My "hot thang" Tyler
On Saturday mornings I like to go to the local market and stock up on local produce and fish for the week. At the market you can see truck loads of coconuts and men cutting them open with machetes, fish that was caught that morning and lot of other wonderful produce. My favorite it is when they have fresh mahi, Ethan's favorite fish has been the red snapper. It is a colorful place where there is usually loud music playing and local people dancing and singing. It was Tyler's first time going with us.
There are a lot of beautiful hikes and trails on the island of Dominica. The plentiful rain makes for beautiful greenery, rivers, and lakes. There are 365 rivers on this small island. We got the opportunity to go hiking with some friends to Boeri Lake, it is about an hour and half drive. It is high in elevation and so it was much cooler and the lake actually felt cold, it was great to get away from the heat for a day. The boys really liked the hike, especially Levi, he did most of it himself without being carried.
Levi's smiley nutella face
Our next little day trip was to Rosalie Bay. This area is located on the Atlantic side of the island. We went there to see the baby turltes hatch from their eggs. At this beach there are three different species of turtles that nest there. Our guide Simon is there on the beach every night during the nesting season. They mark where the nests are and later some hatch on their own and other times they dig up a nest to see if they can rescue any turtles that weren't able to climb out on their own. Unfortunately there were not any turtles that survived in the nest that we watched being unburied. We will go back next spring hopefully and watch the great big momma turltes lay their eggs. The view of the Atlantic was quite stunning though, and again Levi made the most of the beach time by completely covering himself with the black sand.
Simon digging for the eggs
Baby turtle that matured but didn't survive :(
Ross Universtiy puts on free trips during orientation week, the trip that we went on was to Cabrits. Sam, Levi and I have been there already, but it was fun to go as a family. There were some friends of ours that went as well. We did a little bit of exploring this time and we hiked to the old battery where they stored the ammunition and there were some cool cannons there. Along the trail there were some very entertaining hermit crabs in their shells, we had a fun time picking them up and seeing how far out of their shell they come.
Sam and his buddy Jared
Another hike that we went on was Syndicate Falls, it was nice because it wasn't too far of a drive. The hike itself was short and kid friendly. We crossed the river a few times, which was fun. We saw a very cool walking stick on a giant fern. The waterfall was very pretty and swimming behind the waterfall was awesome. The water was nice and cool!
Walking stick, Sam didn't want to get too close
Dominica is known for it's fabulous scuba diving. Tyler LOVES diving, but during school there is no way that he has time to go diving. He got the chance to go diving two times during the break. The last time I finally worked up the courage to go. We both got certified years ago but it has been a long time since I have gone diving and it makes me a little nervous. I was so glad that I did do it! I got my first lionfish with the spear and the coral reef was so colorful. We went with another couple, the whole group collectively got two lobsters and about fifteen lionfish. Dinner was very tasty that night!
Stan and Taran
Tyler and me with our divemaster Fabian
Our last outing for the break we decided to go to Bense Pool and Batibou Beach. They are pretty close to each other. At Bense pool you can jump off the cliffs into the water or go down the waterfall. They call it "nature's waterslide". The boys had their lifejackets which came in handy the water level was very high which made the pool very turbulent. It was nice to have the added buoyancy of the life jacket. Ethan and Same both jumped off the cliff, I couldn't believe it, they are little daredevils.
Batibou beach, so far, I think is the most beautiful beach on the island. It is also a little more remote and requires a short hike to get to, which makes it uncrowded. A neat fact about the beach, some the scenes form the Pirates of the Carribean movies were filmed there.
Nature's umbrellas
Bense Pool
This is how Levi enjoys the beach. zzzz
Sadly break is over and tomorrow Tyler and the boys go back to school. While the break was fabulous it will be nice to get another semester started and over. Our next semester break we will head home to celebrate Christmas with family, we are so excited for that!
