Adventures in the Caribbean - Part 2 : Dominica

The second island on our cruise itinerary was Dominica. We docked at the capital, Roseau.

Dominica; officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. 

 
It is 290 square miles and the highest point is Morne Diablotins, (4,747 ft). The Commonwealth of Dominica had a population of 71,293 at the 2011 Census.

Dominica has been nicknamed the "Nature Isle of the Caribbean" - it features lush mountainous rainforests, and is the home of many rare plant, animal, and bird species.

Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday (dominica in Latin), 3 November 1493. In the hundred years after Columbus's landing, Dominica remained isolated, and even more Caribs settled there after being driven from surrounding islands as European powers entered the region. France formally ceded possession of Dominica to Great Britain in 1763. Great Britain then established a small colony on the island in 1805.

The emancipation of African slaves occurred throughout the British Empire in 1834, and, in 1838, Dominica became the first British Caribbean colony to have a legislature controlled by an African majority. In 1896, the United Kingdom reassumed governmental control of Dominica, turning it into a Crown colony. Half a century later, from 1958 to 1962, Dominica became a province of the short-lived West Indies Federation. On 3 November 1978, Dominica became an independent nation.

We went on a tour of the island - David was our tour guide

We visited the Botanical Gardens covering some 40 acres. 

The planning of these Gardens began in 1890 on land where sugar cane was grown. Very soon the gardens, which were divided into an ornamental section and an economic section, became a "must visit" place

 
 This School Bus was a casualty of Hurricane David in 1979 - it had recently arrived from Canada and was destroyed before it came into use

The Trafalgar Falls

Bubbling sulphur springs - the smell of "bad egg" gas (Hydrogen Sulphide to the chemists among you)

Tropical rainforests

Typical Caribbean weather - sun and some short heavy showers - means splendid rainbows

For more photos of our time on Dominica click Dominica

Adventures in the Caribbean - Part 1: Getting there and St Vincent

What better way to end the year - when it was wet and windy in the UK, than to cruise around the Caribbean.

P&O's MS Azura would be our home for two weeks as we toured the Caribbean.

The ship was built by Fincantieri at their shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy. At 115,055 tonnes, MS Azura is the second largest of seven ships currently in service with P&O Cruises. She is also the sister ship of MS Ventura. She officially entered service with the company in April 2010 and was named by Darcey Bussell.

The ship caters for some 3,000 passengers and has over 1,600 staff on board. There were a total of 17 decks on the ship - 5 of which were almost entirely cabins. We had an inside cabin, which was perfectly comfortable and spacious, - but it lacked natural light. For any future cruises we would pay the extra for a cabin with a balcony.

The food on board was excellent. We breakfasted in one of the buffet restaurants. If we were on board at lunch time, we would also have a buffet lunch - there was the option to have a waiter served meal in some of the other restaurants. For evening meal there was a dress code for the night - sometimes "casual"; sometimes "smart casual" (ie men to wear a jacket); and on four occasions "Black tie" - so my Dinner suit had a fairly regular airing.

For our evening meal we were allocated what they called "Freedom dining" - which meant that we could turn up any time between 6pm-9.30pm to eat. The other  "freedom" aspect was that you didn't know who you would be sitting with at the table - we found this great; meeting 4 or 6 new people each night. The other dining areas had two designated sittings and you would sit with the same people each night.

For more photos of life on board click On board Azura

We flew from Manchester to Bridgetown, Barbados where we embarked on our first ever cruise and our first ever visit to the Caribbean.

Our itinerary would take us from Barbados, to St Vincent, Dominica, St Lucia, St Kitts, Antigua, Grand Turk, Tortola, and St Maarten, before returning to Barbados.

After our first night at sea we arrived by sunrise the following morning on St Vincent

St Vincent is a volcanic island 18 miles long and 11 miles wide and is located 100 miles west of Barbados. It is the largest island of the Windward group of islands. It is composed of partially submerged volcanic mountains. Its largest volcano and the country's highest peak, La Soufrière, (4,048 ft) is active; it last erupted in 1979.

 We docked at the capital, Kingstown

In 1763, St. Vincent was ceded to Britain. Restored to French rule in 1779, St. Vincent was regained by the British under the Treaty of Paris (1783). From then until independence, St. Vincent passed through various stages of colonial status under the British. A Crown Colony government installed in 1877, a legislative council created in 1925, and universal adult suffrage granted in 1951.

 It gained independence on October 27, 1979. 

Approximately 100,000 people live on the island. Kingstown (population 25,418) is the chief town. The rest of the population is dispersed along the coastal strip, which includes the other five main towns of Layou, Barrouallie, Chateaubelair, Georgetown, and Calliaqua.

We visited Kingstown's Botanical Gardens

We were told that this was the oldest Botanical Gardens in the Western Hemisphere

The Gardens were established in the 1760's as a commercial cultivation centre for plants collected from all over the world.

Captain Bligh was sailing to these Gardens when the famous mutiny on the Bounty took place in 1787. He eventually completed a second voyage and brought breadfruit and other plants from Tahiti.

 
This is a Candle Tree - so called for obvious reasons!

For some more photos of our time on the island click St Vincent