Tag: waterfalls

the waters of dominica
Our tour books said that as long as no cruise ships were in port in Roseau, we would not encounter large crowds, even at the larger tourist attractions like Trafalgar Falls. (Tip: cruise ships stop calling in May and don’t return till October. Yes, it’s hurricane season, live a little!)

Wednesday of the first week in May, we put this to the test and drove south towards Roseau, the capital city where the cruise ships port, and thus the most “heavily touristed” part of the country.

trafalgar falls

We got up early and made it to Trafalgar Falls by about 9 am. At that hour, the site was completely deserted—not even an attendant present to check our passes to the parks! It was a very short walk to the falls (10 min, not quite handicapped accessible, but easy).

Trafalgar Falls are an impressive pair of waterfalls, sprouting from opposite sides of a dark, forested escarpment. They are dramatic in the way that major tourist destination waterfalls tend to be, though personally I prefer the humbler, hidden ones, like Bwa Nef and Emerald Pool. But I have to admit that it’s a rare thing to see big dramatic waterfalls like this without fighting with a single other tourist.

It was too bad that 9 am also corresponded with the absolute worst time for photography. The sun was just rising behind the cliff, and the glare was unforgiving. Otherwise, the photographs unspoiled by other humans would have been fantastic.

We stayed for about a half hour, trying to get pictures for a while before we gave up and soaked up the experience. I did get some great pictures of lizards. (Did I mention that I was taking pictures of lizards everywhere in Dominica? I was. You’ll find I love taking pictures of wildlife, no matter how small.) By the time we left, a few other tourists and the staff had arrived.

one of the many lizards of dominica

Dominica is mountainous, so there are hiking trails all over the island, many of them very challenging. I enjoy hiking very much, but I am, let’s just say, a moderate trail hiker. I can walk for long distances, but steep vertical gains are not my friends and I do not pretend that I am up for them. My friend was recovering from a leg injury, and she was even less game for a challenging hike than I was.

(And you’ll note that nowhere in any of these Dominica posts do I even mention Boiling Lake, one of Dominica’s top tourist attractions. See previous paragraph. Also, a challenging hike that ends in a lake that I can’t even jump into to cool off? Double no thank you.)

boeri lake

We decided instead to take a trail that led to a lake that we could hop in at the top: Boeri Lake. Its trailhead was a short 15 or 20 minute drive from Trafalgar Falls. The initial vertical gain was fairly steep, but the views were worth it. The lush green mountains cascaded down to the shores of the Atlantic, which mirrored the sky so perfectly it was hard to tell where water ended and sky began.

view of the atlantic from the trail to boeri lake

The mountain peaks towards which we hiked swathed in gently meandering clouds, which dampened and cooled the land the farther north we climbed.

Lake Boeri was a smallish lake to look at it, its waters a bold shamrock green. Cool cloud forest or not, I was steamy by the time we reached the top and hopped in as quickly as I could deposit my bags and rip off my clothes. I was wearing a bathing suit underneath, to be clear, but honestly I didn’t need to be—not another soul was sharing the lake with us.

mountain swathed in clouds on the boeri lake hike

I set out to swim to the opposite shore, but realized quickly that the lake was actually quite a lot larger than it appeared. The water was delightfully cool and fresh, so much so that we took our chances and filled our water bottles without sterilizing (to no ill aftereffects).

Boeri Lake

I will say of the hike, for the benefit of those with mobility issues, it was a lot more challenging than the books make it out to be. The Bradt guide rated it as roughly equivalent to the Bwa Nef hike. It was far harder. For me, a woman in her 40s in reasonably good condition, it was an easily manageable, moderate hike. After the initial vertical gain, I found the most challenging part to be navigating the rocks on the trail, which were often quite slick from the mists.

For my friend recovering from a leg injury, it was definitely too much. It was only about a mile in-and-back hike, but our progress was slow so the hike took us hours. I spent a lot of time watching the clouds drift over the mountains and taking selfies and pictures of lizards and flowers while waiting for her to catch up. To her credit, she soldiered on.

another beautiful view from the trail

Boeri Lake had taken up far more time than we planned, so sadly we did not have time to make to the hot springs in Wotten Waven. Instead we grabbed a meal in Roseau and headed home via a new route. The coastal road from Roseau to Portsmouth runs along the west coast of the island between its two largest cities, and is by far the best road on the island. We watched the sun set over the Caribbean from our trusty car, as we ended our fifth day in Dominica.

previous posts on dominica
2023-09-30
the one where nothing goes as planned
In my experience, on every trip, you’re almost guaranteed to have at least one day that doesn’t go as planned. Where everything is harder than it should be. On this trip, that day was Tuesday. We knew many things would be closed on Sunday, and Labor Day on Monday, and we planned accordingly. We expected that by Tuesday, everything would have reopened.

portsmouth

We planned to travel west to Portsmouth, Dominica’s second largest city and its original capital. We’d check out the fish market, get some lunch, do some snorkeling, and head back to Calibishie via the scenic route across the island’s northern peninsula.

We checked out the fish market. Maybe we were too late arriving, but the fish selection was limited to these tiny sardine-like fish that I would not have known how to cook. We did buy some plantains for frying up later, and coconut water that was bottled fresh out of the coconut by a man with small stand. We also met the friendliest drug dealer we’d ever met, who merely wished a lovely day when we declined the gallon bag of weed he pulled from his jacket.

We walked north out of Portsmouth, up the beach to the string of restaurants and water sports places that catered to tourists. It was dead. We found one open beachside bar and ordered a drink that turned out to be the best mixed drink we’d have the whole trip—a coconut rum and lime concoction that was apparently popular with the French tourists. (I believe it was this, but with a local coconut rum.)

deserted beach north of Portsmouth

Abandoning Portsmouth, we drove north to Toucari Bay in search of some more activity, and—of increasing importance—actual food. I had wanted to check out Keepin’ It Real, which seemed to be on everyone’s lists of the best restaurants in Dominica. Toucari Bay is also renowned for its snorkeling. Alas, this restaurant too was closed, and no snorkeling was on offer.

We returned to Portsmouth, thinking that the second largest city in Dominica would surely have some open restaurants to feed two, by this time, starving tourists. We tried a restaurant called the Purple Turtle, which had looked open, but it turned out we had just seen a bunch of locals hanging there playing games.

Finally, a man called—no joke—Buddha came to our rescue. He explained that Labor Day was continuing for a second day, so yes, everything was still closed. On his advice, we headed to the Portsmouth Beach Hotel, which catered to westerners. There we had a lovely lunch of more mahi-mahi and fried plantains.

Once again, the fish was good, but the plantains were dry and bland. Also disappointing—the waitress clearly was just filling in because the regular server was on holiday, so she didn’t know the menu well. When I asked if the prices were in US or Caribbean dollars, she said they accepted both. But when pressed to answer which currency the prices on the menu were quoted in, she said US. 130 USD for a seafood platter for 2 would have been a little more than we were prepared to pay, but would have been an excellent price in East Caribbean dollars (about 1/3 the cost). Sadly, we learned that the waitress was mistaken far too late to change our orders.

dominica’s northern peninsula

It was now 1:30 or so and we were finally fed. But we had accomplished none of the things we planned to for the day. We gave up on snorkeling and decided to just move on to the last thing on our agenda—taking the scenic route through the mountains of the northern peninsula.

By this time, I was comfortable driving in Dominica. (This was no small feat—I have a whole post about the driving still to come.) I spent a lot of my youth in the Mountain West, and I adore driving on steep, switchbacky-roads. This was one of my favorite roads of all time.

Driving north out of Portsmouth, we rapidly ascended Morne au Diable, straining our poor rental car so badly she needed a break at the top. But it was a fantastic spot to stop, trapse out among knee high grasses, and enjoy the view from the top of a mountain that dropped precipitously down to smooth Caribbean waters.

view from the top of Morne au Diable

From here, the road crossed the inside of the crater of a quasi-dormant volcano. Books and Buddha had told us to stop a Cold Soufrière, a cold sulfur spring that could be reached by an easy 5 minute walk from the road. I found the site to be a little underwhelming as a tourist attraction. It smelled like sulfur and was cold, as advertised. Having enjoyed my share of natural hot springs out west, I found the cold sulfur water was novel in its incongruity. But it was a small and not terribly picturesque spring.

Morne au Diable, seen from the east

bwa nef waterfall

Buddha had also recommended Bwa Nef waterfall. Google Maps did not do a great job leading us to the trailhead, so we endured one failed attempt that resulted in us driving throughout a car graveyard ending up among some sheep, one of whom was very angry at our presence.

The actual trailhead was further down the mountain, and it was well-marked with space to park. We were the only car. The hike to the falls was easy for me (a 40+ woman in average shape), but my friend was recovering from a leg injury and found it a bit of a struggle. Along the way we met the proprietor, who assured her that it was not much further, so she persisted. (On our return, he asked for a tip, as we were crossing his land, which we gave him.)

Bwa Nef Waterfall

The falls was one of the more unique ones I’ve been to. Two sharp black cliffs towered on either side of us, so tightly spaced that it felt as if we were entering a cave. Two boulders perched atop a narrow strip of ceiling open to the skies. The boulders looked almost precarious, but the proprietor had already assured us they have been there for years and never fallen.

We ended our day satisfied with the unexpected adventure at Bwa Nef. Sometimes the best parts of a trip are unplanned.

previous posts on dominica
2023-09-24