georoc01
Contributor
Well, I made it home! Part of the adventure in going to Dominica is getting there, and going home was certainly it as well. Flights going down were on time and picked up most of the rest of the group of 12 in San Juan for the last leg to Dominica. Getting to the island is the first part. Getting to the resort is the next.
I'd heard it was an hour ride, and I was thinking it would be like driving around Cozumel, Bonaire, or Roatan, Islands I know fairly well. Dominica is a bit different. Its 15 miles as the Seagull flies, but in actual miles, its 40. And unlike those islands, its a mountain drive of switchbacks that turn that 40 miles into 60-90 minute drive. Fortunately on the way there we had Clem, who turned it into a tour teaching us about the island, its history and some of the sites along the way. But after 14 hours of travel, its quite the finish.
Castle Comfort Lodge is a gem. The place is intimate in that the rooms, dining, bar and diving are all short distances from each other. The staff was very friendly and met everything I asked for. The place is hillside, as every place in Dominica is, wedged between the road and the water, with two other hotels on each side. Food was excellent, service timely.
Oh yeah, the diving. I did 14 dives over 5 days, taking the first afternoon off for the whale watch. The place was a macro lovers dream with beautiful corals, filled with some of the more unique things you would see from Octopus out during the day to frog fish to bat fish. Did see a ray and some large turtles include one who chose to go nose to nose with me. Dive Dominica has an excellent dive crew and with 12 experienced divers in the group, we were doing 1 hour+ dives every time out.
3 of my dives were shore dives. Unfortunately the resort had taken a hit on Xmas eve that left the area in front of the resort heavily silted. We checked it out and the silt went as deep as we could see at 100 feet.
IN PICTURES: Rain causes havoc on Christmas Eve | Dominica News Online
But even with that, there was still plenty of marine life to see including that elusive batfish. Took a couple of dives, but we found him. The group even did a guided night dive out there where they saw even more. So on the last day, rather than do another shore dive, we did a boat dive in the marine park.
Other activities included the whale watch, where we spent 4 hours searching for whales with no luck. The neighboring resort also had a boat out there searching with no luck either. They did find us one of the largest pods of dolphins (over 40) that anyone of us had ever seen. So the trip wasn't a total loss.
We also went up to Titou Gorge and Trafalger Falls during the off gas day on Friday. It was a heavy rainfall that had driven up the water level by over 2 feet so it was a short visit up and back. The tour also included some really nice hot springs. Definitely worth checking out.
Did eat off resort 3 nights, Fort Young, Westport Tavern, and Old Stone Grill and Bar. Fort Young is an impressive place, a real fort even with a polished brass canyon at the front door. Not many places open on Monday nights, so we ate at the buffet. It was a typical buffet with beef, chicken, pork and fish dishes, salads and desserts. A bit pricey at $87.50 EC. Westport Tavern is a small place on the water about 1/2 way between Castle Comfort and Rousseau. A nice gem that served a great lionfish dinner with drinks for about $20/US. Old Stone was very good and reasonable as well. I had the Jerk Chicken with 2 sides and a drink for $18/US.
The one thing I ran into in the town of Rousseau was active pan handling. On 4 trips into town I was hit up regularly with guys looking for money in order to find me a taxi, find me the supermarket, etc. A shame really in a place where everyone else I met was very good to us.
Another long travel day going home, left the resort on the bus to the airport at 5am and 4 flights later was home in Denver by 12:30am.
Overall it was a very good trip. Not sure I would immediately repeat with all of the other places out there on my bucket list to check out.
I'd heard it was an hour ride, and I was thinking it would be like driving around Cozumel, Bonaire, or Roatan, Islands I know fairly well. Dominica is a bit different. Its 15 miles as the Seagull flies, but in actual miles, its 40. And unlike those islands, its a mountain drive of switchbacks that turn that 40 miles into 60-90 minute drive. Fortunately on the way there we had Clem, who turned it into a tour teaching us about the island, its history and some of the sites along the way. But after 14 hours of travel, its quite the finish.
Castle Comfort Lodge is a gem. The place is intimate in that the rooms, dining, bar and diving are all short distances from each other. The staff was very friendly and met everything I asked for. The place is hillside, as every place in Dominica is, wedged between the road and the water, with two other hotels on each side. Food was excellent, service timely.
Oh yeah, the diving. I did 14 dives over 5 days, taking the first afternoon off for the whale watch. The place was a macro lovers dream with beautiful corals, filled with some of the more unique things you would see from Octopus out during the day to frog fish to bat fish. Did see a ray and some large turtles include one who chose to go nose to nose with me. Dive Dominica has an excellent dive crew and with 12 experienced divers in the group, we were doing 1 hour+ dives every time out.
3 of my dives were shore dives. Unfortunately the resort had taken a hit on Xmas eve that left the area in front of the resort heavily silted. We checked it out and the silt went as deep as we could see at 100 feet.
IN PICTURES: Rain causes havoc on Christmas Eve | Dominica News Online
But even with that, there was still plenty of marine life to see including that elusive batfish. Took a couple of dives, but we found him. The group even did a guided night dive out there where they saw even more. So on the last day, rather than do another shore dive, we did a boat dive in the marine park.
Other activities included the whale watch, where we spent 4 hours searching for whales with no luck. The neighboring resort also had a boat out there searching with no luck either. They did find us one of the largest pods of dolphins (over 40) that anyone of us had ever seen. So the trip wasn't a total loss.
We also went up to Titou Gorge and Trafalger Falls during the off gas day on Friday. It was a heavy rainfall that had driven up the water level by over 2 feet so it was a short visit up and back. The tour also included some really nice hot springs. Definitely worth checking out.
Did eat off resort 3 nights, Fort Young, Westport Tavern, and Old Stone Grill and Bar. Fort Young is an impressive place, a real fort even with a polished brass canyon at the front door. Not many places open on Monday nights, so we ate at the buffet. It was a typical buffet with beef, chicken, pork and fish dishes, salads and desserts. A bit pricey at $87.50 EC. Westport Tavern is a small place on the water about 1/2 way between Castle Comfort and Rousseau. A nice gem that served a great lionfish dinner with drinks for about $20/US. Old Stone was very good and reasonable as well. I had the Jerk Chicken with 2 sides and a drink for $18/US.
The one thing I ran into in the town of Rousseau was active pan handling. On 4 trips into town I was hit up regularly with guys looking for money in order to find me a taxi, find me the supermarket, etc. A shame really in a place where everyone else I met was very good to us.
Another long travel day going home, left the resort on the bus to the airport at 5am and 4 flights later was home in Denver by 12:30am.
Overall it was a very good trip. Not sure I would immediately repeat with all of the other places out there on my bucket list to check out.
