Indians and Turtles

I am writing this entry from a rather nice bar called the Purple Turtle. The lighting is low, there are strange purple lights illuminating the drinkers and music is blaring out. No, it’s not the pub / venue frequented by many of our friends in Camden but a beach bar in Portsmouth, Dominica.

The Purple Turtle bar, Dominica

Dominica has been a bit of a tourist stinger for us. All the guides told us we had to go inland to enjoy the country so we did. The tours were painfully pricey, but as we don’t foresee any more land tours in the near future, we gritted our teeth and paid. This morning, when James went to collect a permit to change anchorage, it turned out there was no fee – the chap who was going to charge him for it last Friday was sheepishly making coffee whilst the official uniformed lady calmly told us there was no additional fee. Later, we took a tour up the Indian River  in Portsmouth (which also featured in Pirates of the Caribbean) and were charged twice the amount mentioned in our pilot guide. This has been an expensive three days.

The river tour was very pleasant – our guide rowed us up among the mangroves and swamp bloodwood trees (yes – when cut they do ooze a thick, sticky sap that looks like blood). Matthew took delight in spotting the crayfish and crabs whilst I enjoyed the birdlife. I had been looking forward to a trip to the parrot reserve tomorrow, but the guide wanted over £100 to take me the nine miles inland and back. Ouch!

Great and Snowy Egret, Indian River, Dominica

Adding to the ‘twitcher’ list were were two species of thrashers (scaly-breasted and pearly-eyed), snowy and great egret together, great blue heron, yellow crowned night heron, belted and ringed kingfishers and a random sandpiper (I’ll look it up later!). The children were treated to coconut water, which is not the coconut milk that we buy canned – that comes from squeezing the grated coconut flesh. The water is a natural antiseptic and still used on cuts, grazes and in the eye for conjunctivitis. The ‘milk’ can be left for a few hours until it starts to ferment. The foam is then boiled to produce pure coconut oil which is added to camphor as a “Vicks” cold remedy.

By popular request - photo of the author

Tomorrow we shall cross to our next destination – Les Saintes islands south of Guadaloupe, then it’s Antigua on Friday to meet up with Ariane and John.