A Tale of Two Chemists: Dominica - Geography and Economy

Dominica - Geography and Economy

Saturday 27 - Monday 29 January 2024

It was a really good idea to rent a car. It has allowed us to tour the island and go to places we would not have otherwise visited. Dominica has many steep sided mountains, the highest of which, Morne Diablotin, is 4747 feet high. The terrain is extremely rugged and the roads are “exciting” at times, On two occasions we decided not to proceed further down a road because we weren’t sure that we could get back up. On one set of switch backs I had to do a 3-point-turn to get round the bend! Many of the smaller roads are single track with only sporadic places to pass. Today I ended up backing up a steep hill and off onto a side track to allow a tour bus, with it’s clutch smoking and screaming, to get past.

We have seen several stunningly beautiful waterfalls and revelled in the amazing tropical rainforest. We also now realize that these thrive on numerous downpours every day. One walk that we took was up to Middleham Falls. The National Park ranger at the start of the trail said that it was 45 minutes each way. It took us closer to 2 hours to get to the falls and an hour and half to get back. The route involved a lot of uphill and downhill, with long steps, slippy rocks and a river to cross. This was our toughest hike here, but it was definitely worth it; the views were spectacular and we added the Red Throated Solitaire to our bird list, just one of seven new life birds we have added in the last five days.*

On Sunday we visited Emerald Pool and realized that it was somewhere that we had been to before on our brief visit in 2018. On that occasion we did an island tour with a guide and a minibus full of people. It was excellent, but we weren’t ever sure where we were and now we feel we have a much better sense of the geography. It was also great to see that the vegetation that had been devastated by hurricane Maria has now made a full recovery. Emerald Pool was quite busy because it’s a favorite spot for people from visiting cruise liners to visit. However, in the late afternoon we stopped at Jacko Falls, that was also really beautiful and deserted. We hadn’t planned on swimming, but the pool below the falls was so inviting, and with no one else around, we decided to go skinny dipping. The best way, absolutely marvelous!

The Dominica infrastructure has also been substantially repaired since the devastation of hurricane Maria. However, the country remains quite poor, and progress seems to be mixed. Tourism is clearly an important part of the economy and the country could do more to generate income from their incredible natural habitat, without spoiling it. For example, a weekly pass for the National Parks cost us about $10 US. I think they could charge wealthy visitors a lot more and still have them feel they were getting great value. We were told that over the past several decades the sale of Dominican passports has been a major source of revenue. Some of this is for foreigners wishing to buy land and move to the island. But some of it was to provide an alternative passport, that because of Dominica's former status as a colony, was recognized and accepted in the UK (and consequently Europe). These might have been used to facilitate travel and business. However, in some cases the process was was being exploited in ways that were probably illegal, and the UK government put a stop to the practice, removing a substantial source of income. Up until hurricane Maria in 2017 there was a Canadian American Medical School in Portsmouth. Apparently, this brought in 17% of the countries GDP. Unfortunately, the Dominican government tried to drive too hard a bargain in re-negotiating contracts and the school closed down and re-located to Barbados. The country is building a new “International” airport, that is quite controversial in terms of the perceived cost / benefit. It is being built with Chinese investment and resources. We also saw a new Eco-Lodge below Middleham Falls that was being built by a Chinese civil engineering company, and we drove past the new Chinese Dominican hospital. I'm sure all this investment is not driven by altruism, but part of a larger strategy of global influence. Whilst the USA continues to be embroiled in war, China seems to be taking a different approach.

Anyway, my cell phone roaming session will expire shortly and I need to get this posted.

New life birds: red throated solitaire, red throated parrots, black whiskered vireo, blue headed hummingbird, lesser Antillean flycatcher, lesser Antillean swift and mangrove cuckoo

Mike

Here are some photos from Sat and Sun. I have more from today that I will post later as I don't have time to work them up now

A view of Emerald pool from behind the falls. I have other photos where I worked hard to make sure there were no people in view, but this is a more truthful representation of our experience