Woke up around 8:30 to presents by our secret santas sat around the Christmas tree. We had to check into customs and then we were off on our first adventure into the rain forest. 8 of the 10 crew took a boat just barley made to fit our weight to shore. Then took another bus to the opposite side of the island for our hike.
Sammie (my roommate) and I with hibiscus flowers our bus driver picked for us.
This was the start of our hike. We hiked down to a waterfall pool where there were rocks and 40ft deep underneath.
Abby up front. Dave from America on the left. Tolan from Australia. Stef in white stripes from St. Maarten. Sammie from London. Tour guide. John from Scotland and Jose from Costa Rico. Most of my crew on our hike down to the waterfall.
Abby is standing in the waterfall right after jumping. Everyone jumped, I did a few flips. This is their fresh water supply for the entire island. Pretty amazing place and defiantly didn't feel like Christmas today. This island is too hard to even explain. I remember when I went to Brazil I came back a new person, seeing what these people live with and then me complaining about not having the best of the best. Most of these people live in houses on stilts, clothes hanging outside to dry and all over the bushes as well as their "lazy boys" (not much of a lazy boy more like a wooden chair) on the front porch with the wind blowing in their hair. I'm amazed that these people live so freely with nothing and are just fine with it. There was a woman who just died in 2011 who lived to be 128 years old. We went past we house and they were telling us she would sit on her porch from 5am until 5pm every day and wave at the cars going by.
It's so hard for me to explain how the people live here but I'm so much more thankful for my live, the people that are in it to support me and love me. I think they have a lot of love here as well but it's just night a day difference from what I grew up to. One lane roads, two bedroom house for a family of seven, MAYBE one car per family if not you walk everywhere, one grocery store for the entire island and it has less then what a CVS would have. It's amazing these people can survive. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I had more money in the bank (which isn't much) for over half of the 70,000 residents of this island.
They said 70,000 people live on this island, 68,750 are black, the rest are caucasian who love to sail and fish or go to the medical school up on the hill. This day couldn't have been a better way to experience the island life. We then went from the hike to "kayaking" which is not the same thing we know as kayaking. We went in a row boat all of us down a river while someone rowed us down the river. We got to row past the scene and where they filmed from Pirates of the Caribbean, would be cooler for me if I have seen the movies.
After rowing for a bit up river, we went to a bar where only these boats can go to in the middle of the island which was amazing. Rasta mon music blaring, locals rolling blunts and dancing. A cab driver the other day in Antigua was driving a car load of people and was very high. He had his windshield wipers on as fast as they would go while it was 80 and sunny outside, not a cloud in the sky. We asked him if he knew his windshield wipers were on and why. His response: "It's raining where I am mon." He was so high he thought he was in the clouds. Amazing how the rasta culture is around these islands. Herbal everything.
After a long day in Dominica, we came back onto the boat, showered and put on our sunday best and had a proper Christmas feast on the party deck. An entire large roasted turkey, honey glazed ham, mashed potatoes/gravy, stuffing, salad, sweet potatoes, broccoli with cheese, vine leaves with beef inside, a casserole of some kind, and to top it off a "log cake." I have a major sweet tooth and wasn't too keen on this cake but it was an amazing dinner to say the least. Tolan is an amazing chef and I have no complaints about my life and my job. I love to wake up every morning knowing I'm going to learn something new and see a new place. Tomorrow we are off to Martinique for a few hours and then to St. Lucia.
This was a guy making his roof on this new hut/house....#thankful
Merry Christmas y'all.
Peace & love
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