YAW in Dominica

 YAW - Yet Another Waterfall!

We had not done a tour in Dominica for quite a few years, so as we had not booked very many on this cruise, we decided to join an island tour to revisit the Emerald Pool. Our drive first took us through the centre of Roseau, the capital city. There are many historical buildings here, including this community centre that was a sugar mill 'back in the day'.

From the time we woke up and looked outside, the clouds had been threatening rain, but, being the optimistic tourists we, and everyone else on the tour, were, nobody brought raincoats or umbrellas along. As we drove the 45 minutes into the middle of the island to Emerald Pool, we had quite a bit of rain.

But fortunately Mother Nature decided to smile on us all and the rain let up a little while before we arrived. The hike from the parking lot/admin building was about 20 minutes each way over uneven stairs and an at times rugged pathway, but the walk was worth it in the end. 

As I'm finishing the blog at home, I thought it would be interesting to find the photos I took when we were last at the pool sometime in the 1990s (pre-digital). Here's what it looked like then:

Obviously it wasn't as rainy on that trip. The fall
was much smaller and the pool was a brighter
colour due to the sun shining in.

It started to rain again as we trekked back to the bus, though we were under cover of the rain forest most of the way and didn't get too wet. We had to dash into the admin building where we had to dodge the large tour of Germans from the AIDA ship that was also in port, and then run up to our bus.

The rain continued for a bit as we returned to Roseau for a quick drive-by as we headed toward the other falls on our tour, Trafalgar.

One of the houses on the way

To get to Trafalgar Falls, you have to go through a small community, and there's only one fairly narrow road leading up to the Visitor Centre. And, Heaven forbid, there's somebody parked on one side of the road. Then it is basically one way past the car or bus. We had to do a little manoevering to let a bus come down the road, and we were stopped beside a high fence that bore this sign:

I couldn't resist taking the photo of the sign. You couldn't see over the fence anyway, but I certainly would not have taken one of any people, clothed or otherwise, that I saw.

The falls also had a walk over uneven stairs to get to it, but, again, the walk was worth it. This is actually 2 waterfalls that come together into a river in their gorge. The river a little upstream of Trafalgar Falls is also used to provide hydro-electric power for the island.

Another look back in time. We must have taken almost exactly the same tour in 1990-mumble when we did it last!

On the way back to the bus, I noticed that some of the small plants on a rock wall were moving, and found this little guy making his way along under camouflage:

and then we passed one of his cousins a little further along the path.

The sun had finally come out, and we had a few minutes at the Visitor Centre while we waited for the group to join up. I discovered a couple of wild orchids hiding amid the leaves and ferns on a tree:

Our final stop for the tour was above Roseau at Morne Bruce. This is the highest point of the town and the site of the Prime Minister's residence and offices. Our tour guide was very proud to state that the current prime minister is not only a woman, but also indigenous, of Carib heritage. We couldn't resist getting the tourist shot of our ship from there.

Another nice day in the Caribbean, and the last busy day for the cruise. Somehow, though, I never managed to get the blog finished while we were on board!