Dominica appears to have ever square inch of mountain and hill covered in lush tropical greenery. It looks like something out of a Jurassic Park movie, where a dinosaur could come stomping out of the rainforest at any time. The city of Roseau is obviously poorer than most of the Caribbean islands, but part of that is just that much of the island has been left undisturbed. 
There aren’t the flashy resorts and designer stores that draw big money. Dominica is more of a nature lovers hideaway, a place where you could take a different hike or trail that is basically the same as it would have been two or three hundred years ago. 
We took an excursion with Bumpiing Tours called Roseau Valley Treasures. Our driver’s name was Chris. He was very friendly and could answer the questions people asked of him. Plus he was a pretty good driver, which I would say is hard to do, considering that the roads are very narrow and rough here. I would not advise anyone to attempt driving them on their own. At one point we crossed a section of road that was washed out on the mountain side and cracking away on the cliff side. The van literally was only a few inches narrower than the road, and I actually braced myself thinking we for sure would shortly be tumbling down the hill.
Ti Tou Gorge was our first stop, where part of Pirates of the Caribbean II was filmed. Ti Tou gorge starts with a short cascading waterfall that pours into a rock area. Over time rushing water has carved out several rooms that funnel out into a small pond area before falling into another short waterfall.
There’s a brief hike to the pond, where the guide passes out swim belts, which will help keep you floating in the 10 foot deep water and swift currents. Then you have a choice to make- jump into the pond or walk in. Jumping in doesn’t look to scary at first since it’s not very far, but I did have a moment of hesitation. Mustering up my bravery I pushed off from the rock to hit the chilly water below. For the middle of a rainforest, the water was much colder than I expected however after swimming in it for a short time you got used to the temperature and it became quite soothing.
Swimming into the gorge against the currents took some work, but was rewarding. Roots dangle down from trees above, and plants sprout from the walls wherever sunlight seemed to hit.
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After Titou Gorge, the driver took us to another group of waterfalls called Trafalgar Falls.
At the bottom of Trafalgar Falls there are supposedly little hot springs that you can swim in, but they had a lot of rain recently so we were not able to swim there.
Briefly we visited a sulpher spring, which as you can imagine, had a strong oder, hence the briefness of the visit. Chris would also stop along the way to point out a tree or view that we might find interesting. I was surprised kind of, by the quantity of fruit growing all over the island, some wild, some planted. We saw banana, papaya, pineapple, mango, orange, avocado and many others. I remember thinking that you could live off the land here for quite a while if you had to.
We were shown signs of a hurricane that happened decades ago, and finally we were taken to a look out point called Morne Bruce. From there you could see the cruise ship, and the city, including a recently built Cricket field.
That night was our first formal night. No ball gowns or tuxedos for us, but alot of people really did dress up formally. Tony and I went semi formal. I wore a skirt outfit and he had a sport coat on. Hey it's Carnival. Dressing up is really optional.
After dinner we went to one of the production shows, which was pretty lame to me. Tony didn't think it was that bad, but I thought the costumes were garish, the singing like American Idol people voted out the first week and it was just so loud! I could have skipped the show and been just fine. I think that night we also went and watched some karoke, which was pretty entertaining. All in all, a pretty good day.
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