- I'm back from this special Caribbean Island
I never thought to visit.
So in this video, I'm not just going to explain how
this happened, but I'm also going to share three
reasons why we should really stay longer.
Welcome to Dominica.
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(inaudible dialogue)
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So this was an express trip to Dominica
just before the pandemic,
and there's some things I want to share with you today,
especially if you go with little time like myself
and want to get a flavor.
The original plan was St. Lucia,
but there was a last minute cancellation,
So we were booked for Dominica instead
and frankly, it was such a beautiful experience.
Before starting let's clarify something
really really important,
Dominica is not the Dominican Republic.
actually Santo Domingo, the capital of Dominican Republic
is like 600 miles away
from Roseau, the capital of Dominica.
I think most of us are confused the first time
but hopefully now it's clear.
(upbeat electronic music playing)
All right, let's go to the point then,
as always I share my experience in three parts.
(keyboard typing)
First of all, I just want to say that four years ago in 2017
the worst natural disaster in the history
of the island happened.
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The island is a perfect destination for those that really
enjoy hiking, climbing and waterfalls,
and including approximately 365 rivers.
So literally we can spend a year there
and visit a new river every day.
Talking about natural wonders,
one of the most iconic places is Trafalgar Falls,
just 20 minutes away from Roseau,
the capital of the island.
If you ask me the single one thing I truly believe
we can't miss at all, is this place.
These are twin falls that drop from 60 meters cliff
next to each other.
They call them the Father or Papa, falling at 40 meters,
and the Mother or Mama, falling at 20 meters.
They're just spectacular.
And here's where I recommend wearing good shoes
and not trainers like me, as we can climb and go further.
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Also a short climb across the rocks will take us to a pool
where we can cool off and enjoy this natural beauty
from a different perspective.
- Dominica!
- By the way these rocks are really slippery,
so like they say, in the London's tube,
mind the gap.
(beeping)
That was not funny, was it?
If you love waterfalls, that's it.
This is the place to spend a few hours, for real.
It's surrounded by a massive green tropical forest,
which is Dominica's flagship,
making it one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.
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Another one really stunning is this Boiling Lake,
probably the most famous of Dominica's trail.
And apparently this is the second largest boiling lake
in the world.
It's really important to go with somebody
who actually knows the way very well.
This trail is around eight miles,
so it's probably at least three hours one way,
and then another three hours come back,
it can be a very long trail.
I recommend going there early.
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(keyboard clicking)
In every bar we visit,
we see an intriguing display of bottles.
Each bottle has a label to distinguish its flavor,
or in other words, the local "bush rum", there's one place
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- Very, very interesting place,
as they had a big rum selection
that I feel we can describe many in three different ways,
genius, madness, or gross.
So depends on how we look at it,
I'm not here to judge, as every country is different.
They offer the typical rum selection,
you know with flavors such as the long leaf,
ginger, cinnamon, grape, raspberry,
like literally anything.
So far, so good.
They also have another selection of rum.
This selection includes flavors such as
snake, lizard, centipede, slugs, and grasshopper.
And if this was not shocking enough,
each rum also includes these creatures
adding flavor inside each bottle.
In any case, I feel like this is a good place to eat
and try the normal local rum.
I'm sure there's people willing to try the
uncommon selection.
And if that's the case for you,
by all means go for it.
Personally, I was not brave enough for that,
and hey, no regrets!
(upbeat guitar music playing)
(keyboard typing)
This is really interesting because driving
on the island of Dominica can be an adventure itself.
There are a lot of unpaved motorways,
the drive is on the left-hand side, like in the UK,
which is fine for me as I'm based in the UK.
But there's a few things to bear in mind,
it's important to be ready to honk to alert another car
or pedestrian that we are coming, right?
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This is actually key at night as many roads aren't well lit.
I think this is not just in Dominica, but I've seen it
in other islands in the Caribbean.
And to be honest, quite common in Latin America,
whereas in the UK, I can probably get in trouble
in a normal situation.
But what they do is; hey, we want to make sure
that we are a 100% safe when we are driving.
So I'd assume this is what they are trying to do.
And I resonate with them because I was born and raised
in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
So it was not shocking.
There are also narrow roads and winding roads
around the volcanic areas,
don't normally have guard rails
and what lies on the other side
is sort of a pretty straight drop-off into a
non-life.
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In any case, if we plan to stay longer
and feel comfortable driving around mountains, narrow roads,
on the left and taking it into account some local tips,
I think it's completely fine.
There shouldn't be any issues really.
Perhaps a funny anecdote is that on the way back
from Trafalgar Falls, our car broke down,
and probably not in the best area.
- [Local Driver] Yes, yes.
- So we spent some time waiting for the recovery service
to come over.
They never came on time,
so the local driver called a friend to pick us up.
(local driving talking into phone)
We needed to catch a boat,
and to be honest, this is funny now,
but I think we were a bit stressed because we
had very little time to go back and catch the boat.
(upbeat guitar music continues)
At the end, the local driver abandoned everything
and came with us even though he didn't have to.
So it was a mystery how that story ended.
All right, guys, thank you very much for watching,
and if you enjoyed this video, I have a lot of more videos
about the Caribbean islands.
And hey, if you enjoy my content, my vibe and what you see,
please feel free, by all means, to subscribe below
so I can keep making these videos every week.
Thanks for watching and see you next time.
Probably I should start changing this;
thanks for watching and see you next week
or see you next time.
I should start thinking of saying something more fun.
Hmm.