Submitted by Mallory Davis on the 2019 winter session program in Dominica sponsored by the Department of Geography…
January 20th marks our third week on the beautiful island of Dominica. Today, we had a very early start to our day to make our way to the boat where we would begin our day of ocean experiences. For our first excursion, we headed out to sea to Champagne Beach; a small beach that gets its name from the bubbles that rise from the ocean’s surface due to the island’s volcanic activity. Off the shore of Champagne Beach are multiple reefs, where we could snorkel and see some aquatic life. Some of the aquatic life included fire coral, sea urchins, puffer fish, parrot fish, and several blue tang fish. After exploring the reefs for a couple of hours, we headed out on the boat again and headed farther out to sea for a whale watching experience. Our guides explained all the different kinds of sea life that we could potentially see; sperm whales, orca whales, humpback whales, some smaller whale species, and multiple different dolphin species. While our guides made it very clear that they couldn’t promise we’d see any whales, we were lucky enough to see a total of five sperm whales at the surface of the water. We could watch them socialize with one another, watch a calf feed from its mother and dive deep into the water and flash us their tails. The excursion took a little over three hours, but we were fortunate to learn so much about these majestic creatures in such a short amount of time.
We had a lot of time to rest the next couple of days and get ready for our next excursion, Morne Diablotin (Devil Mountain) which is the tallest peak in Dominica and the second tallest in the Lesser Antilles. It is located in the northern interior of the island, about 15 miles north of Dominica’s capital (and our home for a month) Roseau. Once we arrived at the mountain’s trail entrance, we soon realized that it was unable to be hiked due to over growth of vegetation and parts of the trail being damaged by Hurricane Maria. Instead, we took the Waitukubuli National Trail, which was about a four hour hike. We saw an abundance of vegetation, fallen trees, and many different animals. I spotted my first stick bugs, who were mating on a leaf, saw multiple parrots fly over our heads, caught a small snake, and watched a 5-foot boa constrictor slither its way into the woods. The first half of the trail was easy and was cleared enough to where you could easily navigate a trail. It wasn’t until the second half of the hike when it became a lot more difficult. It was all downhill and very slippery from the rain that was consistently pouring down on us. It was very important to watch where you stepped as there were mudslides everywhere and tree roots sticking out of the ground that were easy to trip on. That being said, one boy in the group lost his balance, fell, and landed his hand on a stick. Luckily, I had a first aid kit and could wrap up his hand. He had to be escorted down the mountain by two very selfless group members, who risked their lives to make sure he felt safe. We finally made it down the mountain after about 4four hours. While there were some very challenging aspects of the hike, it was very rewarding to finish and prepared us for the next hikes to come.
