Volume II : Chapter III
The first time we heard about Dominica we were thinking of an entirely different place. I found it hard to believe that there were countries out there in the world that we hadn't even heard of before. It was pretty embarrassing but in the end for the best, we landed on the tiny island with no expectations. We were with five other creative duos, some photographers, some videographers, all wonderful people.
We were given our dream assignment, do and make whatever the hell you want and enjoy be sure to enjoy ourselves.
The island is small, under 300 square miles with a population hovering around 70,000. It felt more like a community than a country, safe and friendly. We were set loose after a quick briefing, guide books in hand and a driver waiting outside.
For her size Dominica packs a lot in. I thought we would have more than enough time to run down our substantial list of locations and activities but it started to feel like we might miss out on some things. Everywhere we went was more beautiful than the last. Every night when we settled in, we'd compare notes with the, every night our list got longer. I wanted more time, I started to miss the island while I was still there.
We saw so many waterfalls we started rating them out of ten and they all scored 11 or above. We went to where the Caribbean Sea met the Atlantic, where the sand was black and magnetic. We ate fresh fish and jumped off docks fully clothed. We had arm wrestling competitions and drank Kubuli beer with our friends. We laughed until we cried, set lanterns on fire and watched them take off into the night. I lost my iPhone, Jill got stung by a jellyfish. We barely slept, worried we'd miss something in the short window of time we had left. We fell in love with the island and all our new friends.
Not a lot of people know about Dominica still, and maybe that's a good thing, to keep her a secret. I'd hate to see the Island get overrun. It's not a tourist trap, it takes some work to get there and find all these places but it's worth it. You'll understand if you go, you get these places to yourself (not a selfie stick or tour bus in sight). At the risk of sounding cheesy or cliche, the island kept a small part of our hearts and we will champion it forever. She's the scrappy underdog, placed next to more popular islands like St Maarten, with its white sand and all inclusive resorts. She probably wouldn't get picked first unless you knew better; that's why we're telling you now.
Words by: Kyla Trethewey
Start reading from our first day on the road or see all of our travel posts.