Wednesday, January 25:

We had a wonderful time during our two day stop in Dominica. To be honest, I had not known of Dominica before - and didn't even know how to pronounce it. (It's Dom-i-NEEC-a.) I trust these maps I'm adding will help give you some idea of our progress. I have brought with me a GPS and download waypoints to make these maps. Mind you, I have to calibrate the maps I download from the internet and some of the points may be off a little - but you get the picture.

We arrived into port in Dominica the morning of January 23 and soon had the opportunity to debark and see the place. Semester at Sea (SAS) arranges a variety of field trips in each port. Some of these are organized by faculty and required for their courses (typically, a faculty member will have three or four trips that the students can choose from throughout the semester-long voyage. Other field programs are not related to courses and open to anyone to join. Of course, we can also strike out on our own if we don't want to join a tour.

Dominica is a gorgeous little island that still has large areas of pristine forest. This may be partly due to the fact that it's so steep and volcanic in places that it's been hard for humans to destroy it as they have in other areas. (I'm sure a good bit of careful planning of their leaders has helped.)

On that first day, I joined up with a whale and dolphin watching safari. We were picked up right there in the same port. So, I got off a ship only to immediately board a boat. (This was one of my "We're going to need a bigger boat" moments, as the sea was a bit choppy.) Still, we managed to find lots of great critters. Here's a view of our ship (MV Explorer) taken from the boat.

There are several species of dolphin in the area, but the ones we came upon were Pantropical spotted dolphins. They seemed quite playful as they swam alongside the boat. It's mating season for them (and for the whales), so this is likely why we were able to find them in large numbers.

After we spent time with the dolphins, we went off in search of sperm whales. The crew had a hydrophone to help us locate them. We went out to sea and stopped periodically to listen for their sounds. A nifty speaker attached to the hydrophone allowed all of us to eavesdrop on the whales' discussion. We heard loud clicking sounds with no one to interpret.

Finally, we came upon a female and her baby. The following are some shots of what we managed to see. I know they're not great shots, but....at least you can tell that they're whales!

The next day (Tuesday, Jan 24), I joined a birdwatching and hiking trip. We went to one of the highest points on the island to Syndicate National Park. It's a beautiful rainforest, known as a great birding spot. We were in search of the rare Sisserou (Imperial) Parrot (their national bird), but failed to see one. We DID, however, see the other parrot endemic to the area - the Jaco (Red-necked) Parrot. I'll spare you the bad photos I took of it. The following are some of the more decent shots I got while on our walk through the forest.

Lizard people: What species is this???  Here's a close up of his little head.

This is a Plumbeous Warbler, found only in Dominica. Not a great shot, but I thought I should post at least SOME photos of birds taken from a bird-watching expedition. Below is another poor shot - this time of a male Bullfinch (I think it's the Lesser Antillean Bullfinch). The one below that is a great shot...only because the female Bullfinch came down and sat right beside me on the railing of the tourist information center.

Finally, here's one more bird pic....this time of Brown Pelicans. We saw this along the beach on our way up the island to the National Park. This was shot through a window, so the image isn't great, but it's a nice species to end the Dominica notes.