We left you hanging in Roseau, Dominica, after a harrowing night of thief chasing. On the day of our tour with Sea Cat, we bumped into three french cruisers coming into the dock. They, too, had been boarded in the night, but noticed the man before he had a chance to come below. After shrieks from the two women, the t'ief fled. It turns out they were looking to do a tour to the Carib Territory and the Emerald Pool, and had not yet set it up, so we all trouped up to Sea Cat's and shared the tour. GG (Gerald), his wife Coco and Clotilde, from La Rochelle in a 37' nondescript monohull. Gerald is 66. Clotilde is visting for a few weeks. GG and Coco had a larger boat before, 39', which they sailed from France out through Panama, across the Pacific, and sold eventually in New Caledonia. They had nothing but good things to say about their voyage through the South Sea islands and the people they met on boats and ashore. It all sounds like too much fun.
Sea Cat did his best to show us a good time, but he can't climb the trees to pick the oranges and grapefruits along the way. I filled in where I could and managed to shake loose a nice bag of lovely pink grapefruits. We visited some of his friends along the way, and sat with an old Carib indian and his wife while he slowly shelled roasted cacao nuts, one at a time, in preparation for making chocolate sticks. He also had coffee roasting over his wood fire, enough for perhaps a can of ground coffee.
The Caribs of Dominica are the last survivors of the group which dominated the Caribbean at the time the Europeans arrived at the end of the 15th cetury. They seem to have a thriving territory, including several small villages on the East coast near Castle Bruce. There seems not to be the depression and despair we see in the North amoung aboriginal people. Their basketry is lovely and can be found in many a Caribbean market or nick-nack shop. Every woman does her own baskets, there is no central workshop. In the old days, there was a law banning interracial marriages, but With time, the Caribs have mixed with the black population, especially around the edges of the territory. A recent candidate for chief proposed reinstating the marriage ban, but was not elected.
The emerald pool is beautiful and dark, at the foot of a high thin waterfall in the rain forest. It is a short hike from the car park, where Sea Cat rested his leg. Part of the trail is the remains of an old Carib path, laid with stones, like a tiny highway through the forest.
We had lunch, GG, Coco, Clotilde, K and I, in a creole restaurant set out over a precipitous drop overlooking the sea and a small village in the bay. I had salt fish stew with provisions and beer. GG and Coco continued with tales of the Pacific and the Panama canal. They had not intended to go across, but after helping two boats transit the canal, and waiting in vain for weeks for a weather window to sail North east for Florida, they decided to give it a go themselves.
We arrived back at Django as the sun set, having had a really good tour of another sector of Dominica.
Friday we set off for Portsmouth, and thence set sail for Pointe a Pitre in the nexus between Terre de Haut and Terre de Basse, in Guadeloupe.
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