The only thing with taking our own snorkeling gear is that we have pack all our snorkeling gear. Fins & masks in containers are bulky. I did a better job fitting everything around the fins yesterday evening compared to when we left Toronto. The suitcases zipped up rather easily :)
We had breakfast, checked out from Jungle Bay and were on the road a little after 9am. The route to the airport took us back through Roseau before cutting northeast to Douglas Charles Airport near Marigot. I had set our destination in Google maps for the Rubis gas station in Marigot so we could fill up the rental before returning it.
First we had to get through Roseau. The AIDAperla was in port with 3286 passengers disembarking for their excursions. It wasn’t too bad though, I think they had just opened the gates (or whatever the cruise ship term is).
Outside Roseau we passed by locals dressed in their Sunday best, heading to mass with their palms (it’s Palm Sunday today). I guess in tropical climates it’s BYO palms :)
The road from Roseau to the airport looks like it was recently rebuilt. It was a full two car-width wide so no worries about passing cars in the other direction on blind corners. It’s a really scenic drive through the mountains, with the occasional rum shack and snackette. We also passed by Spanny Falls, which I had on the itinerary, but we didn’t want to get all sweaty and dirty so just continued on the airport.
The road to the airport passes through Pagua Bay on the east coast. We pulled over for a couple minutes to watch the waves crashing on the shore. I had looked at staying at Pagua Bay House when we were planning the trip. It looked like it would have been a good option, with different scenery than the two spots we stayed at.
The Rubis gas station in Marigot was closed (not sure just for Sunday, or semi-permanently?) There’s not many gas stations in Dominica so we just carried on to the airport. We were supposed to return it with 3/4 tank (presumably having filled up in Roseau) and the needle was just below that so figured on taking our chances.
The Courtesy Car folks were on-site in the car rental office. The guy just did a quick walk around, checked the gas level, said we were close enough, and good to go :) I don't even think he got off his phone the whole time. Very different from the car rental in Yasawa which ended with a 89 point inspection.
Douglas Charles is a small international airport, when we checked in they just took our suitcases right onto the cart that drove onto the tarmac. Our luggage was only checked through to Trinidad, so we'd have access to it while in transit.
Had a small lunch at the airport restaurant (we were still a bit full from breakfast) and then went through security. The departure area was larger than I had thought with two gates, two gift shops and a small coffee shop. They had three departures today! Bought some waters to fill our water bottles and spend our remaining EC.
Our plane arrived (the flight goes from Antigua - Dominica - Trinidad, it’s the same flight we took to get here). All the passengers boarding in Dominica were checked in so we boarded early. I forgot my water bottle at the gate and only realized after we were seated. Luckily one of the ground agents walked on the plane looking for the owner (me). He seemed pretty pleased to have rescued my water bottle :)
We had great views of Martinique, St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines as we flew south. In particular the pilot said it’s unusual to have a cloud-free view of La Soufriere, a volcanic cone at the north end of St Vincent.
It was strange to see Port of Spain as we approached. We hadn’t seen that many houses or such a big flat area in a week :)
We were seated near the front but we exited from the rear of the aircraft so we were last in line for immigration. But it turned out we were two of the maybe five foreigners on the flight so had our own line up anyways. Everyone else just zipped through the nationals line.
The taxi drivers were very helpful and low key sales pitch. One driver suggested we go to the Tourist Info booth and ask them to call our hotel for the courtesy shuttle; another pointed out where we should stand to meet it.
On the way out passed by the local food court that my friend Ram recommended we stop for dinner. (Trinidad is also a common layover when flying from Guyana to Toronto). It was too early though so we just went to our hotel (Holiday Inn Express).
Later we went for dinner at Popeye’s next door. Neither of us had ever eaten at a Popeye’s before. It wasn’t too bad.
On the walk back we saw some birds in the trees on the hotel property (some kind of dove, and a couple Saffron finches). We then had an ice cream and a drink in the hotel lobby. So, birdwatching, a sundowner, it was just like we were on vacation:)
Set our alarms for 4am *gasp* and went bed.
A Travel Blog
by Heather and Eric
Sunday, March 24, 2024
Saturday, March 23, 2024
Cacacrou, Dominica
We wanted to do a trek of some sort on our last day here. We decided to walk from the hotel to the top of Cacacrou and back, a round trip of about two hours.
We left around 8:45am, it was really pleasant out. Plus the walk starts by heading downhill to sea level. We walked through Soufriere and then along the boardwalk around Soufriere Bay to Scotts Head. At the isthmus we paid the marine park fee (5 EC each, about 2 USD). There’s a road all the way up to the cell phone tower, lined with cacti and snake plants. From the tower, it’s about 50m up a dirt path to the top. It was really windy at the top, we stayed away from the edge cause we thought we might get blown over. There’s actually a ridge going up another 10m or so but that seemed dangerous.
I had read that you could easily see where the Atlantic met the Caribbean, but there wasn’t much of a distinction.
We headed back down, I took a bunch of pics of the fishing boats and colourful buildings in Scotts Head. We stopped for a local juice at Chez Wen, and then carried on back to the hotel. It was closer to noon by now and it felt really hot. Our phones said the UV was 12, the highest we’ve seen.
We could see the Enchanted Princess in port down in Roseau, with 3,660 passengers. The large cruise ships do overwhelm the most popular tourist sites, but it was pretty tourist-free around Soufriere Bay.
We spent a few minutes cooling down in our villa. We then drove back down to Chez Wen for lunch. They have a nice set up with their patio in the shade, overlooking the bay. I had the ribs and Heather the coconut shrimp. Both were excellent.
On the way back we stopped off at Weefee’s Bar. Weefee was our snorkeling guide, he also owns a bar on the waterfront, which looks to be his true calling. We had a beverage under the shade of an almond tree, and then got back to the hotel.
The heat from the day wiped us out, and we napped most of the afternoon.
We got a head start on our packing before we went down for dinner. We’re not sure if our luggage will be checked all the way through to Toronto so we planned our carry-on for the layover in Port of Spain.
We weren’t really hungry for dinner after our big lunch. I tried the rabbit provençale, just cause I was impressed that they had that on the menu. Heather had the blackened catch of the day, which here generally is mahi mahi. Both were really good.
And that was it for the official part of the vacation! We have a couple transit days to get home.
We left around 8:45am, it was really pleasant out. Plus the walk starts by heading downhill to sea level. We walked through Soufriere and then along the boardwalk around Soufriere Bay to Scotts Head. At the isthmus we paid the marine park fee (5 EC each, about 2 USD). There’s a road all the way up to the cell phone tower, lined with cacti and snake plants. From the tower, it’s about 50m up a dirt path to the top. It was really windy at the top, we stayed away from the edge cause we thought we might get blown over. There’s actually a ridge going up another 10m or so but that seemed dangerous.
I had read that you could easily see where the Atlantic met the Caribbean, but there wasn’t much of a distinction.
We headed back down, I took a bunch of pics of the fishing boats and colourful buildings in Scotts Head. We stopped for a local juice at Chez Wen, and then carried on back to the hotel. It was closer to noon by now and it felt really hot. Our phones said the UV was 12, the highest we’ve seen.
We could see the Enchanted Princess in port down in Roseau, with 3,660 passengers. The large cruise ships do overwhelm the most popular tourist sites, but it was pretty tourist-free around Soufriere Bay.
We spent a few minutes cooling down in our villa. We then drove back down to Chez Wen for lunch. They have a nice set up with their patio in the shade, overlooking the bay. I had the ribs and Heather the coconut shrimp. Both were excellent.
On the way back we stopped off at Weefee’s Bar. Weefee was our snorkeling guide, he also owns a bar on the waterfront, which looks to be his true calling. We had a beverage under the shade of an almond tree, and then got back to the hotel.
The heat from the day wiped us out, and we napped most of the afternoon.
We got a head start on our packing before we went down for dinner. We’re not sure if our luggage will be checked all the way through to Toronto so we planned our carry-on for the layover in Port of Spain.
We weren’t really hungry for dinner after our big lunch. I tried the rabbit provençale, just cause I was impressed that they had that on the menu. Heather had the blackened catch of the day, which here generally is mahi mahi. Both were really good.
And that was it for the official part of the vacation! We have a couple transit days to get home.
Friday, March 22, 2024
Soufriere, Dominica
Another day of snorkeling! Had a filling breakfast, watching the cloud cover over Scotts Head and Cacacrou, where we were snorkeling this morning. My iPhone forecasted the clouds to clear at 9am just in time for our excursion.
It’s a short 10 minute drive to the isthmus separating Cacacrou from Scotts Head on the mainland. We stored our towels etc on a ledge and then backed into the water.
The cloud cover was starting to break over us, although we could see it pouring rain over the resort.
Almost immediately we saw some baby squid! Another good start to a snorkeling day! We swam out to the drop off and then followed that to the edge of Cacacrou. The lighting was amazing especially in the shallow water near the edge. I thought there might be waves or currents dashing us against the rocks but there was nothing at all. It’s one of the smoothest bodies of water to snorkel in ever.
We came close to the Atlantic side of Cacacrou where the water became choppier, so we turned around.
On the way back we came across dozens of reef squid, about 20cm each in length. They were all in a row, facing the slight current so they could filter for food. It was really cool. We were too busy to watching the squid to notice that our guide was calling us. We finally heard him, and swam over.
Our guide (Weefee) had spotted a reef octopus which had scurried under a rock. He explained that it was just watching us, and after it got comfortable it would swim out.
So we waited about five minutes, treading water, watching the octopus. Finally it came out, moving itself along the bottom sort of half swimming / crawling. This was cool!
We followed it for about 3-4 minutes, before it disappeared under another rock. I got a few pics, although none with all eight arms. It changes colour to blend into the background so the pics aren’t that picturesque - just beige over beige. But still, an octopus!
That ended another successful snorkeling excursion. We were glad we had booked a guide rather than just heading out our own, as we would have missed the squid and octopus.
We stopped in at the same snackette in Soufriere for a chicken roti and then drove back to the hotel.
The rest of the day was similar to yesterday, relaxing, watching the birds etc.
It’s a short 10 minute drive to the isthmus separating Cacacrou from Scotts Head on the mainland. We stored our towels etc on a ledge and then backed into the water.
The cloud cover was starting to break over us, although we could see it pouring rain over the resort.
Almost immediately we saw some baby squid! Another good start to a snorkeling day! We swam out to the drop off and then followed that to the edge of Cacacrou. The lighting was amazing especially in the shallow water near the edge. I thought there might be waves or currents dashing us against the rocks but there was nothing at all. It’s one of the smoothest bodies of water to snorkel in ever.
We came close to the Atlantic side of Cacacrou where the water became choppier, so we turned around.
On the way back we came across dozens of reef squid, about 20cm each in length. They were all in a row, facing the slight current so they could filter for food. It was really cool. We were too busy to watching the squid to notice that our guide was calling us. We finally heard him, and swam over.
Our guide (Weefee) had spotted a reef octopus which had scurried under a rock. He explained that it was just watching us, and after it got comfortable it would swim out.
So we waited about five minutes, treading water, watching the octopus. Finally it came out, moving itself along the bottom sort of half swimming / crawling. This was cool!
We followed it for about 3-4 minutes, before it disappeared under another rock. I got a few pics, although none with all eight arms. It changes colour to blend into the background so the pics aren’t that picturesque - just beige over beige. But still, an octopus!
That ended another successful snorkeling excursion. We were glad we had booked a guide rather than just heading out our own, as we would have missed the squid and octopus.
We stopped in at the same snackette in Soufriere for a chicken roti and then drove back to the hotel.
The rest of the day was similar to yesterday, relaxing, watching the birds etc.
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Soufriere, Dominica
We woke up from the sunrise before our 7am alarm. The hummingbirds were busy flitting about the flowering trees around our front deck. We had a snorkeling excursion this morning though so had no time to birdwatch and instead got cleaned up and headed to the restaurant for breakfast.
The restaurant was pretty empty except for other guests who also had morning excursions. We were seated by the window with a great view of Soufriere Bay where we were snorkeling later this morning. There was a nice breeze coming in from the ocean. (There’s no actual glass window, just wooden louvres).
It’s a buffet breakfast, with mostly local Dominica / Creole options such as saltfish, smoked herring and callaloo, as well as fresh fruit from their gardens: passionfruit, guava, soursop, bananas, pineapple, papaya and custard apple. They also had scrambled eggs for my provincial breakfast tastes :) the coffee was the same local Dominica coffee that we had yesterday afternoon! Although I stuck with my black tea (Liptons).
We got back to our room and got our snorkeling gear together. Luckily we were in one of the closest rooms to the main lodge - otherwise it’s up to a 10 minute walk or a wait for the golf cart shuttle.
We met up with Weefee, our snorkeling guide, right at 9am. We loaded our gear into the hotel van for the short five minute drive into Soufriere.
We were about to gear up when I realized I’d forgotten my camera in the van. So sort of ran back best I could in my dive boots to get it. On my way back I ran into one of the local characters who chatted me up for a few minutes. Heather and Weefee were wondering what was taking me so long, until me and my new friend rounded the corner and Weefee figured it out.
Anyways we entered the water from the shore at Bubble Beach. Soufriere Bay is a submerged volcano from which geothermal activity still bubbles to the top. The bubbles are more prevalent at the nearby Champagne Beach, but so are the cruise ship tourists.
Weefee led us around the bay, generally heading north. Almost immediately we spotted a couple leatherback turtles, and stingray, and some other type of ray. Not a bad start at all!
We turned back towards land and snorkeled alongside a wall where the rocky outcrop drops straight down into the water. Soufrière Bay has the calmest water in which I’ve ever snorkeled - perfect for taking pictures. Unfortunately it was an overcast day so the lighting wasn’t that great.
Towards the end, we saw an octopus! Neither of us had seen an octopus previously. It was really cool.
Just before we got back to shore, we warmed up by snorkeling through the bubbles. Haven’t done that before either :)
We had been out in the water for over 90 minutes and worked up an appetite. Weefee stopped in at a snackette in town for freshly made chicken roti, and then to another place for a local juice.
We drove back to the resort and had a very tasty lunch :)
That was it for our day, the rest of the afternoon we relaxed in our lodge, had a local coffee and ice cream, watched the birds closer to sunset.
For dinner I had the stewed goat and Heather had a plantain lasagna. Both were quite good. We’re preferring the a là carte menus here as opposed to the three-course set menu at Manicou River which was too much food for us. They also have Kubuli on tap (the local beer) so I had a couple :)
The restaurant was pretty empty except for other guests who also had morning excursions. We were seated by the window with a great view of Soufriere Bay where we were snorkeling later this morning. There was a nice breeze coming in from the ocean. (There’s no actual glass window, just wooden louvres).
It’s a buffet breakfast, with mostly local Dominica / Creole options such as saltfish, smoked herring and callaloo, as well as fresh fruit from their gardens: passionfruit, guava, soursop, bananas, pineapple, papaya and custard apple. They also had scrambled eggs for my provincial breakfast tastes :) the coffee was the same local Dominica coffee that we had yesterday afternoon! Although I stuck with my black tea (Liptons).
We got back to our room and got our snorkeling gear together. Luckily we were in one of the closest rooms to the main lodge - otherwise it’s up to a 10 minute walk or a wait for the golf cart shuttle.
We met up with Weefee, our snorkeling guide, right at 9am. We loaded our gear into the hotel van for the short five minute drive into Soufriere.
We were about to gear up when I realized I’d forgotten my camera in the van. So sort of ran back best I could in my dive boots to get it. On my way back I ran into one of the local characters who chatted me up for a few minutes. Heather and Weefee were wondering what was taking me so long, until me and my new friend rounded the corner and Weefee figured it out.
Anyways we entered the water from the shore at Bubble Beach. Soufriere Bay is a submerged volcano from which geothermal activity still bubbles to the top. The bubbles are more prevalent at the nearby Champagne Beach, but so are the cruise ship tourists.
Weefee led us around the bay, generally heading north. Almost immediately we spotted a couple leatherback turtles, and stingray, and some other type of ray. Not a bad start at all!
We turned back towards land and snorkeled alongside a wall where the rocky outcrop drops straight down into the water. Soufrière Bay has the calmest water in which I’ve ever snorkeled - perfect for taking pictures. Unfortunately it was an overcast day so the lighting wasn’t that great.
Towards the end, we saw an octopus! Neither of us had seen an octopus previously. It was really cool.
Just before we got back to shore, we warmed up by snorkeling through the bubbles. Haven’t done that before either :)
We had been out in the water for over 90 minutes and worked up an appetite. Weefee stopped in at a snackette in town for freshly made chicken roti, and then to another place for a local juice.
We drove back to the resort and had a very tasty lunch :)
That was it for our day, the rest of the afternoon we relaxed in our lodge, had a local coffee and ice cream, watched the birds closer to sunset.
For dinner I had the stewed goat and Heather had a plantain lasagna. Both were quite good. We’re preferring the a là carte menus here as opposed to the three-course set menu at Manicou River which was too much food for us. They also have Kubuli on tap (the local beer) so I had a couple :)
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Mero Beach, Dominica
It was warmer this morning at Manicou River cause the winds had died down. We were glad we were moving to a place with a/c for the next few days.
We had breakfast, packed up and drove down the steep driveway one last time.
The road south follows the coast, about 90 minutes from tip to tip. The road was in pretty good condition and well-marked. It gets a bit of traffic, as you might expect between the two largest towns in the country.
We stopped for lunch in Mero Beach, based on a recommendation from Kayola, our host at Manicou River. Mero Beach is a cute little beach community, hidden from the main road. We parked at the first place we saw, Vena’s Snackette. Snackettes are typically take-out places, but Vena’s had a few tables in the shade. Got our food (fried chicken, plantain and a deep fried dough) and asked Vena what she had for drinks. She asked us if we wanted a local juice, sure! She ran over to her home across the street and got us two cherry drinks, made from cherries from the tree in her front yard. Later we figured out ‘local’ means homemade.
Anyways the food and local juice were excellent. Washed our hands using the tap on the street, and paid up. For some reason, Vena gave Heather a free package of cashews :)
Got back on the road continuing south. It got progressively busier as we approached the capital, Roseau. Google maps showed some of our route as red! This is normal in a capital, just a bit of a shock compared to the north.
The stop-and-go traffic in the heart of Roseau allowed me to sightsee from the car. It’s a very lively city, with brightly painted colonial buildings and busy sidewalks.
The road becomes narrower about 10 minutes south of Roseau, no longer a major thoroughfare. We passed through Loubière and Pointe Michel (cute little communities) before cutting inland, winding up and down a rocky outcrop. Finally we reached Jungle Bay! It was about 90 minutes driving time from Portsmouth, just as Google maps had predicted.
We checked in, and sorted out our snorkeling excursions over the next couple days. We had originally tried to book with Nature Island Dive, but they were swamped with divers. It was easier all around for us to just organize with the hotel. So they texted Simon at Nature Island and it was all good.
Our room was available so we got ourselves situated and relaxed for a bit. Caught up on laundry. Manicou River is a truer eco lodge and had a limited water supply based on rainfall, so we held off on doing our laundry there. We could have got laundry service but we’re nervous about our dryfit and merino wool stuff getting shrunk.
We went down to the restaurant in the main building for a coffee around 3pm. They had local Dominica coffee on the menu, from beans in nearby Giraudel. It was slightly muddy and excellent.
There’s lots of birds in the trees outside our front deck. I took a lot of pics. I started tracking our sightings in the Merlin app. We recognized a few based on our birdwatching excursion a couple days ago.
Later we went down for dinner. It was packed in the restaurant, with a lot of groups chit chatting away. Quite a difference from the last place where we were the only guests!
We went to bed early-ish. We heard some wings flapping in the dark and thought maybe a bird had flown in earlier. When it flew around it sounded like a bat. Turned out to be a black witch moth, with a wing span of 7" (!) Set up the mosquito net to keep it away from us.
The a/c was nice :)
We had breakfast, packed up and drove down the steep driveway one last time.
The road south follows the coast, about 90 minutes from tip to tip. The road was in pretty good condition and well-marked. It gets a bit of traffic, as you might expect between the two largest towns in the country.
We stopped for lunch in Mero Beach, based on a recommendation from Kayola, our host at Manicou River. Mero Beach is a cute little beach community, hidden from the main road. We parked at the first place we saw, Vena’s Snackette. Snackettes are typically take-out places, but Vena’s had a few tables in the shade. Got our food (fried chicken, plantain and a deep fried dough) and asked Vena what she had for drinks. She asked us if we wanted a local juice, sure! She ran over to her home across the street and got us two cherry drinks, made from cherries from the tree in her front yard. Later we figured out ‘local’ means homemade.
Anyways the food and local juice were excellent. Washed our hands using the tap on the street, and paid up. For some reason, Vena gave Heather a free package of cashews :)
Got back on the road continuing south. It got progressively busier as we approached the capital, Roseau. Google maps showed some of our route as red! This is normal in a capital, just a bit of a shock compared to the north.
The stop-and-go traffic in the heart of Roseau allowed me to sightsee from the car. It’s a very lively city, with brightly painted colonial buildings and busy sidewalks.
The road becomes narrower about 10 minutes south of Roseau, no longer a major thoroughfare. We passed through Loubière and Pointe Michel (cute little communities) before cutting inland, winding up and down a rocky outcrop. Finally we reached Jungle Bay! It was about 90 minutes driving time from Portsmouth, just as Google maps had predicted.
We checked in, and sorted out our snorkeling excursions over the next couple days. We had originally tried to book with Nature Island Dive, but they were swamped with divers. It was easier all around for us to just organize with the hotel. So they texted Simon at Nature Island and it was all good.
Our room was available so we got ourselves situated and relaxed for a bit. Caught up on laundry. Manicou River is a truer eco lodge and had a limited water supply based on rainfall, so we held off on doing our laundry there. We could have got laundry service but we’re nervous about our dryfit and merino wool stuff getting shrunk.
We went down to the restaurant in the main building for a coffee around 3pm. They had local Dominica coffee on the menu, from beans in nearby Giraudel. It was slightly muddy and excellent.
There’s lots of birds in the trees outside our front deck. I took a lot of pics. I started tracking our sightings in the Merlin app. We recognized a few based on our birdwatching excursion a couple days ago.
Later we went down for dinner. It was packed in the restaurant, with a lot of groups chit chatting away. Quite a difference from the last place where we were the only guests!
We went to bed early-ish. We heard some wings flapping in the dark and thought maybe a bird had flown in earlier. When it flew around it sounded like a bat. Turned out to be a black witch moth, with a wing span of 7" (!) Set up the mosquito net to keep it away from us.
The a/c was nice :)
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Calibishie, Dominica
We finally had a day to sleep in, so of course we were up shortly after sunrise at 6:11. We’re west of Tete Montagne (301m) and Morne Balvine (303m) so the sun doesn’t hit Portsmouth until an hour later, and almost 8am before our hotel was in the sun. It was really pleasant in the shade.
We had a leisurely breakfast, including oatmeal which was really good. We then packed up for our day’s excursion to the north east of Dominica, in and around Calibishie.
The road from Portsmouth to Calibishie cuts through the mountains and is constant blind turns and narrow roads. It’s not for inexperienced drivers, that’s for sure. It does get very scenic once the road gets back to oceanside - driving through Bense and Calibishie is really atmospheric, one of the prettiest drives I’ve done. The buildings are painted a mishmash of bright colours, with hand painted signs for grocery stores and restaurants and the like.
Our first activity for the day was a trek to Chaudiere Pool. Various blogs had described it either as a 15 min walk, or a 45 min trek, depending on how far you drove in. We chose the 45 min trek, parking where the paved road ended. We were glad we did as the dirt road is in terrible shape, I’m not sure our little RAV4 would have made it. Also I could enjoy the view atop the ridge as we walked instead of focusing on the road.
There were a few friendly goats along the way, munching on grass. It took us about 30 minutes to walk to the cutoff to Chaudiere Pool, it’s well marked.
From the cutoff it’s a somewhat steep descent down for about 10 minutes. There was vehicle parked at the bottom, probably a guided tour & local driver. It’s then about a 5 minute walk through the forest over a maintained path to Hampstead River, where the crossing on big rocks is marked with painted arrows.
At first we thought we had to cross the 2nd half of the river as well, but the pool is just 50m further upstream. It’s a nice little destination. Most people have a swim in the pool, but we were just in it for the walk and the view.
It’s not busy at all at Chaudiere Pool. We ran into less than 10 people in total, including a couple with a driver/guide who were the ones with the vehicle we’d seen at the bottom. On our way out we saw a solo traveler who had also driven all the way in.
On the walk out along the ridge, the couple and guide passed by in their vehicle. One the goats had crossed the road with their rope around their neck, blocking the road. Heather had to help herd the goat back across so the vehicle could pass. The goat gave Heather a nice friendly look after.
We made it back to our car, about 1h30 walking in total. We weren’t quite hungry yet so headed for Red Rocks. As you might guess from the name, these are rock formations in varying shades of red, eroded by the ocean and rain. There’s lots of signage but still a bit confusing to get to. It’s a 5 EC (about 2 USD) per person to enter, as the access path cuts through private property.
It’s cool to see, different from the other sights here. The red rocks contrast nicely with the blue ocean. We ran into the same couple & guide from Chaudiere Pool.
We then headed back into Calibishie for lunch. We had planned to eat at Unique Seaview which gets great reviews, but it wasn’t open for lunch :( so we went next door to Coral Reef, which has a restaurant tucked in behind their grocery store. It has great views of the ocean, and is literally right beside Unique View, which makes me wonder about their name.
Anyways it got really busy just after we ordered, including our favourite couple and guide. It’s a common itinerary so it’s not unusual to run into the same people again and again.
Our food came out very quickly, and it was excellent. The restaurant was mostly filled with locals, which was nice. Calibishie is probably the furthest you can get away from the cruise ship port, and so one of the least touristed areas in Dominica.
For dessert we drove back towards Red Rock, to visit Pointe Baptiste Chocolate Factory. The tour itself (20 EC / 10 CAD for a group) was short yet informative, and covered from cocao pods to grinding the nibs to packaging. We got multiple samples cause we were just a group of two; my favourite was the chocolate with lemon grass (it’s commonly seen growing here). We bought a bar for later.
Last on our itinerary for the day was Batibou Beach. They charged 5 USD per person to access it and we just wanted a quick view, so instead called it a day and drove back to Manicou River.
Back at the hotel, we cooled down as best we could without a/c. It was less windy today and felt warmer. The forecast called for low winds the rest of the week so good thing we were moving south to Jungle Bay for the rest of the week.
We had dinner enjoying the view one last time, and then called it a night.
We had a leisurely breakfast, including oatmeal which was really good. We then packed up for our day’s excursion to the north east of Dominica, in and around Calibishie.
The road from Portsmouth to Calibishie cuts through the mountains and is constant blind turns and narrow roads. It’s not for inexperienced drivers, that’s for sure. It does get very scenic once the road gets back to oceanside - driving through Bense and Calibishie is really atmospheric, one of the prettiest drives I’ve done. The buildings are painted a mishmash of bright colours, with hand painted signs for grocery stores and restaurants and the like.
Our first activity for the day was a trek to Chaudiere Pool. Various blogs had described it either as a 15 min walk, or a 45 min trek, depending on how far you drove in. We chose the 45 min trek, parking where the paved road ended. We were glad we did as the dirt road is in terrible shape, I’m not sure our little RAV4 would have made it. Also I could enjoy the view atop the ridge as we walked instead of focusing on the road.
There were a few friendly goats along the way, munching on grass. It took us about 30 minutes to walk to the cutoff to Chaudiere Pool, it’s well marked.
From the cutoff it’s a somewhat steep descent down for about 10 minutes. There was vehicle parked at the bottom, probably a guided tour & local driver. It’s then about a 5 minute walk through the forest over a maintained path to Hampstead River, where the crossing on big rocks is marked with painted arrows.
At first we thought we had to cross the 2nd half of the river as well, but the pool is just 50m further upstream. It’s a nice little destination. Most people have a swim in the pool, but we were just in it for the walk and the view.
It’s not busy at all at Chaudiere Pool. We ran into less than 10 people in total, including a couple with a driver/guide who were the ones with the vehicle we’d seen at the bottom. On our way out we saw a solo traveler who had also driven all the way in.
On the walk out along the ridge, the couple and guide passed by in their vehicle. One the goats had crossed the road with their rope around their neck, blocking the road. Heather had to help herd the goat back across so the vehicle could pass. The goat gave Heather a nice friendly look after.
We made it back to our car, about 1h30 walking in total. We weren’t quite hungry yet so headed for Red Rocks. As you might guess from the name, these are rock formations in varying shades of red, eroded by the ocean and rain. There’s lots of signage but still a bit confusing to get to. It’s a 5 EC (about 2 USD) per person to enter, as the access path cuts through private property.
It’s cool to see, different from the other sights here. The red rocks contrast nicely with the blue ocean. We ran into the same couple & guide from Chaudiere Pool.
We then headed back into Calibishie for lunch. We had planned to eat at Unique Seaview which gets great reviews, but it wasn’t open for lunch :( so we went next door to Coral Reef, which has a restaurant tucked in behind their grocery store. It has great views of the ocean, and is literally right beside Unique View, which makes me wonder about their name.
Anyways it got really busy just after we ordered, including our favourite couple and guide. It’s a common itinerary so it’s not unusual to run into the same people again and again.
Our food came out very quickly, and it was excellent. The restaurant was mostly filled with locals, which was nice. Calibishie is probably the furthest you can get away from the cruise ship port, and so one of the least touristed areas in Dominica.
For dessert we drove back towards Red Rock, to visit Pointe Baptiste Chocolate Factory. The tour itself (20 EC / 10 CAD for a group) was short yet informative, and covered from cocao pods to grinding the nibs to packaging. We got multiple samples cause we were just a group of two; my favourite was the chocolate with lemon grass (it’s commonly seen growing here). We bought a bar for later.
Last on our itinerary for the day was Batibou Beach. They charged 5 USD per person to access it and we just wanted a quick view, so instead called it a day and drove back to Manicou River.
Back at the hotel, we cooled down as best we could without a/c. It was less windy today and felt warmer. The forecast called for low winds the rest of the week so good thing we were moving south to Jungle Bay for the rest of the week.
We had dinner enjoying the view one last time, and then called it a night.
Monday, March 18, 2024
Syndicate Nature Trail, Dominica
The temperature was really pleasant in our cottage from about 4am onwards, after we turned on the fan. It’s an open cottage (there’s no walls on the front half facing the ocean) and it was really windy, so I didn’t think we’d need the fan, but it made a difference.
Unfortunately we had to get up at 7am for our birdwatching trek today. (We’ll finally get to sleep in tomorrow for the first time on this vacation). Breakfast was super quick - we had fresh fruit, yoghurt, scrambled eggs and toast in about 30 minutes. It helped that we were the only guests.
We drove down the steep driveway which didn’t seem as scary today, now that we knew what to expect. We were meeting Dr Birdy at the Rubis gas station near the National Bank, a typical small-town direction. The bank is in the centre of Portsmouth which was lively at 9am. The popular Indian River cruise departs nearby and the parking folks tried to flag us into their parking lot.
Dr Birdy arrived a couple minutes after us. We followed his car to get out of Portsmouth, and then parked and joined him in his vehicle, along with a couple other folks on our excursion. Shane and Nya were from Florida and Shane was a serious birder.
We drove towards Syndicate National Trail. Once we turned off the main north-south road, Dr Birdy lowered the windows so he could hear the bird calls. We stopped a few times along the way to spot an endemic species or two.
Dr Birdy’s real name is Bertrand, and he is the foremost expert on birds in Dominica. He’s like royalty here - other guides would stop their car to get out and say hello to him. He’s super knowledgeable - we were lucky he had availability for the time we were here.
It was cool spotting the hummingbirds and other species. I was able to get some good pics, and then my battery died from all the zooming in. My spare was also dead :( I had charged the spares about a month ago but they tend to lose their charge over time even when not in use. Oh well. I could at least enjoy the birds without trying to take pics too.
We arrived at the trail head for Syndicate where there was a check for our passes (all four of us had a weekly pass). You need a pass to enter some of the National Parks here ($5 per park, or $12 for a weekly pass) but they’re not always sold at the checkpoints. If you know about the passes, it’s easy to buy beforehand (our hotel sold them for example).
Dr Birdy knew all the places to spot the various species. We had seen three of the four hummingbirds found in Dominica, and he knew where to stop to see the blue-headed hummingbird. Right on cue, and exactly where he had pointed his scope, a blue-headed hummingbird appeared. Dr Birdy said it’s its favourite perch after feeding on nectar. Shane was pleased to check that off his list.
We made our way further into the park, and to a viewpoint across a valley. We saw several red-necked amazon parrots fly by. We waited for about hour trying to spot the rarer imperial amazon parrot but to no avail. I think Shane would have waited out the afternoon, as any self-respecting serious birder would. The rest of us were more interested in lunch, and so eventually he gave in. An excuse for another trip he said.
We made our way back out, with both Dr Birdy and Shane on the lookout for a ruddy quail-dove which tend to scurry along the forest ground. Over the course of the morning we spotted 34 species of birds (at least Shane saw that many, our total could be lower).
It was about 2:30pm, and most lunch places recommended by Dr Birdy had closed, except for Infinity Restaurant so that’s where we headed. It appeared closed but the person outside said it was indeed open. So we parked and made our way into the restaurant. It was a nice setting overlooking a river. We both ordered a shrimp dish which came out almost immediately, and both were excellent!
Drove back to our hotel. Yesterday we had figured out how to cool the cottage down - lowering the blinds and opening the door for a cross-breeze. We also had a cool shower. Much better than our arrival yesterday!
Towards sunset we made our way down to the restaurant for a sundowner, followed by too much dinner :)
Unfortunately we had to get up at 7am for our birdwatching trek today. (We’ll finally get to sleep in tomorrow for the first time on this vacation). Breakfast was super quick - we had fresh fruit, yoghurt, scrambled eggs and toast in about 30 minutes. It helped that we were the only guests.
We drove down the steep driveway which didn’t seem as scary today, now that we knew what to expect. We were meeting Dr Birdy at the Rubis gas station near the National Bank, a typical small-town direction. The bank is in the centre of Portsmouth which was lively at 9am. The popular Indian River cruise departs nearby and the parking folks tried to flag us into their parking lot.
Dr Birdy arrived a couple minutes after us. We followed his car to get out of Portsmouth, and then parked and joined him in his vehicle, along with a couple other folks on our excursion. Shane and Nya were from Florida and Shane was a serious birder.
We drove towards Syndicate National Trail. Once we turned off the main north-south road, Dr Birdy lowered the windows so he could hear the bird calls. We stopped a few times along the way to spot an endemic species or two.
Dr Birdy’s real name is Bertrand, and he is the foremost expert on birds in Dominica. He’s like royalty here - other guides would stop their car to get out and say hello to him. He’s super knowledgeable - we were lucky he had availability for the time we were here.
It was cool spotting the hummingbirds and other species. I was able to get some good pics, and then my battery died from all the zooming in. My spare was also dead :( I had charged the spares about a month ago but they tend to lose their charge over time even when not in use. Oh well. I could at least enjoy the birds without trying to take pics too.
We arrived at the trail head for Syndicate where there was a check for our passes (all four of us had a weekly pass). You need a pass to enter some of the National Parks here ($5 per park, or $12 for a weekly pass) but they’re not always sold at the checkpoints. If you know about the passes, it’s easy to buy beforehand (our hotel sold them for example).
Dr Birdy knew all the places to spot the various species. We had seen three of the four hummingbirds found in Dominica, and he knew where to stop to see the blue-headed hummingbird. Right on cue, and exactly where he had pointed his scope, a blue-headed hummingbird appeared. Dr Birdy said it’s its favourite perch after feeding on nectar. Shane was pleased to check that off his list.
We made our way further into the park, and to a viewpoint across a valley. We saw several red-necked amazon parrots fly by. We waited for about hour trying to spot the rarer imperial amazon parrot but to no avail. I think Shane would have waited out the afternoon, as any self-respecting serious birder would. The rest of us were more interested in lunch, and so eventually he gave in. An excuse for another trip he said.
We made our way back out, with both Dr Birdy and Shane on the lookout for a ruddy quail-dove which tend to scurry along the forest ground. Over the course of the morning we spotted 34 species of birds (at least Shane saw that many, our total could be lower).
It was about 2:30pm, and most lunch places recommended by Dr Birdy had closed, except for Infinity Restaurant so that’s where we headed. It appeared closed but the person outside said it was indeed open. So we parked and made our way into the restaurant. It was a nice setting overlooking a river. We both ordered a shrimp dish which came out almost immediately, and both were excellent!
Drove back to our hotel. Yesterday we had figured out how to cool the cottage down - lowering the blinds and opening the door for a cross-breeze. We also had a cool shower. Much better than our arrival yesterday!
Towards sunset we made our way down to the restaurant for a sundowner, followed by too much dinner :)
Sunday, March 17, 2024
Portsmouth, Dominica
Breakfast was pretty slow at our hotel in Antigua, enough so that Heather left to finish packing up while waiting for our food.
There was another guest (Nik) also waiting for a taxi at 10am, turned out he was on our flight to Dominica! We were both surprised as not many people travel there.
Our Caribbean Airlines flight was full, although it continued on to Trinidad where we figure was where most people were headed. (It’s actually the same leg we’ll be taking at the end of our trip).
It was really hot in the plane while we waited to depart. The flight attendant was using the safety instructions as a fan. The flight itself was only 45 minutes, with a great view of Dominica as we approached for landing. It’s completely covered in trees and volcanic peaks, Jurassic-park like.
It’s one of the smallest international airports we’ve flown through, smaller even than Sāo Tomé. (The population of Dominica is only 72,000).
For those trivia buffs out there, Dominica is one of four countries in the world with purple in their flag.
Immigration was straightforward, and then we waited for our luggage. They showed up on the conveyor before the AirTags could register (maybe not enough iOS devices around).
The car rental booths were a couple minute walk down from the airport. Our rental place (Courtesy Cars) was waiting for us. It took a bit longer than I expected cause they had to fill out the paperwork to issue a temporary local drivers license for me.
And so we were off in our Toyota RAV4, an hour drive to our hotel, Manicou River Resort. I had booked a standard but we ended up with an automatic :( and a rather beaten up one at that. At least we won’t have to worry about any minor nicks or bumps!
We had read poor reviews of the road conditions in Dominica. I didn’t find it that bad, about like Troödos Mountains in Cyprus, narrow roads, blind corners and steep drop offs.
We took about an hour to get close to the hotel, just as Google maps predicted. But there was no signage for the cutoff to the private road up the hill. We made a u-turn and on the way back asked someone for directions (across a small bridge and then turn left. Or maybe before the bridge). We took a left after the bridge, and from there I guessed directions based on satellite view in Google maps. The road sometimes disappeared in the tree coverage so guessing was involved.
The road was extremely steep, we couldn’t see the road in front of us at points. It was also single car width, fortunately no cars were going in the other direction as I’m not sure how we would have passed each other.
Finally we saw a sign, Entrance by invitation only, and we knew we were on the right track.
It was a little confusing as we arrived, as one of the hotel folks said to just park in the driveway and then helped us with our luggage. The mystery cleared up when we found out we were the only guests tonight (only three cottages survived the hurricane in 2017) so they were expecting us.
It’s an off the grid eco-lodge, solar powered and the like. (But with wifi in each cottage, lol). It’s built on the side of a 45* hill, with the downslope side of the lodge completely open. It was also facing the sun in the afternoon, and the combo direct sun and reflected sun from the ocean made it very hot. The overall effect was a bit more rustic than we’d prefer. But the view is amazing and it’s one of the top rated hotels on the north side of the island (the lesser touristed half). (Spoiler alert, we figured out how to keep it cooler the next day).
We showered and then headed over for dinner. There was a table of five other guests (just here for dinner) so it made for a livelier restaurant. We had a sundowner, watching the sun set beside Cabrits National Park, with lights from yachts in Prince Rupert Bay dotting the horizon. Very atmospheric.
We were really hungry when dinner was served, as we had missed lunch and didn’t want to mess with the access road again today to get into town for food. It was tasty, grilled chicken and a smorgasbord of other stuff. There were no bugs at all, which was surprising to us and also made it very pleasant out. It was still very hot in the room and it took us a while to fall asleep.
There was another guest (Nik) also waiting for a taxi at 10am, turned out he was on our flight to Dominica! We were both surprised as not many people travel there.
Our Caribbean Airlines flight was full, although it continued on to Trinidad where we figure was where most people were headed. (It’s actually the same leg we’ll be taking at the end of our trip).
It was really hot in the plane while we waited to depart. The flight attendant was using the safety instructions as a fan. The flight itself was only 45 minutes, with a great view of Dominica as we approached for landing. It’s completely covered in trees and volcanic peaks, Jurassic-park like.
It’s one of the smallest international airports we’ve flown through, smaller even than Sāo Tomé. (The population of Dominica is only 72,000).
For those trivia buffs out there, Dominica is one of four countries in the world with purple in their flag.
Immigration was straightforward, and then we waited for our luggage. They showed up on the conveyor before the AirTags could register (maybe not enough iOS devices around).
The car rental booths were a couple minute walk down from the airport. Our rental place (Courtesy Cars) was waiting for us. It took a bit longer than I expected cause they had to fill out the paperwork to issue a temporary local drivers license for me.
And so we were off in our Toyota RAV4, an hour drive to our hotel, Manicou River Resort. I had booked a standard but we ended up with an automatic :( and a rather beaten up one at that. At least we won’t have to worry about any minor nicks or bumps!
We had read poor reviews of the road conditions in Dominica. I didn’t find it that bad, about like Troödos Mountains in Cyprus, narrow roads, blind corners and steep drop offs.
We took about an hour to get close to the hotel, just as Google maps predicted. But there was no signage for the cutoff to the private road up the hill. We made a u-turn and on the way back asked someone for directions (across a small bridge and then turn left. Or maybe before the bridge). We took a left after the bridge, and from there I guessed directions based on satellite view in Google maps. The road sometimes disappeared in the tree coverage so guessing was involved.
The road was extremely steep, we couldn’t see the road in front of us at points. It was also single car width, fortunately no cars were going in the other direction as I’m not sure how we would have passed each other.
Finally we saw a sign, Entrance by invitation only, and we knew we were on the right track.
It was a little confusing as we arrived, as one of the hotel folks said to just park in the driveway and then helped us with our luggage. The mystery cleared up when we found out we were the only guests tonight (only three cottages survived the hurricane in 2017) so they were expecting us.
It’s an off the grid eco-lodge, solar powered and the like. (But with wifi in each cottage, lol). It’s built on the side of a 45* hill, with the downslope side of the lodge completely open. It was also facing the sun in the afternoon, and the combo direct sun and reflected sun from the ocean made it very hot. The overall effect was a bit more rustic than we’d prefer. But the view is amazing and it’s one of the top rated hotels on the north side of the island (the lesser touristed half). (Spoiler alert, we figured out how to keep it cooler the next day).
We showered and then headed over for dinner. There was a table of five other guests (just here for dinner) so it made for a livelier restaurant. We had a sundowner, watching the sun set beside Cabrits National Park, with lights from yachts in Prince Rupert Bay dotting the horizon. Very atmospheric.
We were really hungry when dinner was served, as we had missed lunch and didn’t want to mess with the access road again today to get into town for food. It was tasty, grilled chicken and a smorgasbord of other stuff. There were no bugs at all, which was surprising to us and also made it very pleasant out. It was still very hot in the room and it took us a while to fall asleep.
Saturday, March 16, 2024
St John’s, Antigua
We had a 10am flight to Antigua which seemed like a reasonable hour, except the Caribbean still counts as an international flight :( so we were up at 5ish, took a taxi to Union and then UP Express to Pearson. We find the UP Express more relaxing than a taxi ride straight to the airport.
Air Canada Rouge had pretty decent food on the flight down. They also had free wifi so I checked the location of my AirTags, they showed in the North Atlantic Ocean so all good :)
Customs and immigration in Antigua was more about administration, as long as all the boxes were filled in I’m not sure they cared about content.
We got some cash from a CIBC (!) bank machine in the airport. Both Antigua and Dominica use the East Caribbean Dollar and it’s easier to get cash in the larger Antigua. I think USD and Euros are mostly accepted everywhere we’re going but it doesn’t hurt to have some local currency.
There was a well-organized shared taxi service just outside the airport, $25 USD flat rate for the two of us. I forgot to bring small USD bills so the driver got a larger tip than normal (likely, this is by design).
We booked overnight at the Weatherills hotel, a restored 17th century estate house. It has lots of character, and a windmill that you can climb up.
Checked in, got ourselves situated, and walked around the grounds. We had a drink at the bar in front of the lawn bowling area. There was a nice breeze and it was really relaxing, plus the bartender made a super refreshing non-alcoholic cocktail. There were some cattle grazing in a field in the distance; we couldn’t see that far so had to ask what they were (sheep).
Cleaned up back in the room and then headed down for dinner at 7pm. There was just one other table but we were just early. The hotel restaurant is popular for non-guests and by 8pm it was full. The food was pretty good. Our favourite was the marlin crudo.
We were tired from our early start so were in bed and asleep by 9pm. It didn’t seem like a transit day though.
Air Canada Rouge had pretty decent food on the flight down. They also had free wifi so I checked the location of my AirTags, they showed in the North Atlantic Ocean so all good :)
Customs and immigration in Antigua was more about administration, as long as all the boxes were filled in I’m not sure they cared about content.
We got some cash from a CIBC (!) bank machine in the airport. Both Antigua and Dominica use the East Caribbean Dollar and it’s easier to get cash in the larger Antigua. I think USD and Euros are mostly accepted everywhere we’re going but it doesn’t hurt to have some local currency.
There was a well-organized shared taxi service just outside the airport, $25 USD flat rate for the two of us. I forgot to bring small USD bills so the driver got a larger tip than normal (likely, this is by design).
We booked overnight at the Weatherills hotel, a restored 17th century estate house. It has lots of character, and a windmill that you can climb up.
Checked in, got ourselves situated, and walked around the grounds. We had a drink at the bar in front of the lawn bowling area. There was a nice breeze and it was really relaxing, plus the bartender made a super refreshing non-alcoholic cocktail. There were some cattle grazing in a field in the distance; we couldn’t see that far so had to ask what they were (sheep).
Cleaned up back in the room and then headed down for dinner at 7pm. There was just one other table but we were just early. The hotel restaurant is popular for non-guests and by 8pm it was full. The food was pretty good. Our favourite was the marlin crudo.
We were tired from our early start so were in bed and asleep by 9pm. It didn’t seem like a transit day though.
Friday, March 15, 2024
Toronto, Canada
And we're back on the road! this time just for a week in Dominica. The trip came together rather quickly compared to most of our other trips -- we first discussed the trip back in January after returning from Seoul.
I'm not really sure how we picked Dominica. It's more known for its waterfalls and trekking and snorkeling, and less so its beaches. It's part of the Lesser Antilles (that doesn't mean anything to me, my geographical knowledge of the Caribbean is poor). The airport is small so you need to fly in from other nearby islands, and so it's fairly under-touristed -- they only get about 60,000 overnight visitors per year. It is part of the cruise ship circuit so there's lots of day trippers near the port in Roseau, but it's easy enough to get away from that if you're staying overnight. We have a layover in Antigua on the way in, and Trinidad on the way out.
I've always pronounced the country incorrectly, thinking it sounded like the Dominican Republic. It's more of a French pronounciation, similar to Dominique, with an 'a' at the end.
We're renting a car to get around, and of course as with any country where we rent a car, they drive on the left side. We've rented cars in 10 countries over our travels, of which 8 of them were left-hand drive. I was able to book a standard (yay!), so it will be fun to drive around the curves and hills. We had a standard in South Africa and I really enjoyed driving in and around the Drakensberg. The offline Google map for the whole of Dominica takes up 65 MB (by comparison, my default Home offline map of the GTA takes up 128 MB).
Packing for this trip was pretty easy, as we're only dealing with one climate. Mostly it's what we packed to get around Fiji, including all our snorkeling gear. The temperature for the week is highs of 28C and lows of 24C which sounds good to me :)
Hopefully the next time I update we'll be in Antigua!
I'm not really sure how we picked Dominica. It's more known for its waterfalls and trekking and snorkeling, and less so its beaches. It's part of the Lesser Antilles (that doesn't mean anything to me, my geographical knowledge of the Caribbean is poor). The airport is small so you need to fly in from other nearby islands, and so it's fairly under-touristed -- they only get about 60,000 overnight visitors per year. It is part of the cruise ship circuit so there's lots of day trippers near the port in Roseau, but it's easy enough to get away from that if you're staying overnight. We have a layover in Antigua on the way in, and Trinidad on the way out.
I've always pronounced the country incorrectly, thinking it sounded like the Dominican Republic. It's more of a French pronounciation, similar to Dominique, with an 'a' at the end.
We're renting a car to get around, and of course as with any country where we rent a car, they drive on the left side. We've rented cars in 10 countries over our travels, of which 8 of them were left-hand drive. I was able to book a standard (yay!), so it will be fun to drive around the curves and hills. We had a standard in South Africa and I really enjoyed driving in and around the Drakensberg. The offline Google map for the whole of Dominica takes up 65 MB (by comparison, my default Home offline map of the GTA takes up 128 MB).
Packing for this trip was pretty easy, as we're only dealing with one climate. Mostly it's what we packed to get around Fiji, including all our snorkeling gear. The temperature for the week is highs of 28C and lows of 24C which sounds good to me :)
Hopefully the next time I update we'll be in Antigua!
Saturday, January 13, 2024
Toronto, Canada
We're back home, mostly recovered from the jetlag. It was a nice little trip over the holidays.
This trip was about the food almost as much as the sites! So I have two lists of highlights. First, our favourite eats, in order of eating:
* Michellin rated
And our favourite sites, in no particular order:
* UNESCO World Heritage Sites
There were lots more temples and museums and markets that we liked, I've just noted the highlights above. There would likely have been more UNESCO sites on our list but Taiwan isn't recognized by the UN.
Google translate makes it much easier to travel where you don't speak or read the local language. Google Maps and Uber also make it easy to get around. We didn't use any of the Korean we had tried to learn through Duolingo, although we did recognize when someone asked us if we were students when buying a ticket to enter some museum. (Student (학생) is one of the first Korean words taught in Duolingo).
We planned out about the right amount of time in each place we stayed. There's much more to see in Seoul but it was more of an extended transit stop on this trip; when we have a trip focusing on Korea we'll get to see more of Seoul. We also just changed trains in Taichung (Taiwan) — it looked like a cool place to visit, and not on the tourist map even though it's the 2nd largest city in Taiwan. The eastern mountainous side of Taiwan also looked cool. It takes a bit of time and effort to travel through there, and generally anything less accessible we find more interesting.
We used masks quite a bit in Taiwan, especially on transportation and in museums. We also used masks whenever traveling through airports. In Seoul and Okinawa, mask usage wasn't that prevalent. In Taiwan about 75% or more folks wore masks, in particular almost all hotel and restaurant staff. (It was odd to us when we arrived back in Seoul after two weeks in Taiwan and the hotel staff weren't wearing masks!)
The subway system in Taipei was super easy to use, with very frequent subways (I think we waited at most three minutes). We just bought single-trip tokens which was pretty easy, except once in Taipei Main when we couldn't find the MRT ticket machine (in our defence, Taipei Main is a major transportation hub with subway, high-speed rail, regular rail, and an airport LRT). The train system in Taiwan was also very easy to use and very punctual. We didn't take the subway in Seoul because the tourist attractions are compact enough to walk. People were very orderly everywhere on this trip, making getting on/off the subway really efficient.
Apple Pay worked most places, except a few in spots in Seoul, where we just used a regular credit card. It was cash-only in the markets.
All the places we visited were really safe, probably the safest places we've visited. Hopefully we didn't develop any bad travel safety habits for our future trips :)
Overall it was a very relaxing and enjoyable trip!
This trip was about the food almost as much as the sites! So I have two lists of highlights. First, our favourite eats, in order of eating:
- Ramen at Oreno Ramen in Seoul *
- Ise-ebi lobster lunch combo at Payao Fish Market in Okinawa
- Steamed buns on Dihua Street in Taipei
- Pineapple buns in Tonghua St Night Market in Taipei
- Bào bīng (shaved ice cream and fruit) in Tainan
- Dumplings at Hang Zhou Xiao Long Bao in Taipei
- Xiao long bao at Din Tai Fung in Taipei *
- Beef noodles at Tien Hsia San Chueh in Taipei *
- Twisted doughnuts in Gwangjang Market in Seoul
* Michellin rated
And our favourite sites, in no particular order:
- Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul (#84 on my Top 100)
- Castles in Okinawa *
- Tsuboya Pottery District in Naha
- National Palace Museum in Taipei
- Dalongdong Bao’an Temple in Taipei
- Taipei Confucius Temple in Taipei
- Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei (#83 on my Top 100)
- Mazu Temple in Lukang (#78 on my Top 100)
- Lukang old town at night
- Sanfong Temple at night in Kaohshiung
- Grand Matsu Temple in Tainan
- Tiantan Tian Gong Temple in Tainan
- Anping old town outside Tainan
- Gwangjang Market in Seoul
- Ikseondong hanok village in Seoul
- Tuned mass damper inside Taipei 101 in Taipei
- Changdeokgung Palace in Seoul *
* UNESCO World Heritage Sites
There were lots more temples and museums and markets that we liked, I've just noted the highlights above. There would likely have been more UNESCO sites on our list but Taiwan isn't recognized by the UN.
Google translate makes it much easier to travel where you don't speak or read the local language. Google Maps and Uber also make it easy to get around. We didn't use any of the Korean we had tried to learn through Duolingo, although we did recognize when someone asked us if we were students when buying a ticket to enter some museum. (Student (학생) is one of the first Korean words taught in Duolingo).
We planned out about the right amount of time in each place we stayed. There's much more to see in Seoul but it was more of an extended transit stop on this trip; when we have a trip focusing on Korea we'll get to see more of Seoul. We also just changed trains in Taichung (Taiwan) — it looked like a cool place to visit, and not on the tourist map even though it's the 2nd largest city in Taiwan. The eastern mountainous side of Taiwan also looked cool. It takes a bit of time and effort to travel through there, and generally anything less accessible we find more interesting.
We used masks quite a bit in Taiwan, especially on transportation and in museums. We also used masks whenever traveling through airports. In Seoul and Okinawa, mask usage wasn't that prevalent. In Taiwan about 75% or more folks wore masks, in particular almost all hotel and restaurant staff. (It was odd to us when we arrived back in Seoul after two weeks in Taiwan and the hotel staff weren't wearing masks!)
The subway system in Taipei was super easy to use, with very frequent subways (I think we waited at most three minutes). We just bought single-trip tokens which was pretty easy, except once in Taipei Main when we couldn't find the MRT ticket machine (in our defence, Taipei Main is a major transportation hub with subway, high-speed rail, regular rail, and an airport LRT). The train system in Taiwan was also very easy to use and very punctual. We didn't take the subway in Seoul because the tourist attractions are compact enough to walk. People were very orderly everywhere on this trip, making getting on/off the subway really efficient.
Apple Pay worked most places, except a few in spots in Seoul, where we just used a regular credit card. It was cash-only in the markets.
All the places we visited were really safe, probably the safest places we've visited. Hopefully we didn't develop any bad travel safety habits for our future trips :)
Overall it was a very relaxing and enjoyable trip!
Saturday, January 06, 2024
Seoul, South Korea
On recent trips we've used guidebooks to varying degrees, mostly to map out highlights of cities. They're still useful for navigating larger historical sites such as the Karnak Temple complex in Egypt. Heather also likes them for the historical context they provide. We're not really partial to a particular brand; it's more likely to be the most recently published one.
On this trip we had the Lonely Planet for Seoul and Taiwan, and an independent guidebook for Okinawa. We didn't use much of the Okinawa book (it covers the entire Ryukyu Island chain, of which we visited just the southern half of Okinawa Honto).
It took me most of the trip to figure out how to use the LP for Seoul. It's set up by neighbourhood, so you need to know what highlights you want to see (from other sources), and then use the LP to see what else is around the highlights. But you can't use the LP to figure out highlights (which is how I would have typically used it in the past).
Anyways for today (our last day touristing on this trip) we wanted to see the Seoul Museum of Art and Namdaemun Market. We planned out a nice little walking tour, including some places mentioned in the LP. They're not on 'top things to see' lists but were pretty cool.
First up was City Hall, just down the street from our hotel (we could see it from our room). It has a huge green wall, seven stories high, that was the largest in the world when it first opened in 2012. There's also an artwork that goes from floor to ceiling. It was interesting enough to see.
Across the street from City Hall is Deoksugung Palace. We lucked out that we reached there just after 11am and got to see the changing of the guard. They have a photo op with the guards before the change, then they clear everyone out and go through their ceremony. The sun was out and in the right direction for pics so took a bunch.
Deoksugung was included our combo ticket. We ended up visiting all the sites on the combo ticket except for two. Entry fees are pretty low (about $2 / site) so it was more about the convenience of not having to line up to buy tickets everywhere.
Deoksugung itself contains a handful of palaces and the National Museum of Art. The museum is separate admission (only $1 or something) so we bought our tickets and entered. The current exhibit, spread across the six rooms in the museum, was a retrospective on Chang Ucchin, one of Korea's pioneering modern artists. It was cool to see, and not that busy.
We were at our museum capacity for the day, so skipped out on the Seoul Museum of Art, which was next on our list. Instead, walked towards Namdaemun Market, and the start of Seoullo 7017. Along the way we passed by Sungnyemun, one of the Eight Gates of Seoul. We crossed the street to get better pics of the gate, and as I was taking my pics, Heather motioned for me to watch out for some people trying to walk by. Turns out we had stumbled into another ceremonial changing of the guard, and the 'people walking by' were actually the guards marching towards the gate! So took some more pics.
A couple hundred metres down the street was an access point to Seoullo 7017. It's a former highway overpass that was converted to a pedestrian walkway with plants and seating areas, sort of like the High Line in NYC. It's probably more interesting in the summer; when we visited it just contained large plant pots with burlap protecting the plants over winter.
Walked back along the path to Namdaemun market. They had a very helpful info booth in the middle. They gave us a map of the market and circled the alleys with food. There were a number of stalls selling hotteok, a very popular street food in the winter. It's a thick pancake with a sweet filling, served rolled up in a paper cup. We found a stall with a line-up and waited for our turn. The lady behind us was pleased that we wanted to try one each of the flavours (sweet potato and honey & seeds). They were excellent!
Next we searched out the restaurant alley and picked a busy one for lunch. The food was okay, although we were still a bit full from the hotteok. After we walked through a bit more of the market. It's more of a wholesaler market, with mostly clothing and bedding, and not as photogenic as some of the other food-based ones. Very atmospheric though!
We were getting tired so headed back to the hotel to pack up. On the way back, stopped by Koffee Sniffer which was an excellent little hipster coffee place.
Later in the evening I got an PSA alert in Korean on my iPhone. After translating in Google, it turned out the alert was just about the forecast for snow and a reminder to shovel your sidewalk. Not sure I'd rate that as important enough to push out across the entire mobile network :) Anyways we finished packing, the end of our little trip!
On this trip we had the Lonely Planet for Seoul and Taiwan, and an independent guidebook for Okinawa. We didn't use much of the Okinawa book (it covers the entire Ryukyu Island chain, of which we visited just the southern half of Okinawa Honto).
It took me most of the trip to figure out how to use the LP for Seoul. It's set up by neighbourhood, so you need to know what highlights you want to see (from other sources), and then use the LP to see what else is around the highlights. But you can't use the LP to figure out highlights (which is how I would have typically used it in the past).
Anyways for today (our last day touristing on this trip) we wanted to see the Seoul Museum of Art and Namdaemun Market. We planned out a nice little walking tour, including some places mentioned in the LP. They're not on 'top things to see' lists but were pretty cool.
First up was City Hall, just down the street from our hotel (we could see it from our room). It has a huge green wall, seven stories high, that was the largest in the world when it first opened in 2012. There's also an artwork that goes from floor to ceiling. It was interesting enough to see.
Across the street from City Hall is Deoksugung Palace. We lucked out that we reached there just after 11am and got to see the changing of the guard. They have a photo op with the guards before the change, then they clear everyone out and go through their ceremony. The sun was out and in the right direction for pics so took a bunch.
Deoksugung was included our combo ticket. We ended up visiting all the sites on the combo ticket except for two. Entry fees are pretty low (about $2 / site) so it was more about the convenience of not having to line up to buy tickets everywhere.
Deoksugung itself contains a handful of palaces and the National Museum of Art. The museum is separate admission (only $1 or something) so we bought our tickets and entered. The current exhibit, spread across the six rooms in the museum, was a retrospective on Chang Ucchin, one of Korea's pioneering modern artists. It was cool to see, and not that busy.
We were at our museum capacity for the day, so skipped out on the Seoul Museum of Art, which was next on our list. Instead, walked towards Namdaemun Market, and the start of Seoullo 7017. Along the way we passed by Sungnyemun, one of the Eight Gates of Seoul. We crossed the street to get better pics of the gate, and as I was taking my pics, Heather motioned for me to watch out for some people trying to walk by. Turns out we had stumbled into another ceremonial changing of the guard, and the 'people walking by' were actually the guards marching towards the gate! So took some more pics.
A couple hundred metres down the street was an access point to Seoullo 7017. It's a former highway overpass that was converted to a pedestrian walkway with plants and seating areas, sort of like the High Line in NYC. It's probably more interesting in the summer; when we visited it just contained large plant pots with burlap protecting the plants over winter.
Walked back along the path to Namdaemun market. They had a very helpful info booth in the middle. They gave us a map of the market and circled the alleys with food. There were a number of stalls selling hotteok, a very popular street food in the winter. It's a thick pancake with a sweet filling, served rolled up in a paper cup. We found a stall with a line-up and waited for our turn. The lady behind us was pleased that we wanted to try one each of the flavours (sweet potato and honey & seeds). They were excellent!
Next we searched out the restaurant alley and picked a busy one for lunch. The food was okay, although we were still a bit full from the hotteok. After we walked through a bit more of the market. It's more of a wholesaler market, with mostly clothing and bedding, and not as photogenic as some of the other food-based ones. Very atmospheric though!
We were getting tired so headed back to the hotel to pack up. On the way back, stopped by Koffee Sniffer which was an excellent little hipster coffee place.
Later in the evening I got an PSA alert in Korean on my iPhone. After translating in Google, it turned out the alert was just about the forecast for snow and a reminder to shovel your sidewalk. Not sure I'd rate that as important enough to push out across the entire mobile network :) Anyways we finished packing, the end of our little trip!
Friday, January 05, 2024
Seoul, South Korea
Seoul has a compact core with most of the tourist highlights within a 20 minute walk of our hotel. It’s also a very walkable city.
We started at a couple of hanok villages - Insadong and Ikseondong. Hanoks are the traditional Korean homes, in these two villages mostly gentrified.
Insadong has lots of boutique stores and art galleries. It’s also where you can get a custom-made dojang stamp. These are the traditional Korean seals used to sign/stamp documents. It takes about 30 minutes for them to create so we placed our order for pickup later in the day.
Across the street is Ikseondong. It’s filled with little restaurants and cafes. We were still full from breakfast so just browsed. The places looked really good though. There’s a couple Michelin rated ones which had long lineups.
Next to Ikseondong is the Jongmyo Shrine. It’s included in the combo ticket we had bought the first time through Seoul when we saw Gyeongbokgung Palace. However during the week you can just visit Jongmyo as part of a one hour tour. We just wanted to cut through on the way to Changyeongung Palace. So walked around Jongmyo Plaza Park.
Changyeongung Palace was okay to see. It leads to Changdeokgung Palace which is amazing, one of the highlights in Seoul. I took a lot of pics. Also included in our combo ticket was the Secret Garden, but it’s probably better visited not in winter.
From there it was a ten minute walk to Gwangjang Market. We worked our way to the food section. This was one of the cooler markets I’ve seen. There were food stalls on both sides and lined up the middle, all filled with people sitting on benches enjoying lunch.
The mantu stalls looked yummy so we grabbed a seat. The stall person motioned for us to squeeze in closer so that there was room for more folks. We tried steamed mantu and mantu in a soup broth. Mantu is similar in flavour to manti, the stuffed dumplings we had in Uzbekistan. I googled and turns out it’s generally the same thing. It was excellent.
After lunch we walked around the market, it’s really photogenic. There was a long line up for a donut stall. It moved really quick though, so we joined the line. About ten minutes later we had a twisted donut each, freshly cooked. It was amazing!!
We walked back to Insadong to pick up our dojangs, and then back towards the hotel. The mall next door had a Kakao Friends store, which was another souvenir I wanted for our key shelf. Kakao Friends are emoticons used in a hugely popular texting app in Korea.
Just around the corner was a seesaw statue that Heather had read about. It was cool.
After dinner we tried to visit Deoksugung (they light it up and supposedly it’s really pretty), but it closes at 9pm so we missed it today.
That wrapped up our day, we saw quite a bit with lots of variety. We also picked up both the souvenirs we wanted for the key shelf, so a very successful day!
We started at a couple of hanok villages - Insadong and Ikseondong. Hanoks are the traditional Korean homes, in these two villages mostly gentrified.
Insadong has lots of boutique stores and art galleries. It’s also where you can get a custom-made dojang stamp. These are the traditional Korean seals used to sign/stamp documents. It takes about 30 minutes for them to create so we placed our order for pickup later in the day.
Across the street is Ikseondong. It’s filled with little restaurants and cafes. We were still full from breakfast so just browsed. The places looked really good though. There’s a couple Michelin rated ones which had long lineups.
Next to Ikseondong is the Jongmyo Shrine. It’s included in the combo ticket we had bought the first time through Seoul when we saw Gyeongbokgung Palace. However during the week you can just visit Jongmyo as part of a one hour tour. We just wanted to cut through on the way to Changyeongung Palace. So walked around Jongmyo Plaza Park.
Changyeongung Palace was okay to see. It leads to Changdeokgung Palace which is amazing, one of the highlights in Seoul. I took a lot of pics. Also included in our combo ticket was the Secret Garden, but it’s probably better visited not in winter.
From there it was a ten minute walk to Gwangjang Market. We worked our way to the food section. This was one of the cooler markets I’ve seen. There were food stalls on both sides and lined up the middle, all filled with people sitting on benches enjoying lunch.
The mantu stalls looked yummy so we grabbed a seat. The stall person motioned for us to squeeze in closer so that there was room for more folks. We tried steamed mantu and mantu in a soup broth. Mantu is similar in flavour to manti, the stuffed dumplings we had in Uzbekistan. I googled and turns out it’s generally the same thing. It was excellent.
After lunch we walked around the market, it’s really photogenic. There was a long line up for a donut stall. It moved really quick though, so we joined the line. About ten minutes later we had a twisted donut each, freshly cooked. It was amazing!!
We walked back to Insadong to pick up our dojangs, and then back towards the hotel. The mall next door had a Kakao Friends store, which was another souvenir I wanted for our key shelf. Kakao Friends are emoticons used in a hugely popular texting app in Korea.
Just around the corner was a seesaw statue that Heather had read about. It was cool.
After dinner we tried to visit Deoksugung (they light it up and supposedly it’s really pretty), but it closes at 9pm so we missed it today.
That wrapped up our day, we saw quite a bit with lots of variety. We also picked up both the souvenirs we wanted for the key shelf, so a very successful day!
Thursday, January 04, 2024
Seoul, South Korea
We had carefully planned out getting to Taoyuan International this morning, right down to having exactly 40 TWD in coins for the MRT and 300 TWD in bills for the express train. I felt like the bad guys in Die Hard 3. I’m sure John McClane would have figured out our destination.
Our flight to Seoul was at 12:20, so it turned into a full transit day :( Oh well, traveling between countries usually takes up the full day.
We flew Korean Air, it was pretty good. Even got a decent hot meal for lunch!
I had booked our flight in Feb so we were the 2nd row in economy, for the luggage space under the seat and front of the line for immigration.
We were through both customs and immigration in no time. We couldn’t track our AirTags in Seoul but couldn’t see our luggage elsewhere in the world so assumed it was here. Sure enough our luggage came out.
We debated taking the subway but Naver was showing it 20 minutes faster driving so just took a taxi. Less than an hour later we were at our hotel.
We just had dinner in the hotel lounge and planned out the next two days. We won’t get to see everything this time but that’s okay; Seoul only became a destination this trip cause of the direct flight from Toronto.
We had to look up thank-you and hello in Korean again. Also said xie xie (thanks in Taiwanese) a few times out of habit :(
Somehow we ended up walking 7.5km today. I guess with transit transfers in Taipei and walking through the airports it adds up.
Our flight to Seoul was at 12:20, so it turned into a full transit day :( Oh well, traveling between countries usually takes up the full day.
We flew Korean Air, it was pretty good. Even got a decent hot meal for lunch!
I had booked our flight in Feb so we were the 2nd row in economy, for the luggage space under the seat and front of the line for immigration.
We were through both customs and immigration in no time. We couldn’t track our AirTags in Seoul but couldn’t see our luggage elsewhere in the world so assumed it was here. Sure enough our luggage came out.
We debated taking the subway but Naver was showing it 20 minutes faster driving so just took a taxi. Less than an hour later we were at our hotel.
We just had dinner in the hotel lounge and planned out the next two days. We won’t get to see everything this time but that’s okay; Seoul only became a destination this trip cause of the direct flight from Toronto.
We had to look up thank-you and hello in Korean again. Also said xie xie (thanks in Taiwanese) a few times out of habit :(
Somehow we ended up walking 7.5km today. I guess with transit transfers in Taipei and walking through the airports it adds up.
Wednesday, January 03, 2024
Taipei, Taiwan
The forecast had called for rain today and it was right :(
We didn’t plan to do much today, partially cause of the rain and also because we had to pack up for our flight to Seoul tomorrow. We had accumulated quite a bit of stuff over the past two weeks (including my shoes!) and it all needed to fit in one suitcase each.
Anyways we started the day at National Taiwan Museum Nanmen Branch. On the way there we walked through 228 Peace Memorial Park. It’s dedicated to the Feb 2, 1947 massacre of thousands participating in the drive for independence. (I knew very little of Taiwan's history until this trip). The park was peaceful in the rain.
The museum was small but excellent. There’s several branches, it’s the Nanmen one that we visited. It’s built in an old camphor factory. The ground floor was about the history of camphor and opium in Taiwan. Camphor is still used today in some products, including Salonpas (pain relief patches) and Tiger Balm. The upstairs was a special exhibition on the history of electricity in Taiwan which I found way more interesting than I would have thought. Both floors were really cool, with good English descriptions.
We had lunch at a sushi place based on Google maps. It was okay. We’ve had such great sushi on this trip that anything less is just meh. We did like their scallops (with lime), squid and yellowtail.
After lunch we took the MRT up to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. This had cool contemporary art and was a nice contrast to the museums we saw in the morning. By 3pm we tapped out, and took the MRT home.
We had reservations for dinner at the hotel restaurant. It’s highly rated and based on their breakfasts we had high hopes. We ordered a la carte - appetizers to share (soft shell crab, grilled cauliflower and a deconstructed pho). All were excellent. We both had pork dishes for our mains which were also excellent. It was a nice end to our Taiwan leg of the trip!
We didn’t plan to do much today, partially cause of the rain and also because we had to pack up for our flight to Seoul tomorrow. We had accumulated quite a bit of stuff over the past two weeks (including my shoes!) and it all needed to fit in one suitcase each.
Anyways we started the day at National Taiwan Museum Nanmen Branch. On the way there we walked through 228 Peace Memorial Park. It’s dedicated to the Feb 2, 1947 massacre of thousands participating in the drive for independence. (I knew very little of Taiwan's history until this trip). The park was peaceful in the rain.
The museum was small but excellent. There’s several branches, it’s the Nanmen one that we visited. It’s built in an old camphor factory. The ground floor was about the history of camphor and opium in Taiwan. Camphor is still used today in some products, including Salonpas (pain relief patches) and Tiger Balm. The upstairs was a special exhibition on the history of electricity in Taiwan which I found way more interesting than I would have thought. Both floors were really cool, with good English descriptions.
We had lunch at a sushi place based on Google maps. It was okay. We’ve had such great sushi on this trip that anything less is just meh. We did like their scallops (with lime), squid and yellowtail.
After lunch we took the MRT up to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. This had cool contemporary art and was a nice contrast to the museums we saw in the morning. By 3pm we tapped out, and took the MRT home.
We had reservations for dinner at the hotel restaurant. It’s highly rated and based on their breakfasts we had high hopes. We ordered a la carte - appetizers to share (soft shell crab, grilled cauliflower and a deconstructed pho). All were excellent. We both had pork dishes for our mains which were also excellent. It was a nice end to our Taiwan leg of the trip!
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