Three months after our journey through the island of Dominica, Hurricane Maria has shattered practically everything in this poor land and with weak infrastructure. This text tries to remember that places like Dominica exist and that despite being outside the Gran Turismo circuits it is worth visiting them and also contributing in this way to rebuild. The Ayawasi Hotel, I mention in the text, Next to a good part of the island, They have been razed. There is nothing where there was almost nothing.
We landed a June night sweaty as if we had come to. Liat's plane, Antilles airlines, arrived with an important delay that days later, around, improved with an even greater delay. «I never saw him arrive on time, "Don't bother going to the boarding gate on time.", we were warned matter-of-factly in a shop at the airport in Antigua and Barbuda.
It contributed something to the final chaos, It must be pointed out on this occasion, the fact of changing planes twice due to a breakdown with everyone already on board. Inconvenient in any case that all the passengers took it with the same calmness with which they assume that they are sitting on something that weighs a few tons, up, floats in the air and then falls. The things that are like that, like a plane delay or flight, no need to discuss them. Spend, and that's enough.
They gave them a piece of what was their land and there, in a reservation, survive
In Dominica we took the car to the Kalinago Territory, an indigenous reserve in the middle of the Caribbean, where the last kalinago live, the pre-Hispanic inhabitants who inhabited these islands. There are a little more left 3000 and most of them came here, expelled from the rest of the Antilles, to have a refuge in which they can keep something of themselves. They gave them a piece of what was their land and there, in a reservation, They survive in misery, unemployment, alcohol, drugs and a certain hopelessness of someone who has already lost everything.
The road when leaving the airport is twisted. The island offers a surprisingly poor image. Surprising at least for us who expected an uneven land but where there were traces of grand tourism and its first world bubbles.. there wasn't, We didn't see it in all the days we toured Dominica. Poverty, like its people, African era, a memory for us of the times and lands that we crossed during years of life on that continent. The population, in fact, Today it is almost entirely descended from the African slaves that Europeans brought to make the New World profitable.. Dominica's soul is black, and your night, dimly lit, also.
As, From our rented vehicle we observed on the side of the road flimsy wooden houses and bonfires where people gathered together with loud music that they danced to the sound of alcohol.. Some, More than dancing, they swayed to keep the balance in a pendulum.. It was Friday and it was a party, equation that is repeated in all corners of the planet.
Some, More than dancing, they swayed to keep the balance in a pendulum.
A sign announced the turn to the Kalinago Territory. By the sea, attached to stone cliffs and slopes that flow into an ocean angry with bad weather, We passed precarious towns until we reached the Aywasi Kalinago Retreat.. Louis was waiting for us there, the hotel owner, and his wife (sorry my bad head has made me forget your name). It was night, the sound of the jungle and the sea could be heard loudly, and on that balcony in a sonorous darkness they prepared us a chicken curry that tasted heavenly..
Louis had invited us to his hotel so he could do a report about his town.. He, tells us, He is a former US Marine who has returned as an investor to his homeland with the idea of ??raising his people.. The past and present of the Kalinago, that I wrote in The World, It is a challenge in which too many nuances are mixed. I understand that my only way to tell something is listening to them, How did I do the following days, and reproduce your almost non -existent voice.
Louis takes us to our bungalow, He has raised five in the middle of a lush slope that ends in a rocky sea. We took an unforgettable outdoor shower with a water that fell between the leaves and mixed with rainwater. A cloud moon hung from the roof. We sleep for heat with open doors and windows listening to the constant sound of animals and insects. The sea, Breaking against the stones, It is the last thing I remember from that night.
We took an unforgettable outdoor shower with a water that fell between the leaves and mixed with rainwater
The next day, Dawn taught a bay surrounded by hills, green trees and waves to infinity. After a fresh fruit breakfast of the trees, we went to the Kalinago Barana Aute, a kind of complex where the Kalinago teach their culture and sell their crafts. The sun gives us a respite and, after several interviews, We went out to explore some of the numerous waterfalls that the island has. We bathe at Spanny Falls, after a walk 30 minutes, completely alone in crystal clear water that let you see the wrinkles in your toes. We also see some of the zombie crabs, a species of giant crustaceans that live on the island and are a protected species.
We also decided to visit the Jacko Falls and then the Emerald Pool, perhaps the most famous waterfall on the island, in which we bathe with two other people. The advantage of traveling in the rainy season is privacy and the inconvenience is that you get more out than inside the water.
Back to Ayawai, After a tropical nap, We went to interview the current chief Kalinago, Charles Williams. We found a dating man, who soon asked us for money for putting the traditional suit of his town for the reports of the report. I told him no, that I do not pay for photos or interviews, And decided if he was willing to speak for free and tell the problems of his people. He did, reluctantly, And it was always especially aggressive in his language and especially demagogic in his reflections. Ahead had a Spaniard and an Italian, metaphor for his juic of all his ills from the 12 October 1492.
In front of me was a Spaniard and an Italian, metaphor for his juic of all his ills from the 12 October 1492
Los kalinago, in my opinion, They have every right to feel trampled on by European cultures, but the tainos, peaceful town that occupied part of the Caribbean before the arrival of Columbus, they could say the same about them. The Kalinago also subdued them by force., and they also came from another place to do it, in this case the continental part of Colombia and Venezuela.
The last thing I remember from Ayawasi was a fabulous swim in a natural pool, that Louis along with other kalinago had built by removing enormous stones that weighed tons. He invented a space protected by other rocks in which you could dive surrounded by fish. A last dinner was also notable in which we lost looking for a local restaurant that had recommended us and after turning and turned around rural roads, endure a downpour and ask various people who resolved us absolutely opposite directions, We never found. In exchange, We stumble upon a very humble little hotel on the road whose best news is that we had a bad wine that we drank with devotion to forget the chicken we swallowed.
From the Kalinago zone we went to the south of the island under another very fortnite storm where we were crossing a road full of landslides. We stay at the Guest House Mango Island Lodges, governed by a couple of French. The capital, Reed, It is a city without charm, disorderly and narrow streets for which there is a slow future of life. Those days we take the opportunity to see something of the nature of that part of Dominica.
A beautiful throat of water in which you enter the rocks until you reach a violent water leap
We went to Freshwater Lake, Fog covered, And that we didn't seem notable to climb a mountain (Nor would it have seemed to us, We reflect, downhill), and then do the tou gorge, A beautiful throat of water in which you enter the rocks until you reach a violent water jump that does not allow you to continue swimming.
Best, however, It was the walk to the Middleham Falls. It is a mountain path, that we made a constant rain alone, more than an hour. When you go up, except some sections, wrapped in a vegetable tangle. The water that was soaked almost gave a greater charm to a green environment, wet, that makes its way in the middle of the thick tropical vegetation. End, little by little and more and more clear way, The noise of the cascade that serves as a guide appears.
Suddenly, Among the leaves, A water jump appears more than 40 meters that clear in a pool and an cobbled river that is lost downstairs. The sensation, There was only a couple of Germans with their dog and three local boys bathing in the middle of the storm, It was to discover something hidden. I think few things like travelers more than the feeling of being able to enjoy the world as if it were a secret.
A water jump appears more than 40 meters that clear in a pool and an cobbled river that is lost downstairs
Dominica fue toda esa naturaleza desbocada en una montaña hecha isla. Los españoles la ignoraron en sus primeros viajes por su orografía complicada. Los franceses e ingleses, que la colonizaron, la apreciaron por sus manantiales. El bíblico edén debe ser algo muy parecido a aquellas laderas verdes, con cascadas violentas, entre las que crecen flores extrañas de colores inciertos. El mundo puede ser distinto, Dominica lo es.
Our farewell was up to the place. At the airport, In the minimum room of shipping, They announced that there was a two -hour delay. An indignant man got up and protested. What will give us for this inconvenience?, He asked angry. The person in charge looked at him, Between an almost unbearable tension, He took a TV command and put a local television channel on the screens. "Watch TV", He said. The irritated customer sat, He bowed his head up to the screen and did not protest again.
