Although the islands are not that far, flying between them requires patience, strength, and more patience. The only option for us to get from Dominica to St Martin was to fly on Liat Air, the worst airline we’ve ever flown on (ok – 2nd worse. Vietnam Air crashed the Airbus we were supposed to be on. Their bad). The flight was 4 hours late leaving (no excuse given), and Melville Hall was not a great place to get stuck- the only redeeming feature of the airport was the free Wi-Fi. We had to connect through Antigua (Liat’s hub) and had already missed our flight by the time we arrived. We then had to wait an hour in a line-up waiting for them to re-route the 30ish passengers who just got off the plane.. Since this is such a common occurence on LIAT, we were expecting them to process this sort of thing better Apparently, we were lucky it was only that bad – another lady we talked to who lives in Dominica once had her flight take off in the dark even though Melville Hall has no lights and isn’t rated for night flights. Another couple we talked to got transferred to a plane whose door wouldn’t seal shut – but they still took off. . Anyways LIAT finally routed us through another island and we got to St Martin in the early evening, as opposed to our planned noon arrival.  We were just happy to make it, and happy that it was our last flight on LIAT.

Driving from Portsmouth to Melville Hall aiport took about 1 hour, and was a fairly easy drive, even in the rain. We only almost got lost once, but a friendly local directed us before we could even take out our map. Our car rental company let us drop off the car at the aiport without incurring any extra fees.  The airport itself is very small and cramped, but had free wifi and a small cafe.

We arranged for a guide to take us up the Indian River. The Indian River is a river that empties into the ocean at the heart of Portsmouth, and rowboats and guides will take you up the river to a “Jungle Bar” where some delicious rum punch is served. Our guide was excellent (despite being severely hung over) and picked us up at our hotel in Portsmouth in his motorboat. The jungle scenery was pretty, but as with the aerial tram, we didn’t see any interesting animals.

There was some nice flowers, some fish in the water, and trees with roots extending into the water.  Our guide told us one of the scenes of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 that was filmed on this river.

We stayed on Picard Beach. This is a black sand beach, and this hotel is where a lot of the film crew from Pirates of the Caribbean slept (every cabin has a crew members name on it). The beach is beautiful – very little development, and amazing sunsets every night. The beach was long enough for a nice walk, very clean, and fringed with palms. There is a pier in front of the hotel, great for lounging on. The cottages are steps away from the ocean – we left the screened windows open at night and fell asleep to the sound of the surf. The room itself was in need of repair – it had a broken night table, the chairs were falling apart, etc. It certainly wasn’t the kind of room we expected when we were paying $180 US a night. But that beach made up for it. There was no one on the beach, ever, we had it to ourselves the whole time.

There is a restaurant attached to the hotel which served reasonable food, and the prices weren’t crazy. There are several tables on the beach in front of the hotel. There is also some restaurants within walking distance, but they were also closed since we were there over New Years. There was apparently a large street party to bring in the new year that went on till sunrise, but we decided we’re too old for that.

We drove into the Carib territory from Emerald Falls. The Caribs are a native Amerindian population in all the Caribbean. The east coast of the island is much more rugged, and this is where scenes of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 were filmed. We enjoyed our drive, and there is lots of places to stop by buy native Carib baskets and other crafts. We stopped for a small hike at the Escalier de Tete de Chien, which has beautiful views of the cliffs crashing into the ocean.

Although the villages we drove through were obviously poor, there was a lot of evidence of international development, with clean water projects, and newer housing (side by side with very rustic housing).  From the Carib Territory to Portsmouth, it was about a 3 hour drive. The west coast road is very good, an easy drive.

There are many shops set up along the side of the road to buy baskets.  We were surprised by the number of these shops, given how few tourists we saw.

The next day we checked out of Roseau and went on a driving tour of the island. Our first stop was Emerald Pool, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Morne Trois Pitons. These are the most accesible falls in Dominica. On cruise ship days, I’m sure it’s very busy, but we were lucky enough to visit on a non-cruise-ship day and so there was only a couple of other people. There is about a 15 minute easy walk from the parking lot (with a restaurant, souvenir stands, and toilets) to the falls themselvs. The falls empty into a pool of water, which begs to be jumped into.

We avoided the temptation to take a dip as we were worried about bilharzaia / schistosomiasis, but a Canadian doctor we met later who teaches at the medical school in Portsmouth assured us it wouldn’t have been an issue.

We went on a whale watching trip with Dive Dominica. There are a couple of operators on the island, and we chose Dive Dominica because they had a better web site and we could book by email. They are located about a 10 minute drive south of Roseau. The boat was a big catamaran. The whole trip was about 4 hours, but included a quick run to Roseau to pick up some passengers from the cruise ship. We saw 11 sperm whales.

The operator was very respectful of the whales, and never chased them. We didn’t see any dolphins on our trip. The sea was a little rough, but not bad enough that a couple of Dramamine (motion sickness tablets) didn’t take care of it. It was certainly nothing like the ferry ride over from Martinique. There are toilets on board and it would be a great trip with kids.

About 20 minutes south of Roseau (an easy drive), there is a park called “Champagne”. It’s actually just a small strip of land and boardwalk bordering the ocean. The attraction here is that there is geothermal activity under the ocean floor which causes bubbles to float up. The bubbles are not really visible from the top of the water – you have to snorkel to experience it. It’s a very pretty effect, although the bubbles aren’t so strong that you can really feel it. It’s not like being in a hot tub. The snorkeling itself wasn’t that impressive – some fish but the coral was not in good shape. Apparently if we’d swum further out to the reef, we would have seen more, but we were there alone and didn’t feel comfortable doing that. It is apparently one of the top dive spots in the world.

The park itself is very well set up – there is lots of parking at the side of the road, and a little dive shop / snack restaurant which will rent diving equipment, and also snorkeling equipment. There is even a shower we could use – which ironically had hotter water than our hotel. There is a clean bathroom as well. There is a small entrance fee to the park ($3 US).

When we visited Costa Rica, we enjoyed the Aerial Tram, which is a tram that slowly glides through the canopy and floor of the forest. The company that operates that tram ride also operates one in Dominica, so we decided to check it out. It was a very challenging drive to get there – probably one of the worst roads we drove in Dominica. To be honest, if we’d known how bad the drive was, we wouldn’t have visited, or at least we wouldn’t have tried to self-drive.

Apparently the company that runs the tram will pick you up at your hotel, for a reasonable price, and we would highly recommend that option.
The tram itself is about $60 US per person, and the whole ride takes about an hour and a half. A naturalist/guide gets in the tram with you and your group (max 6 people), and if there isn’t enough people to fill a tram, they will make you wait. The tram is only open on days when cruise ships are in town, so be sure to either look towards the port, or call ahead.
There is beautiful lush vegetation, amazing ferns and flowers, and a river hundreds of feet below that can be seen from the tram ride.

There aren’t very many animals however (Dominica doesn’t have any monkeys, and we didn’t see any interesting birds either). At the top, there is an option to take a 20 minute walk down to the mid-point tram station. The hike is very easy, and takes you across a (fairly rigid) suspension bridge. The naturalist accompanying us was very well informed, and was able to answer all the questions we had about what we were seeing. In addition, she gave us a good introduction to Dominica.

We didn’t have much luck with restaurants in Roseau. We tried a local sports bar/restaurant that was recommended to us called Garage Bar and Grill, but the food was pretty bad, and the service was horrible. We ended up eating a couple of meals at a Chinese restaurant and bar on Independence Street at the corner with Kennedy, across from the Subway (does anyone know the name? Please leave a comment). The food here was very good, but pretty expensive. Wendy finally enjoyed some good vegetarian food – a rare find in the Caribbean. The restaurants keep strange hours during the holidays, and we didn’t have much choice. There was also a KFC in town.