture that was almost entirely eradicated on all other islands. In particular, the video retells the story of Massacre, the town named after an English officer called Philip Warner murdered his Carib half brother as a signal to commence the bloody slaughter of the local indigenous population.

Wild and beautiful - Dominica

Dominica (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic) is an emerald jewel of the Eastern Caribbean. Unlike some neighboring Caribbean islands that are renowned for their beaches, Dominica’s splendor is inland. Crossing the island’s 754 sq.km is mostly accomplished on roads not much grander than narrow trails. These thin arteries carve their way through thick rain-forest and a verdant mountainous terrain that reaches an elevation of almost 1,500m.

Dominica is almost impossibly wild and beautiful. Dominica’s human inhabitants have (so far) left a respectfully minimal imprint on an island that mostly retains a pristine bio-diversity. Visitors exploring the island are assailed with the pungent odors of dense vegetation and sulphur pools.

English and French patois are the island’s languages - with English being dominant. In Dominica’s pleasant capital Rousseau the Fort Young hotel, which at $100 claims to be the island’s premier hotel, provides a snapshot of the region’s history. The French originally constructed a fort on what is now the hotel’s site in 1720, the British captured it in 1761 and soon after began constructed an improved fort, the remnants of which form part of the modern hotel structure.

A short trip from Rousseau are a number of sulphur spas such as Screw’s. Get-away-from-it-all accommodation is also available around the sulphur spas at places such as the Bamboo cottages, which serves a famous and delicious “Bullet” rum punch and promise its clientele absolute discretion (secrets must be difficult to maintain amongst the island’s 69,000 local population).

For me, Dominica is close to being the earthly manifestation of paradise. I highly recommended this island to anyone who wants to feel the raw pulse of nature in all its untamed intensity.

A video post about some of the island’s history and culture (notable for the continued existence of the Carib) is available here. Photos are available here.