Heading back down the mountain, we entered into another area along the coastline, where an interesting sight was occurring, while a man was extracting juice from long stalks of sugarcane next to his vehicle. Diligently working, he slipped a stalk of sugarcane into a mill to extract the juice, while sitting in a chair beneath a yellow umbrella to shield him from the sun.

The bed of his pick-up truck filled with hundreds of stalks, it appeared to me that he had a very long day ahead of him and yet, this gentleman seemed so very content while he methodically slipped a stalk near a churning wheel and quietly reached for another.


Soon after, we came upon a Catholic church (Saint Patrick) which was built with an interesting shape containing a green roof almost resembling that of an oriental hat or slightly folded umbrella. The journey not over, we were again traveling next to the ocean on the West side of the island and traveling to another area until reaching a different fishing community.

It was while driving through this west coastal area when I learned that when a good catch of fish was made, a conch shell would be displayed to announce the fresh fish catch available. Fishing in Dominica is a commission activity with ten major communities on the island. The fishing season begins on the first of September and runs through the twentieth of February of the New Year.

At a market place, we passed a fisherman holding a conch shell in his hand, looking in the opposite direction of a woman approaching him to look at his catch for the day.

Continuing on this journey, I realized more than ever it was not the size of the island, but rather the mountainous territory that made this island so immense and provided hundreds of miles to travel for sightseeing. From one valley into the next, one mountain onto another, sights gave way to education through the narrator who so expertly described everything.

Eventually we reached a huge coconut plantation and factory. The coconut palms are considered the most useful plant on the island because of their wide variety of usage and the ability to use basically the entire tree.

Our next stop was at the longest river on the island stretching slightly over eleven miles and into the Caribbean Sea, under a coastline road our vehicle traveled.

Breadfruit is also a common sight and used as part of a typical tropical diet. In fact, most all of the fruit and flowers, including poinsettias are found within the Eastern Caribbean islands, but it seemed Dominica certainly had an abundance of many varieties.

There are thirteen species of bananas, (many which are exported to England), and fourteen species of avocados on the island of Dominica. Additionally, pineapples, papayas, grapefruit, oranges, and bamboo is grown on the island and harvested.

The ground cover surrounding young pineapples helps protect insects from getting into the tops of the pineapple plant, (feeling and looking much like a cactus); the pineapple tops are used again to start growing another pineapple plant.

Within one of the pineapple fields, a lone avocado tree seems to mark its territory, protecting itself from intruders. Though often found green, an avocado is not ripe until it turns to a dark color of purple and is soft to the touch.