Vacationing in the West Indies: Dominica Style presents...Dubique Falls

I was excited that the spouses organization was planning a trip to a waterfall while Katherine was visiting. As easy as it is to rent a car and go, this trip came with a guide. Our destination: Dubique Falls, on the very southeast corner of the island. While Bense River was a fun little excursion, this trip promised three waterfalls!

So we woke up and met everyone by the shacks where we piled into a transport bus and headed south on an hour and a half long journey. When we reached Dubique, we encountered problem number 1: a huge ditch being blasted out of a newly poured road (of course it was a road we needed to drive up).

After some discussion, we parked the transport on the side of the main road (you know, the one "highway" that loops the island) and started our hike a little early. A local guy in a red shirt who was working on the road construction agreed to lead us up to the waterfall, seeing as our driver had never been before.The hike started out as normal, walking on a path alongside a creek. So far so good. We reached the first waterfall of the hike without incident.

And then problem number 2: A huge boulder to climb (some of you may be thinking, no big deal, keep going, and I would say, yes! that's the spirit! unfortunately, not everyone was on the same level as we are and decided to stop their hike right there and wait for us.

Christina made it up...Katherine made it up...

And so we continued on our hike in hopes of seeing the next two waterfalls. The red shirt guy was hiking full steam a head and the seven of us following stumbled through the rocky "path" in pursuit.After a while, the trail ended and we continued our trek up a rocky river bed following our red shirted guide. In most hikes to waterfalls here this is pretty standard. Mostly. But here we encountered problem number 3: this river bed was dry. Mostly. While there was no water flowing, the rocks and dirt were just wet enough to be very slippery.

After what seemed like the longest hardest part of the hike, I finally asked my friend in the red shirt if he was sure there was a waterfall coming up. He assured us there was, and yet again we continued.

A few minutes later we encountered problem number 4: there was no waterfall.

That's right, y'all. I called it. Here we were, looking forward to swimming in the waterfall's refreshing pool of water before our nightmare of a return hike and our guide is standing in the middle of a dry river bed looking up at the rocks with a puzzled expression saying "well this is where it should be..."

Let me tell you, the journey back was not fun. That's why there aren't any pictures. We met up with the others who waited behind (lucky them) and finished up back at the transport. The ride home was pretty sad.

so the moral of this story is: don't ask to go to Dubique Falls when you come visit.

And sorry to Katherine who had to experience that hike that had so many problems and zero satisfaction.