Day 5 -- Roseau, Dominica

We're here...

Which is here!

We were to have a snorkeling tour at “champagne reef” from a boat.  But, for some reason, they canceled that one and moved us to the same reef but from the land.  So, instead of being dropped at the right spot in the water, we’d be dropped at the beach to swim out to the spot.  And it added 15 minutes or so to each end of travel, so bit into our afternoon tour.  Long story short, we dropped the snorkeling, and managed to move to a more in-depth island tour to the morning.

So right after breakfast, we headed to the pier to board a bus and tour the island including a couple of waterfalls and an “emerald pool”.  It was rainy on and off most of the day, but mostly light.  As we were in the rain forest, we sort of took that in stride.

Cacao pod.  (Chocolate-to-be)

The various stops included random steps up and down; we’re told 300 in total.  Not really sure if that’s right.  The Emerald Pool was confusing.  Bill kept asking Theresa if the pool or the water was green, but it was not.  We guess the area around it was green foliage, but also the construction and heavy rains made the water more grey-ish brown, and not at all green. 

The street lights use solar and wind to charge batteries.

"Emerald" pool.  Is it green?  Is it??

The nice steps.  (Some were messy!)

A nice path!

A natural Poinsetta!

A refreshing drink at a break!

Two Falls. (and zero people)

Two People (and one falls)

Just the one falls.

We had three busses for this tour.  The first was medium sized, and seemed to have
“Western” sized seats.  The second (ours) was (we were told) built by Japanese for Japanese, and the seats were a little small.  The third was essentially a hotel shuttle bus.  Well, at the third of four stops, the driver of the little bus declared he had a tire problem, so, his 6 passengers piled into our bus, using the folding seats that go in the aisle.  It was a great way to make NO ONE comfortable.  But, at least it was at the end of the tour and it couldn’t be helped so…  And the new people were terribly embarrassed to be crashing our tour so we tried to be gracious.

We got back just in time for lunch, and then went back to the room to do a bit of laundry, and catch a brief nap.  For trivia, our team came in second place, which was a touch disappointing, but still nice to be sort of winning.  Then we changed and headed off the boat to go to church for 6:00 Mass.  The crew looked at us a bit weird as we disembarked at 5:29 with all aboard at 7:30.  Well, Mass was wonderful, but also a tad long, so we were running out of there at 7:06 before the final blessing.  It was a little surreal hearing the singing inside the church from a quiet and dark street—almost like a movie.  We got back to the ship at 7:13 as the crew was already out there to pick up the gang plank and get ready to push.  We were LAST on the ship!! And they were talking in the gang plank by the time we got to our room!

We were already dressed, so we pretty much went right to dinner.  As it was just the two of us and most people had already arrived and started, our service was really fast.  This was good since Theresa wanted to see the Christmas show at 9:30.  Well, after a few drinks, priorities shifted a bit.  (Caution:  Snooty moment ahead!)  Theresa asked for a Prosecco, which she got, but they refilled with a “champagne”.  (Gasp!) She transitioned to a white wine, and they normally let you try a little first, though I have NEVER seen anyone reject it.  For some reason, the Pinot Grigio didn’t hit it with Theresa and she asked for a Chardonnay.  And the Pinot Noir they offered Bill, when his second course (a pasta) came, they wanted to change to a Cabernet Sauvignon, which was actually, better.  But they whisked away a nearly full glass of “nothing wrong with” Pinot Noir.  It seemed like we were fussy!  By the end of dinner, we realized we have an early morning tomorrow, so sleep trumped the Christmas show.  Bill sung a few carols to Theresa and evidently that was enough to not want the show?  Anyway, good night!

16 minutes before all-aboard!