DAY 21---ROSEAU, DOMINICA

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                                        Sunny with some clouds.  Light wind and 86 degrees.

Background Info:

        Dominica is an island country also in the West Indies also being just 209 miles from our last port of call, Barbados.  The volcanic formed mountains here are covered by rainforests and the world’s second-largest hot spring is here.  The island is known as “The Nature Island of the Caribbean” because of its lush rainforests and varied flora and fauna.  The island’s population is just over 70,000 with about 15,000 of them living in Roseau, its capital and where we are docked today.  The island is especially vulnerable to hurricanes.

       Banana plantations once dominated Dominica’s economy with nearly 1/3 of the labor force worked in agriculture in the early 2000’s.  But Hurricane Dean in 2007 caused significant damage to the agriculture sector.  The government has since diversified the ag sector promoting coffee, aloe vera, cut flowers and fruits production.  Tourism is becoming increasingly important to its economy but since it is mostly volcanic there are few beaches.  As a result, the island had the fewest visitors (only 56,000 in 2008) of 22 Caribbean islands.  Surprisingly, its visitors are about half as many that visited Haiti.  Cruise ship stopovers are on the increase now that a modern dock and waterfront facilities have been constructed.  Dominica’s mountains, rainforests, lakes, hot springs, waterfalls, and diving spots do make it an attractive ecotourism destination.

LAST EVENING

                                         Dinner up in Sette Mari (Italian).  Display of starters.

                                                             Kristen is one of our waiters.

                                                                Ronie also waited on us.

                                                     My veal parmesan was huge again.

                                                                         Comedian

TODAY

                Another one of Diamond perks is the Dallas Morning News printed daily for us.

                  It's Sunday so time for caviar (lots of it).  No champagne for me however.

                                                                    Eggs Benedict

        Docked on another commercial pier today.  Tour buses ready.  There is a shuttle to the downtown area also.  Not sure if stores will be open on Sunday.

         The white in this photo is of hundreds of white bags.  Wish I knew what was in them.

                                                  Not sure what the other cruise ship is.

      Here are some photos of my "trolley" tour this afternoon.  Interesting place but not too photogenic.  Very poor people.

          "Roseau Highlights By Trolley Train" departed at 1:50pm and was hour and half long.

                         Newest looking thing in town was the soccer stadium built in 2005.

                                                                          Old shack 

                                                              The high school

We stopped at the Dominica Botanical Gardens and our guide named all the different plants and trees.

This thorny plant is used to prevent erosion.  Up in the rainforests they get 365 inches of rain every year.

                     At the gardens we were given a "very small" cup of fruit punch or rum punch.  

                                                                           Coconuts

                                                                             Church

          Hurricane Marie in 2017 blew this 300 year old tree over on a bus.  No one was hurt.

        I brought two bottles of my favorite bitters with me on this cruise.  They have one the Stars Lounge for Gerwin, my favorite bartender, to put some in my Markers Mark Manhattans.  Last evening Gerwin said it was about empty so I will take this one with me this evening to the lounge.

        We shall be dining in Compass Rose at 7pm as usual.  We both will be having the miso-glazed salmon entree.

        Tom Franek will be the featured entertainer at 9:30 in the theater.  We have not seen his show before.  He is billed as "an instrumentalist & comedy pianist".  We shall see!

        We will be sailing again at 6:00 for St Maarten.  Another short hop of 185 miles so will be docked at Phillipsburg by 8am.