“We’re visiting Dominica?! Where the heck is that?” I asked when Dan first told me we’d be going there on business. Sure, I’d heard of the Dominican Republic, but it took me a bit of time to fathom that two Caribbean countries would have such similar names.
Anyway, Dan and his business partner had business to do there. Being the thoughtful family men they are, they were bringing us (their wives and sons). Field trip! I tried to search for information about the country but it wasn’t easy: Google kept throwing in search results for the Dominican Republic as well.
At least I wasn’t alone.
As it turns out, the Commonwealth of Dominica is a tiny slip of an island, only about 4 times the size of Washington, D.C. Lying between Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Lesser Antilles, it has only about 70,000 inhabitants. I was especially happy to find out that its proper pronunciation is Dom-in-EEK-a, before I embarrassed myself in the country.
Definitely not a tourist hot spot
Most people wouldn’t choose Dominica as a vacation destination, even if they could find it in search results. First off, you can’t get there in one day; you have to fly to Puerto Rico and then fly to Dominica the next afternoon. Plus there are no resorts on the entire island because it has no beautiful, sandy Caribbean beaches. (Can you say untouched?)
Since it doesn’t appeal to resort developers its primary resource is its pristine beauty it has become a mecca for divers and eco-tourists.
No beaches means no resorts.
Dominica is for nature lovers
It’s often been said that Dominica is the only island that Christopher Columbus would still recognize, and I believe it. As we descended between the forested mountains and saw some of its rivers Richard said it reminded him of flying into ‘Nam.
But there was no gunfire to greet us, just a small, puddle-jumper airport and the desk where we picked up our rental car. We took off for our first destination: Calibishe on the island’s northeast coast. The guys might have business meetings every day next week, but that was days away. This was a weekend just for us: Our plan was to relax and enjoy ourselves in this lush, beautiful country.
In 2009 Dan had to visit the Commonwealth of Dominica on business and I created an online journal so our family could read about our visit. Our brief stay on this beautiful, natural island reawakened our fondness for travel and Dan’s love of photography, and eventually my online travel journal morphed into the website you’re reading now, As We Saw It. This is a reworking of one of my very first posts. I hope you have enjoyed it.
Visit our Dominica photo gallery to see more images from this island.
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