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<\/a><\/p>\nThe tomatoes and cucumbers here are beyond belief–even better than home grown. \u00a0How do they do it?<\/p>\n
This woman was selling flowers along with food. \u00a0She would not allow us to pay for the flowers, and when we added a few ECs (Eastern Caribbean coins) to her total she threw in a few bananas. \u00a0She is stunning in the traditional madras head covering.<\/p>\n The next day we hired Faustin Alexis to take on a river tour of the Indian River. \u00a0He is an excellent guide, so if you find yourself on Dominica you should ask for him. \u00a0All the guides through PAYS (Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security) get training, and in Faustin’s case, he has become very committed to the traditional way of life and wants to return to it himself while also helping others preserve it for future generations. \u00a0His enthusiasm for the plants and animals of the rainforest was moving, and it was impressive to see his knowledge of plant life, birds and bird calls, and fish. \u00a0He says he’d like to return to living in the rainforest when his children are grown.<\/p>\n No motors are allowed on the Indian River, so after Faustin picked us all up from our boats (8 adults and 2 toddlers, plus Faustin which made 9 adults) he walked to the front of the skiff and began rowing into the river. \u00a0In spite of rowing upstream, he kept up an ongoing conversation, pointing out plants, birds, and bits of traditional lore.<\/p>\n As we entered the river, another tour boat was exiting. \u00a0I think these tours are highly organized so that there are never more than two boats on the river at once. \u00a0We could not resist getting a shot of these adorable kids on the other skiff.<\/p>\n We had our own adorable kids onboard as well. \u00a0They belonged to two Dutch families who happened to meet just before their Atlantic crossing in the Canaries. \u00a0I hope someday we can share this wonderful experience with our own granddaughter, Tori.<\/p>\n These amazing trees were all along the river.<\/p>\n There was lots of bird life that we saw and sometimes only heard. \u00a0There were parrots in the upper story, although we could not see them. \u00a0But we saw the shore birds feeding along the river’s edge. \u00a0Here is a white heron looking at the little crayfish at the water’s edge.<\/p>\n And a green heron. \u00a0There is even a type of duck in Dominica, but I missed the name.<\/p>\n And there were so many plants that Faustin identified for us that are used for food or medicine or for general health. \u00a0He often jumped off the boat to peel some bark from a cinnamon tree, or to pull a branch of bay for us to smell, or a nutmeg laying on the ground, or to show us plants used to make poultices to heal wounds, and the bright magenta leaves of another plant that would be used to wrap as a bandage around the poultice. His knowledge seemed quite encyclopedic. \u00a0He told us that the older person on record came from Dominica and was a woman who lived to be 127. \u00a0His own great uncle lived to be 115. Faustin showed us which trees are used to build the traditional houses and which trees are prone to termite infestations.<\/p>\n At the farthest point of the tour upriver we stopped for a bit of a walk, and explored a set of traditional buildings where a couple of men served flavored rum to the tourists and demonstrated how they make it. \u00a0Here is a big batch of gooseberries being boiled down to flavor a new batch of run.<\/p>\n The next day we arranged for Faustin’s nephew Fitzroy to take six of us on a walk through the rainforest up to an impressive waterfall. \u00a0There were Carol and Bob from Oasis<\/em> and Dave and Chisholm from Pantine<\/em>, along with Bob and me.<\/p>\n Fitzroy had a similar respect for the wonders of Dominica as Faustin has. \u00a0He was an excellent guide. \u00a0He recognized many bird calls and pointed out to us that the main birdsong we were hearing was that of parrots. \u00a0They were all around us! \u00a0After straining and straining to see them in the canopy of leaves, two parrots took flight and shocked all of us with their bright flash of color. \u00a0No one got a photograph.<\/p>\n This is the forest we walked through. \u00a0Sometimes there were openings to the sky as here, and sometimes we were in deep shade with the canopy of the trees about 150 feet above the ground.<\/p>\n Looking up into the upper story where plants get the most light, we could see many orchids and bromeliads growing on the tree trunks, as well as huge vines.<\/p>\n In the deep shade there was plenty of plant life too.<\/p>\n There were places with great vistas–<\/p>\n And places so deep in the understory that it drew our focus into the details.<\/p>\n There are even wild amaryllis in the sunnier parts of the rainforest.<\/p>\n Bob and I were particularly on the lookout to see orchids and tree ferns, and there were plenty of both. \u00a0There are traditional uses for tree ferns in Dominican culture. \u00a0What we know it best for is a planting material for epiphytic orchids. \u00a0Fitzroy was surprised to learn that is all we used it for back home.<\/p>\n Tree ferns are very ancient plants, older than humans.<\/p>\n There were plenty of orchids too. \u00a0Bob was thrilled to find a few brassavola nodosa in bloom on his previous walk, and plenty that would soon be blooming. \u00a0We saw lots of orchids on our walk to the waterfall, but none in bloom. \u00a0There were some very tiny orchids and some very large terrestial orchids.<\/p>\n The goal of our walk through the rainforest was a large waterfall. \u00a0The path we followed crossed the river several times, the final time involved swinging across the river on a large vine, Tarzan style. \u00a0Here is Bob swinging through the air.<\/p>\n And we’re on our way to the waterfall along the relatively dry river. \u00a0The rainy season will come in another couple of months. That is our guide Fitzroy in the distance.<\/p>\n You can see how high it is based on how small our fellow travelers are!<\/p>\n Along the edges of the forest there are houses and small farms, places where the locals have burned a bit of the rainforest to create a small plot for growing their own food. \u00a0Here are lots of banana trees, coconut palms, and plots of vegetables. \u00a0This plot which was labor intensive to start is for a type of yam vine. \u00a0 Each tuber was planted into its own mound of soil.<\/p>\n And the locals are growing coffee plants and cocoa plants. \u00a0This is a branch of unripe coffee beans.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>We all enjoyed the day’s drink offerings which were a coconut rum drink or an ‘ultimate’ rum drink. \u00a0I also had a small taste of the medicinal rum that Faustin had– flavored with ginger root, nutmeg, bay leaves (a very pungent type of bay that must not be bay laurel), a few ingredients I’ve now forgotten, and ganja! \u00a0What a surprise!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n