Gotta love the weekend. Especially if you're not a student in Dominica. You above all need to have a keen sense of adventure and be willing to go with the flow. Yesterday, 10 of us set off to go to Wavine Cyrique (hike to a waterfall) and to Scotts Head (snorkelling). We pile (cram is more like it~ 13 people total) into a transport and head south and east through the interior to an area south of Carib Territory. Mind you, it has been raining non-stop all night and thus far this morning. Of course, any trip wouldn't be complete without a flat tire (these locals can change a tire like a race track pit crew. Luckily we only had one flat tire, otherwise we would've been in big trouble!). Moving forward, we arrive at Riviere Cyrique. Two of the people had been here before, so we assumed they knew where we were going. We start walking down the trail and it splits. A normal person would follow the nice steps and landscaped part, but our fearless leaders remembered adamantly that it was really the less landscaped trail that meandered into the woods. So a nice trek through the woods ensues for a good 30 minutes, not knowing where to go, until we are rescued by our driver who shows us where to go (we should've followed the steps apparently). The steps end and we come to ropes and tree roots hanging down essentially a cliff (think rappelling with no harness). Of the 10 of us that have come to this point, only 5 of us continue (of course I continued, who are we kidding here!). I conveniently oriented myself in between the two largest guys (just in case I ran into any trouble in the form of slipping down a cliff). So after about 20 minutes of down-climbing using ropes and tree branches (I did mention before that it's been raining for a while, so the rope is wet and covered in mud, and the dirt is now mud too) we make it to the beach (Atlantic side, so much more rough). We walk down the beach a bit and find Wavine Cyrique (pictured), a beautiful waterfall coming out of the cliff into the ocean. Definitely worth the crazy climb. We hung out of the beach for about an hour, taking pics, playing in the waterfall and ocean (we were covered in mud so we cleaned up a bit~~ though I don't think it did any good bc we obviously had to climb out in the rain and mud). The climb out went much faster, though took a bit more strength (and then walking up steps is much harder than going down). So this hike I'm definitely getting some of my more adventurous friends to do!
The rest of the day went on pretty much without a hitch. Long drive back through the interior and south past Roseau, Roadside bar-b-q chicken (YUMMY), snorkeling at Scotts Head (beautiful fish, 1 eel, and 3 squid!), and a LONG drive home (in the rain). So moral of the story is even though it may be a yucky rainy day, as long as you have a bunch of friends and a sense of adventure, there are endless possibilities!
