Dominica -- Cabrits, the Atlantic, Kalinago Village, and the Emerald Pool

Dominica is situated between the French overseas territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Back in the days of pirates and privateers, the English were more or less frantic to get and keep a toehold in the Caribbean so they could defend their interests while, ahem, complicating the French and Spanish efforts to extract wealth from the Americas. One of our guides told us that Dominica changed hands 17 times in the 18th and 19 centuries. The Cabrits Peninsula is on Dominica's northwestern shore, and it is an excellent post from which to control the northern and western sides of the island.

This is the reconstructed Fort Shirley on Cabrits Peninsula as seen from Portsmouth. It's now a national park with reportedly excellent snorkeling and diving right off the coast. We had brought our gear, but the day was very windy and the sea was too rough to even attempt a swim.

This is the formidable entrance to the fort. It must have been scary back in the day!

Here's the map! We walked to both of the lookouts (numbers 26 on the blue trail and 17 on the yellow trail) for the views and the cannons.

I think this is the ordinance store. None of the buildings looked particularly finished on the inside, and all the doors were closed.

These are the officers' quarters. It's a much nicer building than the ordinance store!

And this is the ruined commander's house. There were sized or cut blocks a good 20 feet from the building.

Silk cotton tree.

Portsmouth and Prince Rupert Bay as seen from Fort Shirley.

A very different kind of crowd swarms the battery!

Ian takes aim!

I opted to have the sailboats in my cannon shot.

Like any historic spot, Fort Shirley has explanatory signs. What makes Fort Shirley different, however, is that the people who designed the history lessons about war, colonization, and occupation decided to put other information on their signs as well. This first one describes the clearcutting of the peninsula by the British and the kinds of trees that are coming back. Notice the red tree shape in the upper left corner: it poses a question about the helicopter seedlings of one of the trees. I took photos of some more of the "other" information because I find it charming. It would be nice if we could manage to be as interested in and engaged by natural history as we are in violent history.

Here's a different kind of sign: Dominica has a north-south trail, and this is one end of it! Ian and I agreed that this is not a very photogenic place to put the sign, and it's certainly not the nicest place to end the trail, but you'd feel pretty good about yourself and your knees, quads, and glutes if you'd just walked the spine of Dominica, tip to tip. It's hilly there!

Here's another different kind of sign, and another kind of history. At least the rebellion started something good, if slow, painful, and not over yet.

Ian holding up the walls!

We saw Guadeloupe from Cabrits!

And we posed for another self-portrait at the western tip.

It's another yellow flower!














Then we headed out to the Atlantic coast. On Dominica, the Atlantic coast is much less developed because the ocean is so much less calm. It's a dramatic difference. Dominica's profile is such that rain clouds coming in from the Atlantic drop most of their rain on the eastern side of the island, so this is where most of the sugar and banana production takes place. The southeastern corner of the island is only recently paved, and while it has a few lodges and rough resorts, it is not set up for tourists the way other parts of the island are.

Looking roughly southwest from the main coast road.

The eastern side is very beautiful, and there are lots of gardens. Imagine this kind of border, sharply in focus, and repeated for several hundred meters at a stretch. Lovely!

Crashing waves and palm trees!

Another delightful hedge. The colors were so intense!

Dominican cows are sweet, too.

The other local neighborhood is called Monkey Hill (no monkeys in Dominica).

That's the main road on the Atlantic coast. It's the main route to the big airport that we flew through. It's a pretty small and treacherous road!

Pagua Bay, looking south.















The Lesser Antilles were populated around 200 BCE by people moving north from what is now roughly Venezuela. They were the ancestors of the modern day Kalinago. Dominica is home to about 4000 Kalinago, and they mostly live in a territory on the Atlantic coast. We visited a reconstructed village and took an interesting tour with a very personable young guide.

Looking north from the parking at the Kalinago village, Kalinago Barana Aute.

This map shows the Kalinago names of some of the Lesser Antilles. Dominica is highlighted in the box. Its name, Ouitoucoubouli, has been transmuted to Waitukubuli for the name of a new north-south island trail. It means "tall is her body" in obvious reference to the mountains. The last part of the word, kubuli, has been taken for the name of Dominica's nationally produced beer.

Love that Heliconia!

A sample traditional canoe made of a single tree. Modern canoes are made of two kinds of trees and have some metal fittings.

These grasses are dried and used to make the roofs of the traditional Kalinago buildings.

This is the large communal building where the Kalinago men lived in traditional times. It is quite large and served as living quarters as well as meeting space.

Men were allowed up to seven wives, and the women and young children lived in these smaller huts.

Adolescent boys lived in these lean-tos.

In the main building, we were treated to a traditional dance spectacle. The dancers were all young and quite enthusiastic; their expressions were almost universally joyful, and as a result, they were very fun to watch! This is the basket dance. The Kalinago weave baskets from reeds for just about every activity, and this dance is a sort of tribute to the basket.

Again, the basket dance. There are three young women dancing and three young men playing percussion.

This is the fishing dance. I love this dancer's expression and how she's completely airborne!


This is a YouTube video link of one of the dances. Steady hands and videography thanks to Ian!

After the dance we left a tip, naturally, and Ian got up to make them all look short. I can't get over how happy they all look!

The Kalinago grated and mashed manioc to make into loaves. They added spices, which is good, because otherwise manioc is pretty offensively bland. Ian, naturally, saw the perfect kugula machine!

Just look at those grating teeth!

This is a manioc loaf cooker. We saw a hotel that had the giant cauldron as its logo, and it didn't make any sense until we saw this!

The beautiful and rugged Atlantic coast!

This ficus tree is significantly more complex than most of those found in pots in hotel lobbies!

This canoe is on a lot of the promotional materials for the Kalinago village site.

It's not a yellow flower, but I still think it was totally photo-worthy.

These two women were weaving baskets for sale, and they both allowed me to take their picture. We bought a lovely basket, and Ian found a very cool new mask for his collection.

Apparently the baskets and beads for sale along the road in these booths are cheaper than the baskets in the village, but you have to stop on a blind curve at the edge of the world. No thanks! We discussed the relative status of selling in the village versus selling up on the road and didn't come to any conclusions.







After the Kalinago village, we went to the famous Emerald Pool, deep in the Morne Trois Pitons National Park. During the day, this beautiful place is overrun by mini buses coming from the cruise ship, but we learned our lesson at Trafalgar Falls and decided to time our visit more carefully. The park moves so many people through that the trail is a one-way loop with Do Not Enter signs - kind of heavy for a gorgeous tropical waterfall! We showed up at 4.59, and the gate was already closed. It was not, however, locked, so we opened it and let ourselves in. I'm not sure it was legal, but we didn't get caught!

The Emerald Pool and waterfall as seen from above. It's quite dark at twilight, but still very beautiful.

Even the stream below the Emerald Pool is lovely!