December 5, 2013

Roseau is the largest and capital city of Dominica. With a population of 16,582, it is a small and compact settlement surrounded by the beautiful Caribbean Sea. Though there are few beaches, there are water falls, rainforest and sulphur springs.

Another beautiful, hot day in the tropics. Once again, we didn't have any certain plans. We knew we wanted to see the island so here is a picture of Michel and Rich 'negotiating' with one of the local taxi drivers for a city tour.

We learned that Roseau is Dominica's most important port for foreign trade. Some exports include bananas, bay oil, vegetables, grapefruit, oranges, and cocoa. The service sector is also a large part of the local economy.

 

It would be a relatively inexpensive place in which to live and the US dollar is worth 2.5 times that of their currency.











Our tour took us to the beautiful Emerald Pool, which was a short walk down through a lush rainforest (pictured above) and at the bottom of a huge waterfall.

Michel is inside the waterfall.. brrrrrr too cold for me!!

Hayden (the taxi driver) took us to the Botanical Gardens, which compared to our 'gardens' was not very impressive, but they do have some very beautiful flora and fauna there as well. This is a picture of a school bus that Canada had donated, and during Hurricane David in 1979 this African Baobab tree fell on it. Fortunately no-one was in the bus at the time.





Our tour ended about 3.5 hours later in downtown Roseau. This is a little pub where Michel tried the local beer and I had a yummy rum punch before heading back to our ship.