Day 7 (Nov 22nd): Rosseau, Dominica in West Indies Travel Log

This is the 7th day of our cruise, and we have turned back north and west. We decided to skip the bus tour we’d booked in the morning because we are lazy and it also didn’t sound that interesting. We checked out the ship and discovered the walking track on Deck 4 and looked into the lifeboats. After lunch we went out for our only outing of the day, a snorkel at Champaign Reef.

The drive there was exciting. We were in a small van with two other couples, but the driver was speeding through the 15 minute ride on small road near the cliff, so that made for an exiting ride. It was hot; the black sand actually burn our feet so we were relieved to put on our flippers.

There were about 4 (maybe 3?) guides in the water with us, but I had issues with my snorkel (in retrospect, my life vest wasn’t tight enough, I think), and fell behind, so early on the guides had to prod me along and “fix” my gear (they did so by deflating the vest, which helped a bit with balance, but not with keeping my head out of the water when I stop swimming). But after the snorkel issue was fixed, I had no problem catching up. The snorkeling itself is like being in an aquarium; you see the corals, sponges, and fish. Toward the end I even saw a lion fish, which was smaller than I thought, and I realized that if you looked at it from its butt and its fins are spread out, it looks like a flower. Champagne Reef is unique in that there’s a geothermal vent underneath it, so there are places with gas bubbles seeping to the surface, and it was cool (actually, warm) to swim through those. And one can clearly feel the temperature difference as we swim through parts of water that had been heated by the vents. However, because of the issue with the snorkeling gear, I had a hard time diving under. Which is just as well - the guides said that close to the vents, it can get hot enough to boil an egg. It was also crowded - we were in a large group, at least 30 people, so every now and then you bump into them (since you’re mostly looking down, and the waves were, according to the guides, very choppy today).

The excursion was only 2 ½ hours long, with maybe 40-50 minutes in the water, so we got back in time to shower and dinner. We’ll have another lazy day tomorrow, with only a morning excursion planned, so I’m looking forward to it - holiday as relaxation.