Dominica, Indian River

A little motorboat came out to greet us as we approached the anchorage, the guy at the helm introduced himself as Martin. We dropped anchor in Coconut Bay, Portsmouth. Martin is a local tour guide and offered to take us on a trip up the Indian river. We arranged for him to pick us up at 7am in the morning. We need to be underway again before mid-day so we are on schedule to meet Justin, Ed's friend who's flying into St.Lucia the day after tomorrow.
Sunday 15th June
Martin arrived promptly at 7am and transported us to shore where he left us to collect another group. We had hoped to have the tour exclusively to ourselves, however. He arrived back a few minutes later with another group of 7 people including 2 children. We all climbed into his wooden row boat (outboards are not allowed on this river) and set off up the famous Indian river.
Dominica has a population of 70,000 people, and boasts 8 dormant volcano's that provided the island with very rich soil, just about anything will grow here, and does. The list of fruit and vegetables is too long to list, just about everything you can think of, including just about every tropical fruit. Dominica exports its fruit and veg to most of the other islands, although Sugar, limes and many different varieties of bananas are the main crops.
Unlike other islands Dominica has no casinos,or multi chain resorts, at least not yet. The island is so unspoilt that it's said if Christopher Columbus were to return to the islands today Dominica is the only one he would recognize.
The attraction for visitors here would be the waterfalls, rain forest pools, and the 365 rivers. There are great hiking trails through the rain forest, also the diving is reputed to be spectacular. I wish we could spend more time here, to explore, I must plan for us to come back.
The Indian river we were on was named after the Carib Indians. As we made our way slowly up the river, Martin pointed out hundreds of red land crabs, that could almost be mistaken for fallen flowers on the banks of the river with their bright red backs and white claws. Hundreds of gray mullet swarmed in schools around our boat
we also spotted the occasional barracuda. The flowers from the wild hibiscus that had fallen into the river from the overhead branches floated like Lillie's on the surface. There were so many hummingbirds, Martin pointed out a nest which wasn't much bigger than a golf ball, he told us the chicks are so small when they hatch they look like large fly's. Hummingbirds are very high energy birds,needing a constant supply of nectar to keep their energy levels flowing. They cruise at 25 mph, and dive at 85mph. They are also very territorial and can often be spotted in battle defending their territory. Martin pointed out the 'Heliconia Caribea' a magnificent flowering plant that collects water that the hummingbirds use as drinking troughs. He pulled the boat over to the riverbank, and got out to demonstrate his skills at skinning coconuts, then gave one to each man on the boat for 'Fathers day'.
The river was picture perfect in its natural beauty, with shafts of sunlight breaking through the overhead canopy and reflecting off the water. The only sounds came from the insects and the gentle splash Martins oars as he rowed us further up the river. We passed an area used for filming scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean 2 The site had been completely restored to its natural setting following the completion of filming. We pulled in at one of the forest gardens and we all went ashore so Martin could show us around and talk about the plants and wildlife.
After our river trip we went to customs to clear in and out again, within the hour we were underway sails raised, and on our way to Martinique.