Dominica January 16 and 17, 2011.

At 7:00 on the first morning that we were in Dominica, my room started rumbling like it always does when the engine turns on or off. I’m in the back of the ship, so I’m pretty close to the engine. I jumped out of bed (well, ok I stumbled) to look out the window. Outside, there was the most beautiful, lush, green mountainous island. It was raining when I looked out, but I didn’t even care. Once I got up to the garden lounge to have breakfast, it had stopped raining. I was meeting with a group of 30 other students who all singed up for this tour (Bumpiing tour) that Tram set up for us, and handed off to Jojo when she left. When we walked off the ship and down the stairs to the dock, it really hit me. This is happening. This is my life right now. Most of the time, I feel like I am in one big dream… but it’s really happening. So when we get down to the dock, I stopped and stared for a few minutes. This island is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I couldn’t have even imagined something so amazing. The way the sun makes all the green shine with the water from the rain or waterfalls is incredible. It’s almost magical how beautiful this island looks. We met our tour guides right at the port, Levi and Gary. Right away, they were so friendly and I could tell it was going to be a fun day. Kayla and I sat in the front of the van with our driver, Gary, and the whole van was singing along to Bob Marley. Driving through the mountains to Titou Gorge was so amazing. I took video for a little while of driving and singing, but my camera died. I’m going to steal Francisco’s photos of the whole trip because he had an underwater camera and he got some incredible photos when we were swimming through the gorge. Titou Gorge is where parts of Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed, and it was the most spectacular place. We all swam through it and got to the end where there was a waterfall that you could climb up (with someone pulling you up because the current was pretty strong) and then once you got above it, you were in another pool of water above your head. We hung out up there and took some pictures, and then one by one jumped off the waterfall back down into the gorge. Someone actually took a picture of my tattoo that says “Jump first, fear later.” How fitting! So after Titou Gorge, Gary and Levi took us to Trafalgar falls. They are twin waterfalls up in the mountains with hot springs around the base. We were all making our way through the string of hot springs, when Gary asked for the adventurous people to follow him. He told us we were going to make our way up to the actual base of the larger waterfall to swim in it’s pool. To get up there, you have to scramble over boulders, rocks, and streams, and it’s all really steep and slippery. In between all the larger rocks were those smaller rocks that hurt your feet. We were all barefoot and in our bathing suits, so needless to say I have some battle wounds. I felt like a monkey trying to get up and over all those rocks. Once we got up though, it was the most breath taking view and feeling. I felt like I was inside a movie. The only way I can think to describe it so you can picture it is like Pandora (from Avatar). It was so lush and green and tropical… with the sun catching the mist from the waterfall just right and everything was glistening. It was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen in my life.  Coming down from those rocks… that is a whole different story.
        We explored the island some more with Gary and Levi, and then before they took us back to the ship, they made a detour and took us to this place where you could look out over the entire city and ocean. It was sunset, and so amazing. We all took a bunch of pictures, and at that moment I was almost glad I didn’t have my camera. When I have my camera, sometimes I forget to see things with my own eyes. It was refreshing to really take in the beauty of this whole day. Gary dropped us off at the ship and gave us his number in case we wanted him to take us out that night. We all ended up going to this bar called JR’s or JD’s or something like that, and it was SO crowded and you had to wait in line for like an hour just to get one tiny drink, so all the taxi drivers told us that Crazy Coconuts (or Club 91) opened up just for us. There was a mad dash to get there. Idin and I lost part of our group in the rush, so we ended up taking a cab by ourselves and then met up with everyone at the club. We all had an awesome night, I met so many new people and got to hang out with people I had talked to previously.  We ended up seeing Gary there, and he offered to take us back to the ship when ever we were ready. He stayed sober all night so that he could drive us back. It never ceases to amaze me how friendly all the people that I have met so far can be. We danced the night away and then ended up going back to the ship.
        The next day, we went to find an internet café to try and upload some pictures. Then for the rest of the day, we just wandered around the island shopping around in some little markets and got lunch at this place called “The Garage.” We waited about an hour or more for our food, so by the time it came we all devoured it! On ship time was 6pm, so we all went back at around 3 or 4 and then relaxed and watched the sunset from the ship. I got some amazing pictures of the island at sunset, and looking through them I am constantly asking: “is this really my life?”