Instead of resting our aching muscles, we spent the day after the Boiling Lake walk at Carnival. Carnival is a big event in the Caribbean with parties all week culminating in two days of madness on Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras. The Monday event starts at 4am with J’ouvert or daybreak. Revellers in fancy dress (or very little clothing) dance and throw colourful powder paints to the sounds of soca and bouyon. We gave it a miss but went into town for the day’s events celebrating freedom, culture and community. The J’ouvert party goers were looking a little the worse for wear but still buying beers and street foods at roadside stalls. There was a great feeling of friendliness and celebration as we ate BBQ chicken washed down with a cold Stag beer. The parade was described by a local as ‘a bit spontaneous’ but eventually it started. There were wonderful costumes, ear splitting bayou and a reminder of the islanders’ history of enslavement.
After all the excitement we decided it was time to move north so headed to Portsmouth in north western Dominica. This is a beautiful, large and well protected bay, although there are several wrecks along the shoreline. We arrived on the second day of Carnival and everything seemed to be shut – presumably everyone recovering from yesterday. The only signs of life were the chickens on the beach….. until the music started booming in the evening.
Our last trip in Dominica was to the Indian River, named after the Indians or Kalinago who traded on the water. There remain around three thousand Kalinago living on protected land on the northeast coast and they represent the last remaining indigenous community in the Eastern Caribbean.
Now the river is a nature reserve and tourist destination. Parts of Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed here and the ramshackle hut was built as a film prop. The river trips provide an income for the locals and ensure that its beauty is preserved. The water is filled with fish, the surface with moorhens, the river banks with tunneling crabs and the trees with sugar birds, doves, humming birds, egrets and blue herons whilst high above the frigates circle. There are many different trees along the banks, their gnarled roots thrusting deep into the mud and lovely flowers emerging between the roots.
