After a long and difficult week of painting Joshua’s house and the preschool, our Putney group took off on a weekend adventure to the capital of Dominica, Roseau (a.k.a. “Town”). Coco, our driver, dropped us off at Roxy’s Mountain Lodge, located high up in the mountains. It was windy, rainy, buggy, and much cooler than Bense. While happy to be sleeping in beds, at the nightly meeting everyone also reported feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness about the day ahead to the Boiling Lake. It has a reputation of being a difficult hike.

We had an early wake up call Saturday morning and met our two awesome guides, Jonathan and Graham. Jonathan reported that he completed the Boiling Lake hike 109 times; this would be his 110th hike. The hike out to the Boiling Lake took four hours. We hiked through rainforest, climbed up and down many steep steps, jumped over rocks, crossed a few rivers, navigated through the sulfur fields of Desolation Valley, to finally arrive at the second largest boiling lake in the world.

While we appreciated taking in the view of the massive, sulfuric lake, most of us did not appreciate the rotton-egg smell emanating from the water below!  After a nice lunch break, the group turned around for the trip back to the Titou Gorge, a famous cavern carved into rock that people swim through. Our hike back was a bit shorter and we finished in a little under eight hours total.

Everyone was relieved to finish the hike and celebrate by jumping into the frigid water of the Gorge. We swam through the rock and reached a waterfall. A few of us had our GoPro cameras on hand for the fun swim. Afterward, we returned to the lodge to shower and then headed to “Town” for pizza. By the end of the night, we were sore and sated and ready to go to bed.

Sunday, we headed to Dive Dominica for a snorkel excursion. We boarded the Stingray 2, our snorkel boat for the day with our guide, Reggie. Our first snorkel spot was the famous Champagne Reef. Its name comes from the bubbles that rise up from the volcanic floor below. Many of us had fun swimming through the bubbles and checking out the colorful coral and fish. The second snorkel stop, Scott’s Head, had a 6,000-foot underwater drop-off and a shallow reef. A few of us were fortunate to see a sea turtle and a large spotted eel that looked like a snake. By the end of the snorkel, we were all ready for the delicious BBQ lunch.

All in all, it was a jam-packed and very fun weekend on the town. Tonight, we planned for our summer fun camp, which starts tomorrow. We are gearing up for our second week of community service in Bense. Stay tuned!

– Community Service Dominica Team