2000 Chapbook

Dominica is arguably the best all-around adventure vacation island in the Caribbean, with gorgeous reefs, plenty of tropicals (though few of eating size), lush rain forests, hiking, waterfalls, warm water springs, splendid fruits and vegetables (prepared by great local cooks), modest hotels and it's inexpensive to boot.... On the other hand, go forewarned that there are no beaches, that even seaside hotels are affected by cloud cover, and there's not much happening beyond polite residents leading their lives. The airport doesn't handle large jets, and there's little tourism infrastructure.... Expect daytime temperatures in the 80s and night lows around 68 in winter and 73 in summer, although a few minutes up the mountain and into the cloud forest can change all that dramatically.... July to November is the wet season, but showers may occur anytime. Dominica's at the edge of the hurricane belt.... The thirteen-mile round-trip hike to Boiling Lake is worth getting in condition for. Dive operations usually offer two dives in the morning to allow time to tour in the afternoons....

For full reviews of the following Dominica destinations, see:

Castle Comfort Lodge - Dominica, Undercurrent- February 1999

Petit Coulibri Cottages/Nature Island Dive/Castle Comfort/Dive Dominica, Undercurrent- April 1997

Anchorage, December 1998, Walter Brenner, Wayne, PA. Water: 80 degrees, Vis: 50-80 ft. Dominica is beautiful, clean, friendly people, little tourism, exceptionally good diving. Dive operation was friendly, efficient, and accommodating. Dive sites about 30 minutes ride. Night dives some of the best. Sperm whales in winter. (Ph: 800-223-9815, Fax 011-599-9614131)

Anchorage, March 1999, Jeff & Gerreann Froberg, Bensenville, IL. Water: 78-80 degrees, Vis: 80-100 ft. Great hikes, waterfalls, vistas. Diving very good. Many tropicals, great coral. Sea horses, frog fish, nudibranchs, Spanish dancers. Best divemaster at Anchorage - Cornilious. No big anything except a large stingray on night dive. Food not good, fish OK, meat unfit for consumption. Chicken OK, service poor.

Cabrits Dive Center/Dive Dominica/Zandoli Inn, November 1998, Rivka Arieli. Dove mostly northwest end (20 dives) with Cabrits Dive Center (near Portsmouth). Two days (4 dives) in the south with Dive Dominica were very different. Water 79 to 83, Vis 30 to 80 feet. Facilities at Cabrits shop and on boat were minimal. Cabrits is a friendly and helpful shop. Equipment maintenance and servicing is excellent. Owner is super-careful about compressor maintenance. An engineer, he built a pre-compressor that saves him a fortune in filter changes by removing moisture from the air before compressing it. Rather expensive for the facilities. No cover on the open custom-built aluminum skiff. Not fun in pounding tropical rain and wind I got badly chilled a couple of times. Uneasy boat access in light surf onto sandy/rocky shore with invisible rocks underwater. Hard to keep footing when getting to boat with dry stuff. Access may improve as they shift the mooring north with a new shop. Owner is highly experienced and an excellent diver, but the staff needed to learn more about boat-tending and diving. Unusual dive sites, with hot-water vents and bubbles, hot sand and substrates. Tremendous variety and colors in sponges. Amazing variety of sites and critters, some I've never seen before at certain depths such as sun zoanthids and striped anemone at 125 feet. Huge basket stars, weird shapes of barrel sponges. Corals OK, but a lot of damage from hurricane and anchor drops. Lots of smaller fishes, but not huge schools. Couple of large sting rays, two lesser electric rays, very few big fish inside the fish traps. Sea horses, garden eels (huge fields in several colours). Magnificent volcanic scenery underwater and above. Tropical rainforest, cloud forest, rivers, and streams. Bird, frog, insect, and plant life is superb. Lovely beaches with heavy surf on the Atlantic side. Caribbean side is good swimming, but not near the towns sewage problems. Carib people on the northeast coast, in the "Carib Territory" are friendly, educated, and make lovely basketry and seed jewelry. Dominicans generally helpful, and interested in talking with you. English and Patois are the main languages. French also spoken. Aloe and coconut, unscented soap is excellent, so is the Bay Rum. Small inns all over Dominica exceptionally lovely, friendly, and well-serviced. Stayed at Zandoli Inn near Stowe in southern Dominica and snorkeled below, followed by a plunge pool and lolling around their decks. No ac, but breezy rooms with big fans, and first-class construction, furnishings and decoration. Lovely hosts. My friends tell me the food was good (I keep kosher and brought my own). The restaurant/bar on the beach at Portsmouth is terrific! Drinks were marvelous and my friends raved about the menu. Setting and service couldn't be lovelier. Kubali beer is good. Bad stuff diving: No moorings, only anchor drops so a lot of anchor damage. Portsmouth has problems with crack cocaine and other drugs, crime and poverty. I experienced intimidation with yelling and pounding on the vehicle one evening coming back to the car from a restaurant. Drugs are aggressively available on a street corner two blocks from the Convent/school in Portsmouth. A lot of garbage and general filth with open sewers and ditches in the towns. Outside the towns, relatively clean if poor. Roads narrow and drivers go fast, right-hand drive. . . .Dive Dominica experience couldn't have been finer. At Roseau, southwest end of Island, this is the oldest operation on Dominica, run by Dominicans, and has big, fast, covered boats, with full facilities for UWPs. Head on each boat, and a dunk tank for cameras. Comfortable seating, spacious gear storage and suiting-up facilities on all boats. Boat access from a big pier. Skippers excellent, very diver-aware. Staff super-knowledgeable, superbly trained, friendly and helpful. Sites great. Different from the north end of the island, but just as good. Lot of fish traps, all sites buoyed in contrast to anchor drops at Cabrits. Safe operation limits on bottom time monitored. I requested diving on the Atlantic side, but surf and current were strong, and fellow divers not as experienced as I, so retreated to a protected pinnacle on the Caribbean side. Disappointing, but safe! The Champaign site is delightful, as is Champaign Reef. Curtains of milky bubbles coming out of the bottom are fun to play with, and the hot water vents are amazing. Reef is shallow and lovely, with an amazing variety of small critters, including sea horses, and eels. Small wreck on the top of the reef. One site offered a dozen seahorses in various sizes and colours. Critters everywhere you need your critter id book. (Telephone 767-445-3010; Fax 767-445-3011; e-mail cabritsdive@cwdom.dm)

Castaways, December 1998, Don Acheson, Silver Springs, MD. Water: 75-78 degrees, Vis: 50-80 ft. Two long dives each morning left me loaded with nitrogen and time to relax and read in the afternoon. Few large fish, two adult angels, lots of small morays. Number and variety of sponges and anemones, with crabs and shrimp, made up for it. Food at Castaways was uneven. Good breakfasts and lunches, excellent to deplorable dinners. (Castaways Beach Hotel, P. O. Box 5, Roseau, Dominica, West Indies; Tel: (767) 449-6244; Fax: (767) 449-6246)

Dive Dominica/Evergreen Hotel, September 1999, Chuck Garrett, Warrenton, VA. Water: 80 degrees, Vis: 50-80 ft. Restrictions: If no computer, 20, and 20' less, ridiculous for group escorted dives. Anchorage Divers: would not take me out. I left my name, room number, with them and even checked back 3 times, but they never got back to me though I saw them go out several times when cruise ships came. Dive Dominica the exact opposite! They even took me out solo once! Excellent operation all the way around. Evergreen Hotel was fine as was their restaurant. Dominica would not be very high as a dive destination, but together with the topography it is highly recommended by me. (Ph: 809-448-2188, Fax: 809-448-6088)

Nature Island Dive, February 1999, Eric Coates, Fort Mill, S.C. Water: 76-78 degrees, Vis: 30-60 ft. Superb location to enjoy nature under water and on land. Time to dive in the morning and explore the island in the afternoon. Take the hike to Boiling Lake long and arduous. Take plenty of water and rain gear. Diving couldn't be more pleasant, and Nature Island Dive couldn't have been more accommodating. (Ph: 809-449-8181, Fax: 809-449-8182)