Island Drive

Since last semester, we'd been talking about driving around the island before we leave. Somehow the road trip kept getting pushed back due to our absurdly busy schedules. That is, until last weekend, when Rachel, Christina, and I decided if we don't do it now, we never will. Fortunately, the weather cooperated with us! So Saturday morning (okay, it was late morning) we rented a Suzuki Escudo and headed through Portsmouth with the goal of looping around the island in a final farewell.

To put things in perspective, Dominica is the second largest island (after Guadeloupe) in the West Indies, which may not seem very big (especially for Texans) but it is important to consider the contour of the land (this is a volcanic, mountainous island!) when imagining the road conditions here (one word: switchbacks). But the three of us were up for it and started off in high spirits.

The road through Portsmouth.

Purple Turtle beach looked too beautiful not to stop and take pictures (another main goal of the trip, of course, was to take as many pictures as we could) and we found this:

How fun is a palm tree rope swing?!?

And right when it started to sprinkle, we hopped back in the car to the northern tip of the island. Along the way we stopped to say hello to one of the professors and his wife who were out in their yard. When we told them of our plan to loop the island, they did not hesitate to tell us there was no way we would make it! Apparently we had started out too late AND we were shown a small section of road on the southern tip that had the words "steep road" printed on the map and were warned that it would burn out the brakes. With their words of warning, we got back on the road.

The northern tip of the island boasts a drive through volcano that we were excited to see...

but you have to admit it is anticlimactic!

We made frequent stops to take pictures, listened to Reggae music with the windows down, and enjoyed the island!

After a while we decided we were starving and started to keep an eye out for a quick bite to eat. There are lots of little snackettes along the road, but all they had were plain bakes which is just fried dough and not very appetizing! All the restaurant-style places we passed had nothing prepared already (which would mean at least an hour wait) so we settled with a little grocery store where we purchased cheese and crackers, cookies, and Kubulis!

We didn't want to waste any time so we ate in the car and enjoyed the views. I kept trying to tell myself "this may be the last time you see this" and "remember how beautiful this is." The pictures really don't do it justice.

We did manage to make a little mischief when we stopped the car in the middle of the road, and Christina and Rachel jumped out to grab a couple Kubuli signs off an electricity pole.

We made a quick stop at the volcanic staircase where we were harassed by a local who insisted on being our guide, but were helped by other locals who made sure he left us alone. We made the short hike down to the staircase which is immensely impressive.

Before we knew it, it was after 4:30 and we were only two thirds of the way down the east coast. We cut across the island instead of taking our chances on the "steep roads" we were warned about and watched the sun drop down to reach the Caribbean as we headed north on the west side. When we had almost reached Portsmouth, we made a spur of the moment decision to drive up to a radio tower and catch the sunset.

The road was horrendous to say the least, but Christina did a great job with the four wheel drive, and Rachel saved the day when she pulled a rock from under the car so we could continue up to the top of the mountain. We made it as far as we could in the car and climbed the rest of way on foot. We were compensated with beautiful views of the island, a stunning rainbow, and a very hazy, very typical Dominican sunset.

Our road trip was probably one of the most fun days I've had on the island!