East Coast, Commonwealth of Dominica

Took a trip to the East coast of Dominica yesterday, January 8, 2009...the Atlantic Ocean side. We ended up at Melville Hall Airport just on the chance that Brian's luggage may be there...glad it wasn't Vegas. It was nice to see the scenes that we missed on the drive in from the airport on the New Years. It follows the coast for maybe a third of the way. Definitely a wilder side of the island, the windward side, so the ocean has much rougher waves, trees are leaning away from the wind, etc. Spesh was our guide/driver again. I think he knows someone in all the little villages between here and there. I don't even pretend to remember all the beaches we stopped at...Batibou Bay, Woodford Hill Bay, Hampstead Beach. We stopped in Calibisie at Spesh's house there...that is the video above. The pile of fresh fruit that is seen in the video was raided for some fresh squeezed citrus juice as seen in the other video....too good to even describe over ice. Refreshed, we continued on to near the





Red Cliff area for lunch of Jamaicanand Caribbean pizza. The Jamaican pizza had an avacado sauce instead of tomatoe and was topped with grilled chicken, cheese, fresh tomatoes and avacado slices on a thin crust.

While we were waiting for the pizza to be served, Spesh took us around the beach to a cliff, where we timed our passage with the waves to climb out to a point on a small peninsula for a view that is only seen by those willing for the hike/adventure. There are no visible homes here around the small cove, and the Atlantic wind refreshingly blows unhindered from Africa.

Here's Lanelle, Brian, Ethan, Logan and Spesh overlooking the cove Southeast out over the Atlantic. Plug for Spesh here: He operates BarbWire Tours offering "Local Herbs & Foods, Art, History & Local Stories and Guest House". He can be reached at 767-612-0477. If you're looking for kicks and giggles, give him a call from the States just to say "Hi". He's an enchanting fellow, and will probably answer like he takes calls like this every day!

Right before lunch, Spesh asked the boys if they wanted to go swimming...Duh! So, being unprepared for swimming as we were, Spesh started stripping down....Lanelle quickly exited stage left for fear of seeing Spesh au naturale... I was beginning to wonder myself. We stripped Logan down to his skivvies too, and away they went. Spesh did a grand ocean entry by doing a cartwheel followed immediately by a backflip that ended in the ocean. He took Logan up on his back and swam 20 yards out to the island shown. Spesh told us that the guy shown swimming in front owns Tomatoes, a high falootin resturant here in Picard...perhaps one of the fanciest on the island. Ethan didn't end up going swimming...I was a little nervous about it all...that ocean is rough. I consider myself a good swimmer, but I don't know if I'd want to tackle it.

After all the excitement of touring the Northeast coast of the island with 365 rivers, nine volcanos, 360 inches of rain per year on the East side, multiple species of ferns, etc., Brian, Logan and I went on the Indian River tour. That is the river where some of the scenes from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie was shot. Frankly, it wasn't the high point of the day. Following that trip by row boat, we boarded a speed boat, wooden hull and Yamaha outboard motor, for a tour of Prince Rupert Bay here at Portsmouth. We got to see the ocean view of the island, gave good wake to anchored yachts, saw "skipping" fish that skip across the water faster than a thrown rock.

Brian took some neat sunset photos this evening, Friday, January 9th. (Copyright 2009, Brian Henderson, Kimball, NE. Your royalty check is in the mail, Brian...along with your luggage from Liat):