Today was a beach day. So was yesterday and the day before and the day before. But with our luggage now here along with our bathing suits and sandals we were good to go.
Actually, that's one of the problems with Dominica - unlike other Caribbean islands, it doesn't have many sandy beaches at all. Mostly steep mountains descending to rocky shores. So development has gone elsewhere even though attempts have been made to cast the island as an eco destination.
We piled into the car, and with Ollie at the wheel, headed north up the Caribbean coast. There really are no public beaches as such so we were driving to the Castaways Hotel that had a beach, bar and restaurant. The sand was black not white but clean and the water, warm and calm - lovely.
Castaways Hotel - very sweet with a lovely beach on the Caribbean.
Looking down the beach at Castaways Hotel.
Matt - in the Caribbean.
Stacey, Oliver and Rachel - at the beach.
After the beach, we drove further up the coast to the town of Portsmouth. The coast road is slightly better than the mountain road we took from the airport to Rachel's place when we first arrived. Sometimes at sea level, other times it rises to hang perilously on the side of a cliff. On the cliff side (traffic coming toward us) is an omnipresent drainage ditch which is open and a constant peril to one's car wheels should you drive a little too close to it. On the ocean side, well it's a long way down and the road, poorly maintained and pocked with millions of potholes, has been washed away in places...you really don't want to ride to close to the edge. Oh great. Another white knuckle ride in hell (for me, the paranoid back-seat driver). On top of all this, it's election time for Dominica and the parties and their followers are out in force. Campaigning, Dominica style, consists of cars, vans and pickup trucks filled to overflowing, careening around the countryside with the colored flags of their party waving from the vehicle. Horns honking, people are shouting either "Labour," "Workers," or "Freedom." These, the names of the three main parties: United Workers Party, The Labour Party and The Freedom Party. Why this parade of cars packed with people would convince anybody to vote one way or the other is beyond me, but it did make the roads even more congested and hazardous as these cars travelled at high speed to overtake others in order to be seen by more people on the road. Yes, on the road, as people are walking and congregating everywhere along the way, but particularly in town. Do the cars slow down as they course through the towns? Barely, another white-knuckle, shoulder-scrunching event for me.
It seems there was to be a rally for the Workers Party and we came upon it, sure enough. Thousands of cars, parked precipitiously on both sides of the road had narrowed the road from barely two lanes to barely one lane. Thousands of peole walking from their cars to the rally, down below the road somewhere. Chaos. Mayhem. And our car is stuck in the middle of all this.
We did get through after a long while and reached our destination, the Blue Bay restaurant. To reach the restaurant, park on the side of the road and walk down a narrow alley, between ramshackle shanties, reach the ocean and there you are. A lovely little outdoor restaurant on the water with sunsets every night of the year. We're looking west into the Caribbean and the setting sun.
The lovely Blue Bay restaurant on the water in Portsmouth.
Rachel at the Blue Bay restaurant.
The food was great, Ollie and I had Goat Columbo - chunks of goat in a curried sauce. Stacey had the same but made with grilled kingfish. Rachel had a "lobster" really a crawfish.
The sun was setting and the sky was a million varieties of red and blue. Kids were still swimming in the warm waters of the Caribbean, the boats, anchored in the bay, were gently bobbing and it was as romantic a vision as you might imagine.
The sunset from our restaurant.
The kids were still swimming. Sunset is around 6:15 in Dominica.
The ride back was a little gentler with less cars on the road. But we hit the rally site once again where a huge trailer truck, coming toward us, was trying to negotiate the narrowed roadway, lined with parked cars on both sides. Impossible to imagine. No police in evidence anywhere and cars trying to inch and sneak past the truck which could not get through. Somehow, we once again made it through and made our way back home to Roseau and the rainforest valley where Rachel and Oliver live. A beautiful day and a great adventure in Dominica.
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