My trip to Dominica.... lots of pics.

[OceanLyons]

This place has some of the most spectacular diving I have ever experienced. Unfortunately, I do not have an underwater camera, but I was able to take some nice pics. of the island.

This is a place that I will definitely visit again, and encourage others to do so as well. The people are so friendly and I felt very safe. Even when I encountered a large group of guys in camo with big guns. :D They were just the local guys in training. Kinda like our ROTC.

Just a clarifier... this is not the Dominican Republic. We took a small flight out of Puerto Rico to get there.

This bird would fly into our treehouse and steal the sugar packets, not the sweet and low though
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0011.jpg

This blue-spotted iguana hung out with me for near 30 mins.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0004.jpg

The veiw from the treehouse
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0003.jpg

The treehouse where we stayed for a week
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0002.jpg


http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/100_0129.jpg

Some ancient Carib Indian ruins. Dominica is the last island where the true Carib indians still reside.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/100_0124.jpg

[OceanLyons]

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/100_0107.jpg

One of the local restaurants. The lady here was awesome! Home cooked chicken, passionfruit juice, grilled plantains, hand craved crafts. She had her own private beach that would have cost you over $1mil. in San Diego. She stared at me in disbelief when I told her this.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/100_0100.jpg

Animals graze in various places. Many roam freely. Tons of chickens too.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/100_0096.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/100_0092.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/100_0083.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/100_0085.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/100_0082.jpg

[shramj]

sweet pictures, how was the humidity?

[dcall]

Now I need a vacation

[Kentanner11]

That is so cool!

[Fliger]

You stayed in a treehouse for a week? How cool! Great pix, very jealous. And for God's sakes - get an underwater camera!!! :) I'll be the diving was great!

[OceanLyons]

Pics. are still coming. I'll talk in just a bit. :)

[OceanLyons]

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0013.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0014.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/100_0108.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0015.jpg
Our group swam at the base of this waterfall. I couldn't take a picture of us because of the spray. It was so cool. The current pushed you to the banks. You had to fight to get close to the falls. The spray was so sharp, it stung. I had to keep my back to the falls.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0016-1.jpg

[OceanLyons]

Our trek to the falls...
Dominica has hundreds of little rivers and waterfalls.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0019.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0020.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0022.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0023.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0027.jpg

[jenn_jeffery]

I'm officially jealous!! Great pics--and for future ref. the disposable underwater cameras do a pretty good job! :-)

[OceanLyons]

Another shot out of the treehouse
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0037.jpg

The trip up to Boiling Lake. Tough hike, couple hours. Rained on us near the end. Luckily, our guide called the resort (Jungle Bay), and they sent a truck to pick us up instead of hiking back down as planned. Cell phones are ridiculously cheap, and you get reception everywhere.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0038.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0039.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0040.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0041.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0042.jpg

[OceanLyons]

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0046.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0048.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0049.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0051.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0052.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0053.jpg

[OceanLyons]

Finally! Boiling Lake. I enjoyed the hike there much better than the lake.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0055.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0056.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0057.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0059.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0060.jpg

Good night!
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/IMGA0061.jpg

[OceanLyons]

Definitely go in the Winter. That's when we did. Temp. and humidity was perfect. Summers would be a beast though.

No deadly bugs or poisonous snakes! That's a big deal to me.

Official language is English.

Huge unemployment rate. Nobody's hungry. They party all night long. The island provides everything they need. Ya man!

Beware with kids. Some guides have a little tokey-tokey during the trip (not at Jungle Bay though, guess they figured that would turn some people off).

I have more pics. that I need to find. One's coming down the inland river. The same one they used in "Pirates of the Carribean"

When I asked the locals why there wern't more tourists, they said that not a lot of people knew about them and they didn't have great big stretches of beach. They begged us to tell people about them. Spread the word.

I'm more about the little out of the way beaches than resort-type scenarios. Accomodations range in price.

The diving, ohhh... the diving. I wish a had an underwater camera. Words cannot describe what I saw. Ancient sponges bigger than I. Wildlife in abundance. Corals galore!

[fatrip]

how did you find the place you stayed at??? travel agency?? it looks like great fun...

[OceanLyons]

Internet searches, and you can find them on some travel sites.

This was the most expensive place we stayed. We did the all-inclusive, food, excursions.
http://www.junglebaydominica.com/

The other place we stayed at was near $100 per night.

We also rented a 4x4. Cheap and definitely worth it. Driving is not for the faint of heart. You honk as you approach the turns around the mountains. They drive like bats out of you know what. You get the gist of it after a day or so. No traffic jams, except in the heart of the port. One road goes around the entire island. Lots of fun stuff to explore.

[OceanLyons]

http://www.i-escape.com/destination_guide_results.php?page=1&country=Dominica

[OceanLyons]

The falls pictured above are Victoria Falls. Our guide, Moses, has lived next to the falls his whole life. Hopped from rock to rock from childhood to adulthood.

All of the guides were very knowledgeable about their island, its history, and its flora and fauna.

You can explore on your own, but having a guide is the way to do it. They are very inexpensive, and do much more than simply show you the way. They show and explain things you would have never noticed if you were on your own. This is were they grew up. They know it best. I also really appreciated the fact that they distance themselves from you once you get to your destination. To give you some privacy. You just give them the signal when you want to go back.

[fatrip]

were the other places you stayed on the north or south coast?

[OceanLyons]

We stayed on the North and South ends, but only dived the North end.
Heard the South had good wall diving, but never got a chance.

This is he first place we stayed...
http://www.calibishie-lodges.com/

[OceanLyons]

Our guide took us out on a canoe down this river. Saltwater meets freshwater.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/102_0155.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/102_0156.jpg

Our guide's end of the tour bar.
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l311/OceanLyons/102_0157.jpg

[Kentanner11]

Hey what camera did you use for the trip?

[vanmle]

How difficult was it to get to Dominica? Is it a pretty straightforward trip?

[OceanLyons]

Camera was Kodak DX4530 5.0 mega pixels. Some shots were made with the video camera, which is a Panasonic (camera is 3.1 mega pixels)

PHX to N. Carolina to Puerto Rico to Dominica

Not bad, but a straight flight to P.R. would have been better.
We missed our flight from P.R. to back to the U.S. because our hopper flight from Dominica was 10 mins late. People do get their luggage lost from time to time. Carry-on essentials and clothes to get you by.

More and more flights are coming into the Carribean. No commercial flights, except a cargo plane flight directly into Dominica. You have to go on a tiny plane. I think airfare totaled around $800 RT. You can almost touch the trees as you land. The flight attendant said she could tell who had flown into Dominica and who hadn't, simply by their facial expressions. I was holding on for dear life, until I saw her chuckling with another passenger.

[lgoins]

My wife and I got back from Dominica two weeks ago and loved every minute of it.