Dominica

Hans, playing with his food.

I am a voyeur. From the deck of the ship I sit and look at a bright array of umbrellas spread out below me. There's a constant flow of people accompanied by throbbing drums.

It's overcast. The leaden clouds were excreting a lazy drizzle, more of a mist than a rain. There was an intermittent parade of clouds scudding across the sky interrupted by brilliant sun and spectacular double rainbows. Three rainbows framed the shore over the course of the day.

In town, the sidewalks are chopped up blocks of cement filled with weeds and broken glass. Music blares from every doorway and like in Korea, if you have something to sell, park yourself on the sidewalk under a sunshade and peddle your wares.

We walked to the Botanical Gardens where colourful birds twittered their welcome from the tops of every tree. The Gardens have huge spans of lawn which are cut with... weed whackers. Honest. We saw two men working the entire area with these inefficient little cutters. Others were raking the clippings into many small piles which were then filled into giant wicker baskets carried on the heads of corpulent women to the dumping ground.

We joined another couple sitting on a bench and soon were approached by a taxi driver who introduced himself by saying that not long ago, a woman had been walkig through the Gardens when she was attacked and had her leg chopped off!! Had we heard about this? No, we replied. He went on to tell us that there are many dangerous areas in Dominica, especially near the river (we hoped our 4 tablemates were okay tubing down this very river) but luckily, he himself was on hand one day when another woman was attacked and had her purse cut off as well as her arm. Amputations seem to be a popular method of robbing people here. He went on to say how other drivers would not tell us the truth about this island but not him. No no.

He gave me the creeps. Did he think that in gratitude for hearing his grisly stories we would actually set foot into his cab? I think not.

Finally he left and we decided that we didn't really want to see the rest of the Boatanical Gardens after all.

So, we spent another idyllic afternoon by the pool. Earlier in the cruise we found a round freshwater pool under a roof which would shield us from the blazing sun - and occasional tropical downpour. There were also 2 jacuzzi hot tubs but best of all, this was an adult only area. No kids. Perfect.

Sitting there looking at the shore I fantasized that we were in our own private villa in the Caribbean, enjoyng the seaview, sitting outside and sipping a cool drink, reading a book. But on a ship someone else was cooking and cleaning. This definitely beats having your own villa.

A 2 minute tropical deluge forces us to seek shelter and we head to our favourite side deck, level 7, and sit on the lee side facing the island. There's not a drop of rain here and I watch the fog flow down the hills of Dominica towards the ship accompanied by a brilliant rainbow and its larger but weaker twin. The hills recede into near invisibility. The fog turns out to be another quick and heavy shower which passes in mere minutes, leaving behind a blue sky and freshly watered green hills. Beautiful.