Dominican Weekend

So it is now Day Seven of instruction in Dominica and I am behind in posts. WAY behind. I am going to cram Day 5 and Day 6 together, but first I will tell you about my weekend. Friday after work we went to see a couple of sights: Emerald Pool and Mero Beach. My Facebook friends have already seen this picture of me on my anniversary, without Alvin for the fourth year in a row. The Cafe at Mero Beach was named 'Romance Cafe'. Maybe next year I will be home. Maybe.

Saturday was spent preparing materials for Monday's class. This was time consuming, but my class wanted to learn more about Access and so that is what I did. Normally I would just take screen shots of the steps to guide users through the process. Problem? I have Access 2010 and the computers in the lab I am working in have Access 2003. BIG difference. So I spent a lot of time on Microsoft's website gathering tutorials and putting together PowerPoint presentations for lessons as well as various assignments and quizzes. Since part of the course is instruction about courses in Moodle, I tried to use a variety of the tools so they get a feel for the platform before we jump into creating courses.

I fit in a pedicure from a spa called 'Spanish' where a couple of women from the Dominican Republic work. It is little more than a closet. The water is taken from the bathroom sink and heated in a electric kettle. My feet soaked in a foot bath with just enough water to cover them. However, the lady vigorously removed all rough skin off my feet and proceeded to scrub my feet like they have never been washed before. She did a great job on the nails, too, I think. There was so much going on in that little room, people coming and going and loud music blaring ... it was not the same 'spa' experience one gets back home. Not by a long shot!

It was a rainy weekend here. The rain wasn't misty or light, it poured at times through the night and day. The sun was hidden behind clouds and the temperature dropped quite a bit. This made it better for our huge day out on Sunday. We went up to Freshwater and Boeri Lakes. The view of the valley from the roadside on the way up was spectacular. The hike to Boeri Lake is described as moderate. The sign indicated it was a 45 minute walk. It was something, let me tell you. Up, up, up and down, up, down, across a stream, along a path to get to a lake that is surrounded by boulders and is filled with cold water. The lake is covered with steam coming from Boiling Lake, just over the peak. All three lakes are craters in the same dormant volcano. Freshwater and Boeri are cold, but Boiling Lake [you guessed it] is too hot to enter. The hike to Boiling Lake takes something like six hours and is quite challenging. I don't think I will ever see Boiling Lake.


The next stop [of which I sadly have no pictures] was to swim through Ti Tou Gorge. These rocks have been carved out by water and an amazing channel has been created. You can swim through the gorge to the falls on the other side, the source of the water that has over centuries carved away the stone. The water was deep and I was quite nervous. I turned back once, concerned by the sound of the falls and the depth of the water. After being assured of a ledge somewhere in the middle of the cavern to rest on, I went back in. It was fabulous; no regrets.

The day ended with a stop at Trafalgar Falls, which are actually two falls; one side has hot water and the other cold. I visited the falls last year, but this time I went further over the rocks and into the pool of cold water from the falls on the right. Then we went carefully back over the rocks made slippery by the rain to the pools of hot water from the falls to the left. I was very tired by the time I got back to the hotel, but it was an excellent day. I managed to get more work done, but called it a night before 10 pm.