Day 5, Roseau, Dominica

Day 5

Roseau, Dominica

We moored at the end of the cruise ship pier in Roseau around 7:30 AM.  The ship was cleared for passengers to go ashore around 8 AM. 

MY SISTER TOURS

Our original plans were to go on the HAL tour called Chocolate and Rum.  This involved a tour of some of the tourist sites along with visiting a chocolate factory, making some chocolate, and then going to a rum tasting.  We enjoy food tours whenever we travel and we always seek them out.  Unfortunately, this tour was canceled by HAL about three weeks before the cruise for operational reasons.  I was unable to find another cooking tour offered on the island, but I did locate a private guide service called My Sister Tours, which had excellent reviews on Trip Advisor. 

You can’t book the My Sister tours through Trip Advisor or on-line but they do have their own website HERE and you can contact them via WhatsApp.  They responded very quickly and they offered a tour for the both of us for $175 USD for about three hours.  I gave him a $25 deposit via PayPal and we paid the rest to our driver at the end of the tour.  This was a per vehicle cost so the price per person would be less if he had more than two people. 

We arranged to meet our tour guide and driver, Angus, at 9 o’clock at the end of the pier. 

About 8:45 AM we left the ship, took some quick pictures with the ship’s photographer, and headed down the pier.  At the end of the pier there was a small scrum of taxi drivers, tour operators and a few other people holding signs for prearranged tours.  If you didn’t have something already set up, I am sure you could find someone here to show you around.  I would recommend knowing exactly where you want to go before you start to negotiate with the drivers. 

We easily spotted Angus across the street holding a large sign with “My Sister Tours” printed on it.  Since there was just the two of us, Angus picked us up in an SUV instead of a larger minivan. 

Angus was very friendly and gave us an interesting history of the island as well as a glimpse into some of the local culture.  He also described the devastation following the two hurricanes that destroyed Dominica’s agricultural industry.  Today, Dominica relies almost exclusively on tourism to bring in outside revenue. 

NATURAL HOT SPRINGS

Our first stop was at a natural hot spring where we saw some of the bubbling pools off in the distance that had a distinct sulfur smell.  These were interesting but it was difficult to see much from the distance where we were required to park. 

TRAFALGAR FALLS

Trafalgar Falls was our next stop and even though it was only a few miles away it took 15 to 20 minutes to get there because the roads are incredibly narrow, and traffic moves slow. 

The actual falls are a quarter mile away from the parking lot and are reached via a quarter-mile gravel and packed dirt path with probably 100 steps up and down along the way.  Not wheelchair accessible.  The sign at the entrance says it’s a 10 minute walk, which is probably true for younger people.  We took twice as long since we moved a lot slower and took our time to observe some wildlife and interesting vegetation along the way. 

There is a $5 USD site fee to see the falls, and there are private freelance guides available for hire in the parking lot.  The guides work for tips, but I’m always reluctant to venture off with a guy expecting tips without some idea as to the approximate amount of the tip expected.  After a little hesitation he said that $3 USD per person was in the ballpark so we agreed to use his services and we started down the trail. 

As it turned out the guide, Jonathan, was well worth the money and we gave him a $10 USD tip per person instead of the three dollars because he was very knowledgeable about the area, the island, and the falls.  He pointed out some interesting insects and land crabs that we never would have spotted on our own. 

We ended up spending an hour at the falls including the time it took to walk to the falls and return. If you walked quicker and didn’t linger at the falls you could probably make the round-trip in the less than half an hour. 

The falls were nice to look at, but they are small by comparison to larger falls around the world, but nevertheless still pretty and worth the effort to go see. 

Trafalgar Falls is about 5 miles from the ship, but about a 20 minute drive due to winding roads and slow traffic. 

BOTANICAL GARDENS

Our next stop was the Botanical Gardens where we saw the large Banyan tree and what was left of a school bus crushed by another tree during hurricane David in 1979.  The Botanical Gardens is a short walk from the pier so you would not need a driver to visit. 

MORNE BRUCE VIEW POINT

There is a half-mile trail that starts behind the aviary in the Botanical Gardens and leads up to the view point on Morne Bruce.  We didn’t use this trail but we read that it consists of over 300 steps and is quite steep in spots.  Since we were with our driver he drove us there in the SUV.  You could also walk up the road we drove and that would be about a 1 mile hike from the cruise ship pier.  The road is narrow and there are no sidewalks so keep that in mind if you choose to walk to the top. 

At the top is a spectacular view of the town and the cruise ship.  Is well worth making the effort to visit.  On the days when cruise ships are in port, there will be several street vendors at the top selling souvenirs.

BACK IN TOWN

After visting the view spot, Angus drove us back to where he picked this up and that concluded our tour.  We walked back to the Presidential Palace and Parliament building to spend more time and take a few pictures.  This was maybe a quarter-mile round-trip.

SHOPPING

We stopped by the Jolly Pharmacy which is on the same street as the extended pier to see what was available.  As we continued to explore the small downtown we came across a larger supermarket called Fresh Market.  This had a good selection of food, snacks, liquor, and soft drinks as well as a pharmacy on the second floor that sold products you would expect to find at any CVS or Walgreens back in the states. 

As we headed back to the ship along the waterfront we passed by a series of street merchants set up offering typical tourist souvenirs. 

DOMINICA MUSEUM

Before we went back to the ship, we spent about 15 minutes touring the Dominica Museum which is on the second floor of the building across the street from the end of the pier.  Admission is $3 USD.  There are not many exhibits but what they have is interesting and we felt it was worthwhile.  They also had free Wi-Fi available which I believe you could have used by sitting outside the entrance to the museum and not pay the three dollars. 

SAILAWAY PARTY

The ship hosted a Sail Away party at the Seaview pool at 4:30 PM.  Waiters were passing a selection of hors d’oeuvres and there was a table set up selling a specialty drink.  The weather was beautiful.  Attendance was light, may be hundred and 50 people. 

The weather was lovely and we stayed until sunset and were treated to a small Green Flash before we headed back to our cabin. 

MAIN DINING ROOM

Dinner service continues to be speedy and we have been able to leave the main dining room by 10 minutes after nine every night in order to catch the show which starts at 930. 

MAIN STAGE

Andy Buenger was the featured entertainer on the main stage.  He is advertised as the man of the seven instruments playing the marimba, several horns, pan flute, Hawaiian steel guitar and drums.  He puts on a high energy show featuring a tremendous dueling drum duet with Grahame from the HAL orchestra. 

• Andy Buenger