So far, I have approached each of these looking back trip posts without a plan. Sometimes I can recall exactly what occurred and I start writing straight away. Other times I go through the folders of digital and film photos taken that day and build a story around the images. Before looking at images, I remembered that day 7 (December 13, 2009) was when we left our hotel room in Roseau and headed back up to the little cottage on the hill in Morne Bruce, a suburb of sorts that overlooks the town. There wasn’t much to do that day since the cottage we had booked wasn’t ready for us. I recall that we did not want to go far because we expected to be called upon to move into the cottage at any moment. Well, it must have required deep cleaning because we spent the next 2 nights in the tiny jail-like room below it. In that time we stuck close by, exploring the property, and then venturing out a bit further to the top of the hill where there was an overlook of the city (I sometimes hesitate to write city here because Roseau’s population is only something like 7 thousand); down Jack’s Walk, a forest path that lead into the back portion of the botanical garden, and then back uphill to the cottage.

Mango tree with green mangos.

Reaching back to this day in my memory, I assumed there would only be a few shots to choose from. Turns out there were hundreds! Once again I am overwhelmed with images and have enough to do a month of posts on a single day! For this reason I am going to show only film images taken on this day. The wealth of digital shots have my head spinning!

One of the reasons we chose this little cottage was its proximity to the botanical garden. Looking at maps in the weeks before the trip, I was certain the garden was right across the street. I imagined popping over there after breakfast most mornings to explore a wealth of interesting plants and local fauna. That dream was shattered the evening we arrived in Roseau. When our cab drove past the botanical garden I assumed we’d be at the cottage within seconds. And then we started to climb. Our cab went up and up and around corners and up some more. Davin and I turned to look at one another and laughed, realizing the mistake we had made. When looking at maps, we had not accounted for topography. The cottage wasn’t across the street from the botanical garden — it was way up ABOVE it! The next three weeks would involve many sweaty, treacherous walks downhill and back up again, “going the Dominica way” as a local called out to us one especially hot afternoon. The hill had no sidewalks or side of the road to speak of and we often organized our trips into town with the goal being to get back before dark since there weren’t any street lights either and drivers took those corners without much concern for pedestrians. The few times we did get caught out after dark involved scurrying quickly from one safe spot to the next, hoping that we would not catch our death due to traffic, or whatever creature might be lurking in the dense foliage beside the road for that matter. [In reality, Dominica really doesn’t have any dangerous creatures. The biggest concern was boa constrictors, which is not a worry at all. I did not see one in three week’s time and I REALLY wanted to.]

Elections were on when we arrived. I like this sign that doubles as a scarecrow and a political advertisement.

Looking down on Roseau from the top of Jack’s Walk. Cruise ship tourists are often bussed here for the view. Those bus vans drive like maniacs and I can recall dodging them for my life and shaking my fists in frustration while climbing that hill on foot.

By-the-way, when we finally made it to the botanical garden on day 7, what we discovered was more or less a city park with a big open field for cricket matches, and a few big trees. The trees were pretty cool, but it was not exactly the fantastical tropical oasis I had formed in my mind’s eye. No matter. Turns out the entire island is a garden of Eden — I received an intense floral education every time I stepped outdoors.

Papaya tree

Before reaching the top of the hill we happened upon what would be the first of many snackettes aka snack shacks that we would visit through the course of the trip. Snack shacks are little side of the road eateries and/or bars that primarily operate during the daytime and can be found all over the island. We knew about them before the trip and had a plan to see and photograph as many as possible. This first snack shack at the top of Morne Bruce was run by a woman who was originally from nearby Guadeloupe, along with her husband, whom we did not meet. She didn’t have anything in the way of food that day, but I did notice a series of shelves behind the bar that were full of what looked like herbs steeping in booze. Turns out that is exactly what they were. Bush rum is a fiery beverage of herbs and other interesting ingredients infused in high proof rum. It’s a local specialty that I found to be undrinkable due to the potency of the alcohol and the fact that the herbs became very bitter as they were left to stew indefinitely until there was nothing but fumes in the bottle. However unpalatable, I was very inspired by the idea and spent a year after the trip experimenting with flavours and combinations using herbs grown in my own garden. I even made it a project in my book, Easy Growing: Herbs and Edible Flowers from Small Spaces.

Plants will quickly cover anything that stands still.

Read day 6 here.