DOMINICA – Pronounced: dom i neek a

Juxtaposition….

It seemed very odd.  In fact, odd is not a “big” enough word for what I was sensing.  In a, “Which one of these things does not belong with the others?” sort of way, with which we are all so familiar on standardized academic testing, something seemed very odd – out of place.  As children, we are taught in school that man is king.  Man is positioned at the top of the animal / “all living things” pyramid.  We make salad with the plants and we roast the animals.  If it is in our way, we cut it down.  As singer /song writer, Joni Mitchell wrote,  “They paved paradise and put in a parking lot.”  As I think about it now, even the idea of me standing there only added to the oddness.

I was standing at the entrance to the 17,000 acre Morne Trois Pitons National Park, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.  I was about to step into a protected Rainforest located high in the mountains of Dominica.  But before I started my 10 minute trek along a wet and rocky path to see Trafalgar Falls, I turned around and saw the buses.  Tour buses and vans!!  I looked up at the road that brought us to this spot.  I looked up and saw the electric power lines that brought convenience to the building where we would buy our $5 ticket.

And I realized…  All of this was a strange juxtaposition.   In reality, I was never going to get very far from what had been created to enable me to enjoy this lush piece of nature’s WILDerness.  A muddy, rocky path was all that would keep me from falling into this vast tropical world, this Sea of Green, that would swallow me up in a minute if it were not for my ability to outsmart it… if only but for just a very few brief minutes.  

I was not standing there because I was the biggest, or fastest, or strongest.  I was standing there, in this wild and wonderful place, because of my ability for this moment to move my pieces of the game into my current position.  I was there because of my ability to adapt.  In the same way that the Jewel of the Seas kept the vastness of the sea from swallowing me, only a small rocky path, worn down by the footsteps of hundreds of people trying to get a peek behind the curtain… only that path would protect me… would keep the lush vastness of the rainforest from swallowing me whole.

"CYRIQUE" (Guinotia dentata) LAND CRAB FOUND IN THE RAINFOREST

And for one brief moment I realized that I better keep my eyes open because the game is not over.  (Have you seen the movie “Jumanji”?) My large and powerful opponent might very well be prepared to make her next move. 

Dominica is NOT beaches.  It is NOT shopping.  It is nature.  It is a jungle.  Bring hiking shoes.

One additional note concerning Dominica:

Your ship will arrive at the capital city, Roseau.  It will appear cluttered and dingy.  The streets will seem narrow.  It will appear poor.  That is because it is.  The annual per capita income in less than $7,000.   In St. Kitts that number is just under $13,000.  I think it is important that we keep these numbers in mind as we visit the Islands.