Dominca Day 1:
The first stop of this incredible voyage is behind me, but I will absolutely be going back.  Dominica was beautiful.  I woke up on the ship to a picture perfect view of the city of Roseau.  The city sits with the ocean on one side and continues into the gorgeous rainforest with hills all around.  A group of about 12 of us got off the ship with zero plans.   We found a tour guide/taxi driver to take us around the area for ten dollars! It was funny actually to watch the taxi drivers pretty much bargain for us…. They were fighting to get to be our guides and brought it down to ten all on their own.
The roads in Dominica are skinny and windy to say the least, and everyone drives very fast with no care in the world.  On more than one occasion I swear we came about feet away from being smoked by another vehicle (I may be overexaggerating a little) But a few times we actually had to stop and back up the way we came to let someone else through. 
Our taxi driver’s name was Benge.  He was really nice.  He made numerous stops for us to take pictures and look at the beautiful scenery around us.  It was even hard to take in, it was that amazing!  Our first stop was the Ti Tou Gorge.  A quote from my new friend Dan pretty much explains the day.  At the beginning of the hike he looks at me and says, “I am so happy right now” with the biggest smile on his face. We hiked across a skinny little bridge and swam through the gorge (cave like) to a waterfall within it.  There we got to sit right under the waterfall and jump off another area of it.  After swimming back out we found a different spot for the more adventuresome of us (me of course!) to jump off a 35 foot area. Thrilling to say the least.
Next Benge brought us to Trafalger Falls.  Where we parked was a little market area where some people shopped around for ten minutes.  We all grabbed a local beer and hiked to the bottom of the falls.  Trafalger falls consists of two huge and amazing waterfalls about 300 feet away from each other.  I know I am using the same words over and over again but that’s how great this is!  We hiked by hot springs and huge rocks to get to the bottom of Trafalger.
On the drive to our next attraction we stopped on the side of the road where a local man named Bub had just caught a boa constrictor.  He let us take pictures with it around our shoulder. Don’t worry, he was holding the head of it so it wasn’t going to bite us! Then we stopped at a sulfur pool area just to check it out.  Smells.
Benge brought us to a grocery store to buy some food because nothing is open on Sundays in Dominica.  Jake got ice cream, which melted in about five minutes because he didn’t have a spoon to eat it. We then drove us to a lookout area where we could see the entire city.  It was really beautiful.  Our ship looked very awesome from there.  We hiked down to the bottom of the hill and Benge met us there.  I collected about ten flowers to press, one time even made Benge stop the van because I saw the most amazing one ever!  My journal is going to be quite full.
Our tour ended there and a few of us went to jump off a pier right next to the ship.  I did some flips into the ocean.  We showered and ate dinner on the boat and went out on the town.  A club called Krazy Koconuts opened last night just for Semester at Sea kids and it was a hell of a time.  Day one in Dominica: Success.