Welcome to Waitukubuli! (Know to us as Dominica)
Today was our first day at shore! We started off our day with breakfast, Colours, and chores, like everyday. From there we went on an adventure, starting with: Watch Olympics! While waiting for everyone to get a Zodiacs to shore floaties swam, threw American footballs and went crab hunting. When we were all together and set up, Raf animated a wonderful morning of Tug-of-war, a relay race and a Baywatch-run competition for the Watch Olympics. (Congrats to Watch 1 for a dirty dancing jump into Raf’s heart for first place! That’s my Watch!!)
After a Wonderful morning in the sun, we broke off into our shore-leave groups and found our own adventures on the island. My group spilled into two taxis and we were on our way. Our taxis drivers turned out to be more than just a friendly ride. Bongo, our driver, brought us to a local shawarma place for lunch where we got delicious chicken, beef, and veggie wraps. Fed and watered on a Bongo favorite, he took us up one of the mountains to the Syndicate falls while we listening to Bob Marley and dancing to the beat in the back seats. He pointed out sorrel, passion fruit, guava, cinnamon, coffee, citrus, chocolate, and many more plants and edibles on the way up to the waterfall. He also talked to us about the Kalinago people that live on the island and the name of the country before “Dominica”: Waitukubuli.
Then Bongo drove us up to the path for the falls and we did the 15-minute walk through rainforest and over streams bringing us to the majestic waterfall. The water hit the pool at the bottom with such force it was making its own wind. We could swim under the falls and hide from the shower behind the curtain of water. Here we mashed hibiscus leaf to make shampoo that a good number of us tried (Yes, it worked!) and swam in the freshwater haven. When we had our fill, we headed back down to the city with Bongo showing us some of his own music! He dropped us off downtown near the festivities for Carnival. Yes, Carnival in Dominica started at 2 pm today. We saw the carnival parade and danced to the music from the floats. We ate the street food and sat to watch the sunset with the music in the background.
After a day of sport, adventure, and party, (I don’t thing Lauren ever stopped dancing all day!) six of us went on the hunt for food before walking back to the ship. Happy on a full day of adventure, we made it back home to chat about our days in the mess. We also took the time to write down our experiences so that we can remember and tell these stories in full colour when we come home to all of you reading this. We appreciate your support. I could probably talk for hours and write forever about just today, so I hope everyone back home knows that their floaty is
also making memories and that this is possible, in no small part, because of you. Thank you!
Your daily update was written by Drew
Time: 8:00:00
Date: 23/01/2023
Latitude : 15 ̊ 34 min N
Longitude : 61 ̊ 28 min W
Distance to Next destination : 0nm Sea state : 1
Wind State : F2
Temperature : 26 ̊C
Sailing Status: in harbour, no sails Average speed in last 24 hrs: 0 (ish)
Log Keeper: Drew
