4 R's of Dominica

When my mom came to visit us about a year ago our transport driver Serge gave us a two day tour of the entire Island. He told us about the 4 r's of Dominica. (Rain, Rivers, Rainbows, and Romance). The first 3 explain themselves. The last R for romance he explained means socializing with friends and family.

Rain: When it rains it pours, usually. Dominica has an average yearly rainfall of 75 inches on the west coast and 200 inches in the inland mountains. Our first semester here it rained every day! Sometimes all day long, but mostly off and on throughout the day.

Rivers: Locals will tell you that there is a river for every day of the year in Dominica, meaning 365 rivers. There however is closer to 85 rivers. We have loved living so close to one of them. We get to listen to it all day.

Rainbows: It isn't hard to see a rainbow in Dominica every day, at lease it wasn't our first semester on the Island. They are incredible here.

Romance: Stephen and I have made so many friends while living here. Some of them I hope to never lose contact with. Having friends here is really what gets you through it. We feel really blessed to have met so many wonderful people here.

I didn't take this picture but it was so beautiful I had to add it.

Welcoming Committee

Stephen and I were able to be on the Welcoming Committee for incoming first semester students during the break. We were luckily assigned to go on all of the island tours. We went to a lot of fun places on the Island and probably our favorite trip of all was whale watching. Seeing whales was one last thing we hadn't done on the Island yet. We saw a cuvier's beaked whale and about 100 pantropical spotted dolphins about a half hour later. They swam along side the boat with us for about 15 minutes. You can just see by looking at them that dolphins are the happiest of all mammals. They are so fun to watch. Besides getting really sea sick, whale watching was a complete success and we had a fun time exploring the other parts of the Island since our time in Dominica is coming to an end in only 14 weeks!

Whale Watching

 Cuvier's Beaked Whale: This little adolescent swam around our boat 

twice before diving back into the ocean.

Pantropical Spotted Dolphins: When we first saw them headed for the boat it reminded

us of the mermaid scene in Pirates of the Caribbean. It may have been just a little scary.

Cabrits

Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on our way to the Red Rocks

 Red Rocks

 Trafalgar Falls

Visiting the Kalinago Territory

You Only Paradise Once

This was our last break before Stephen starts his last semester here on the Island. We decided it was better not to spend the money going home and stayed in Dominica for the break. We did however get off the Island for a couple days to enjoy the French Island of Martinique. We spent one night at Fort Young Hotel with the Wade's and Koop's and had such a fun time. We relaxed as much as we could and visited some parts of the Island Stephen hadn't seen before. The day Stephen took his final exam we headed to the beach after and played frisbee with some of the branch members and then rinsed off at the pool before heading out to dinner just enjoying our much needed break.
The day we went to Fort Young we snorkeled at Champagne Reef first. This was our second time snorkeling there. It is my favorite and really only place on the Island I will snorkel. It was a perfectly sunny day which made the water so beautifully clear and blue. Stephen was even able to see some of his first iguana's pretty up close. After snorkeling was pool time! Fort Young has such a nice pool and we ended the night eating dinner at the hotel restaurant then playing games in the Wade's suite which they upgraded to for only 25$. The next day we visited Scott's Head again and explored a little of Roseau before heading back home.
One really fun thing we did during the break was kayak to secret beach. This was only our second time going to this beach and first time kayaking here. It was a perfect day for it, not to hot and not to stormy. We were able to watch the sunset on our way back and then enjoyed a yummy dinner at la flambeau.
On one of our last days of break we went to Chaudiere pool and Batibou beach with a small group from our branch. Chaudiere or Bense pool is the place on the Island to go cliff diving and also there is a natural water slide. The water was a bit more rough than normal but I was determined to go down the slide. The first time worked out pretty nicely but the second time I got sucked back under the water and everyone thought for a few seconds that I was going to drown. But I survived and had a really fun time. After the pool we headed to Baitbou beach and relaxed for a couple hours and ate lunch. Batibou is my favorite beach on the Island. It wasn't sunny but it was still really nice.

Loving being together for two weeks after a long semester.

Snorkeling at Champagne Reef

For some reason I either look like an old man or an old witch in my snorkel mask.

Fun at Fort Young Hotel

Scott's Head

Secret Beach

 Obviously poor swimsuit choice for secret beach. 

I promise other people were there and I'm not topless.

Found this little guy on our Syndicate Falls hike. 

Coolest walking stick I've ever seen.

He was about 8 inches long.

Chaudiere (Bense) Pool

Cinnamon Tree - Smells just like Christmas

Batibou

My shoes almost made it all four semesters. 

They served me well this last year.