Dominica

I had never heard about Dominica before and maybe it's because it's the youngest island in the Lesser Antilles, and in fact it is still being formed by geothermal-volcanic activity, as evidenced by the world's second-largest hot spring, called Boiling Lake. It's 9 km east of the capital Roseau where my friend Christofer and I went by cruise ship. 

The country has the fewest visitors of the Caribbean islands, and that was a great thing since I was fed up with the tourist malls in every harbour of all the other islands. Roseau had an authentic feel to it when walking the streets in this picturesque city. It's poor with a charm instead of ghetto poor. The drainage system in front of the houses with many small bridges built in utterly chaos made it look like a poor man's version of Venice.

I feel sorry for the natives since it's one of the most poor countries in the West Indies with many people being unemployed, but you couldn't tell as a tourist. Everyone was so friendly, no one tried to rip you off and I felt safe even when we walked off the grid.

We entered the capital by walking over a bridge that had no railing, if you would fall, it would be to a certain death. I enjoy that kind of whatever attitude about safety sometimes, because in Sweden it's safety to the teeth. It gets a bit too much at times so it's nice to see a more relaxed vibe, even if I of course understand that safety is a good thing.

With help from the friendly locals we found our way to a street of churches and then up towards the botanical garden. 

People were cutting weed (not the drug) with machetes and I came to think about the story Christofer had told me about two tourists in Trinidad & Tobago that got their throats cut off by machete by robbers. I started to walk faster and we soon found out why Dominica has been nicknamed the "Nature Isle of the Caribbean" when we arrived at the botanical garden.

Its natural environment was amazing and we swung from vines like Tarzan and found a crashed school bus under a tree, a reminder that hurricanes are troubling the island from time to time. 

We climbed a steep mountain on a small path and we could see the lizards running around at the same time as we heard noises from the bushes wherever we walked. I was terrified it would be snakes and I also had a cold from the virus spreading on the cruise ship, so this wasn't my best moment since I got exhausted quickly. But nothing could stop me from getting to the top to see the beautiful view.

After we had reached the highest point we thought we would go another way down and soon we discovered overweight tourists who had climbed the mountain by tourist bus instead, such cheaters! We walked down the road on the other side of the mountain and we met a native who worked with forestry who was on his way home after a day at work. I asked him for directions and he was nice enough to show us the way at the same time as he talked about his life and country. He mentioned the hurricane Maria who hit the island in 2017 which left both the buildings and infrastructure in ruins. Many people became homeless and desperate and now only 2 years later we saw nothing of it.

He said many people are still struggling though. When we parted ways we felt like we should have given him some money as thanks for his kindness, but we also didn't want to come across as people with an attitude that everybody in this country needs a hand out without asking for it. I guess we overthought the situation and when we had walked a bit further down the road I regret I hadn't offered him to have a couple of free beers with us at the bar at the side of the road where we parted. That would have been the perfect middle way to make sure not to offend him at the same time as we would have shown our appreciation. It would be so much fun to hear more of his stories too, since real life stories gives the experience of a country so much more than just the tourist sightseeings.

We walked down the hill and were struck by how beautiful the countryside was.

I understand why much of the Walt Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (the second in the series), was shot on location on Dominica (though in the film it was known as "Pelegosto," a fictional island), along with some shooting for the third film in the series, At World's End. We ended up going by a small graveyard and one of the tombs stole all the attention because it said "R.I.P Horse Man". I know graveyards shouldn't bring a laughter but I couldn't stop myself from imagining how he got that nickname and I thought it was funny that they even wrote it on his tomb.

Another funny story that I have to mention even if it has nothing to do with my trip is that during the 2014 Winter Olympics, a husband and wife team of Gary di Silvestri and Angela Morrone di Silvestri spent 175 000 US Dollars to register as Dominican citizens. They saw an easy way to get on the national team and enter the 15 km men's and 10 km women's cross-country skiing events, respectively. Angela did not start her race, and Gary pulled out several hundred meters into his race. To date, they are Dominica's only Winter Olympic athletes.

We ended the day by sitting down at a bar close to the ship in the harbour drinking the local and tasty beer Kubuli, while listening to reggae with a view of the small beach. To summarize the day I thought we would enter a poor horrible country with nothing to do, instead I was shockingly surprised how beautiful both the country and the people were. I would recommend you to go there, but then again I don't want tourists to spoil it, so stay away from my hidden and authentic gem in the Caribbean!

* Best things about Dominica – the people are so kind and the nature is beautiful, you can tell by the city center that it's a poor country, but it's picturesque and not ghetto

* Most mediocre thing about Dominica – the beaches

* Worst things about Dominica – the poverty for the people living there, I hope they will get a brighter future and that the hurricanes stay away from the island

Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):

1. USA

2. Croatia

3. Montenegro

4. Andorra

5. Cyprus

6. Turkey

7. Greece

8. Italy

9. Spain

10. Monaco

11. Malta

12. Netherlands

13. Iceland

14. Denmark

15. Sweden

16. Lithuania

17. Macedonia

18. Armenia

19. Portugal

20. Dominica

21. Hungary

22. Slovakia

23. Belarus

24. Slovenia

25. Austria

26. Russia

27. Barbados 

28. New Zealand

29. Ireland

30. Germany

31. United Kingdom

32. Belgium

33. Poland

34. Vatican City

35. Estonia

36. Czech Republic

37. Switzerland

38. San Marino

39. Kosovo

40. Romania

41. Finland

42. Latvia

43. Azerbaijan

44. Georgia

45. Antigua & Barbuda

46. Moldova

47. Norway

48. Ukraine

49. France

50. Bulgaria

51. Luxembourg

52. Liechtenstein

53. China

54. Serbia 

55. Bosnia And Herzegovina

56. Albania