day six

I forgot! After the beach on day five we visited a tilapia fish farm – snapped some pics for Dad! After such a long day, falling asleep was no trouble. Little did I know that I’d be craving energy in just a few hours…

Waking up later than usual, we had breakfast at 9:30. Kristen and I had decided today we were going to walk to Trafalgar, the twin waterfalls (supposedly) 2 miles down the road. Dan and Drew joined us, and at 11:30 we started off from the hotel. At 2 we finally got there. What we had thought would be a quick half an hour walk turned into a 2.5 hour hike straight uphill – the elevation changed slowly but steadily from sea level to the height of the falls, with some nasty steep roads in between. Thank goodness Dan picked a couple grapefruits off a tree on the way there, not sure I would’ve made it otherwise. Needless to say, we were at the point of exhaustion by the time we bought our park passes, but all that was forgotten when we finally laid our eyes upon the falls. I’ve never seen a waterfall before, and being next to two was absolutely breathtaking (also because I was still panting from the hike). We quickly walked from the viewers’ platform to the falls themselves, where we encountered a never-ending maze of boulders, blocking our way to the waterfalls. After channeling my inner sense of adventure and suppressing my common sense, I crawled, jumped, and slid my way over to the first waterfall. Directly underneath of the waterfall was a pool of water large enough for swimmers, and the four of us wasted no times jumping into the crystal clear water. The water felt chilly at first, but soon we were splashing around, getting as close to the falls as the current would allow, having an absolute blast. We traveled over a few more rocks to the second waterfall, this time staying a few more rocks away from the base of the falls. We found an area where the water ran over like an enormous shower, and soaked in the natural water massage. SO COOL. Down the river a bit was a natural hot spring, courtesy of the volcanoes that form Dominica. Definitely worth the insane hike there! After resting a bit in the orange hot tubs (the sulfur in the water dyed the rocks a vibrant orange), we headed back towards Roseau. We all agreed that another 2.5 hour walk was unbearable, and we found a taxi. Well, we think it was a fake taxi, just a lady who said she’d give us a ride since fewer taxis drove on Sundays. After grabbing snacks at some shack (thank goodness for peanut butter crackers), we pitched $70 EC for the ride back. Ten minutes later, we were at our hotel. Definitely the biggest what the heck moment since being there: a ten minute drive, but a 2.5 hour walk… oh well. Totally got jipped on the cab price, but we didn’t care since we were just so tired. Pizza Hut dinner and Once Upon a Time rounded out the evening – best and most rewarding day here, by far, but most tiring. I can’t wait until we go to the falls again with the whole group, by car! (: