Phene's at Sea 2011

Dominica is beautiful. I was expecting a beachy tourist destination, but what I discovered when I woke up yesterday morning was huge mountains covered in rain forest and shrouded by misty clouds. Think Lost/Jurassic Park style. Turns out all of the mountains are volcanoes, and one of them is active, so there are tons of sulfur springs all over the island and black sand beaches. I have had the most exhausting two days but every second was amazing and I cannot believe this is my life. Yesterday we woke up at 7:00 am to get ready and meet up with some new friends. We were planning on hiking but where we were going was completely up in the air. We ended up with a group of about 20 people, and we found a guide and a bus to take us a little ways up the nearest volcano to a national park where he said he knew of an amazing hike. We got to the park after driving about 20 minutes through the beautiful country. We all piled out of the bus and set off on the trail. At first I was going to keep up with Molly and all the boys but then I realized they were pretty much sprinting up the trail and I did not want to go that fast. The trail was so steep and at places I had to haul myself up with my hands because I couldn’t get my short little legs that high. So I fell back to wait for Abby, who I knew was at the back, but she had stopped to look for something so I ended up sitting in the middle of the rain forest alone for 20 minutes. I was freaked out though, it was really relaxing listening to the birds and the sounds of the forest. Eventually Abby caught up and we made our way to meet up with the rest of the group. When we got to where we were going, everything became worth it. Middleham falls is in the middle of nowhere- pristine untouched rain forest wilderness. We took off our clothes (we had bathing suits on, don’t worry mother) and climbed down a pretty steep rock face and jumped in. The water was so cold it took my breath away but the scenery was unbelievable. We played around in the water for a while and then got out to dry off and start the hike back. About halfway back I had a massive panic attack. My throat was closing and I was hyperventilating and crying, it was so embarrassing. I did some yoga breaths at Molly’s coaching and sat with my head in between my knees for a while before I felt better. One other girl and our guide, Leon, sat with me and then we started up again when I felt better. We made it back to the bus about 20 minutes after everyone else did. We stopped at a sulfur spring on the way back to the boat, which was very smelly, and then got back on board to shower and eat. We made plans with everyone and ended up going to Champagne reef to snorkel that afternoon. When we got there, though, all the equipment had been rented out so we just sat on the rocky beach and swam in the ocean. The water temperature was perfect, it was like bath water. While we were there some locals swam up from their boat and started chatting. One of them, Donny, was getting all the girls interested with his dreads and hot bod and told us to meet up with them that night. At around 5 we headed back to the ship to have dinner and get ready to go out. Since it was Sunday only a few places were open at night, and of course they were packed with SAS kids but all the local guys had come out to flirt with the girls so the bars were stuffed to the brim. As soon as we left the ship, sure enough Donny was waiting there to hang out with us. Kinda creepy but he was fine. We had some local rum and beer, which was good but strong, and danced the night away. Molly and I ended the night with two new friends at a hotel bar then we called it bed time around 2 am. This morning we woke up early and we took a taxi with the same guide as yesterday to a black sand beach about 30 minutes away called Mero. It was a beautiful beach but it was kinda cold and rainy, so we had lunch at a local spot and ended up swimming anyway. We came back around 1:30 to shop around in the town market, go to the grocery store for snacks, and mail some postcards. I decided I’m going to buy a flag in every port and make a blanket out of them when I get home. So I got one! Got back to the ship, laid down, then wanted to upload my pictures….no camera. We looked everywhere in our room, it was nowhere to be found. So we’re rushing off the boat, even though there’s only 45 minutes left until we HAVE to be one it. If we don’t make it to on ship time, we get dock time at the next port, which basically means that for every 10 minutes you’re late you have to wait 3 hours extra to get off at the next port, which would suck. At the bottom of the gangway we ran into some of the girls who we were with earlier and they told us that a SAS guy had found my camera and was bringing it back to the lost and found on the ship. THANK GOD. I had left it at the post office and the guy had looked through the pictures to see who’s it was and brought it back. So I have it back! I am so lucky. The past 2 days have been amazing and challenging and beautiful and exhausting, and this is only the first port. I am so lucky to be here and I cannot believe that this is my life. THANK YOU MOMMY AND DADDY FOR ALLOWING ME TO HAVE THIS EXPERIENCE. Pictures will come as soon as I have a chance.