Today we went to Roseau, the capital city on the southwest side of the island, to go whale watching. Around Dominica there are sperm whales in the water all year. One particular whale watch company has a 90% success rate in spotting them. So, we decided it was worth the money. We headed to shore in the early morning. The tour wasn’t until 1330, but we had no idea how long it would take to get to Roseau, and we figured we could get some sightseeing in before the whale watch.
We are sad to admit this, but we have been here for 5 days now and have not explored Portsmouth yet. That is so out of character for us. Usually, the first thing we do after pulling into a new port is check out the town. We mentioned that there are three restaurants with dinghy docks. All are on the northern end of town, so when we have gone to shore to eat, we stayed to the north, and it was usually dark, so we didn’t see much.
The beach here is black sand. We walked beyond the beach and out to the road, heading south toward the town center. The road paralleling the shore is probably the main drag. It is lined with buildings, most small bungalows. Some are in good shape, some are dilapidated, and most are weather beaten but habitable. It looks to us like the individual lots tend to have several buildings crammed on them.
It is only a few blocks walk to the heart of town. The ambiance changed palpably. The buildings became more commercial looking, closer together, and better maintained (though most still looked like they could use a coat of paint and a little general work).
The bus stop is just north of Indian River. It was a parking lot with several nice mini-vans just like the one Winston was driving. We walked up and Continue reading