Adventures: Boiling Lake

Last Wednesday, we finally did it: we hiked Boiling Lake.  It's a five hour long hike through the mountains, up and down, through the Valley of Desolation, to the world's second largest boiling lake, formed in a volcanic crater.  It was intense and amazing, and we've spend the remainder of the week let our ridiculously sore legs recover.

We survived Boiling Lake!

Images by Clare Wilkinson for C Squared W.

Adventures: Snake Steps

Font used: Penn Avenue from dafont.com
Photos by Clare Wilkinson for C Squared W

Lately.

It's not every day you find a little island shack that matches your blog design... 

Hi friends!

Sorry I've been a stranger this week, but lately it's been crazy here with lots of sad goodbyes and lots of fun trips. Basically, it's been a roller coaster of emotions. I said goodbye to two of my best friends, said goodbye to some students I've taught, visited the Carib Territory and hiked the Snake Steps, hiked Boiling Lake (a major item on our Dominica bucket list!), swam in Titou Gorge, visited Syndicate Falls, and ate the best chicken wings on the island. 

Now, we're exhausted and packing for our week-long adventure in South America tomorrow. We'll be spending the week in Guyana visiting my sister, Frannie, who's serving in the Peace Corps there. 

While I'm gone I've scheduled a few short posts with some island photos for you to check out while we're off in the jungle with monkeys and anacondas, eating curried iguana! Have a great weekend!

Images by Clare Wilkinson for C Squared W.

Adventures: Canyoning

Another amazing adventure that Charlie and I were fortunate enough to experience recently was a trip canyoning down waterfalls in the rainforest here in Dominica.  We suited up in wetsuits, helmets, and lifejackets (we felt like ninja turtles), took a short training session to master our rappelling skills, and then headed off into the jungle.  After a short hike, our descent began...

It was one of the coolest things we've ever done!  So cool, in fact, that canyoning in Dominica was featured in National Geographic's 20 best trips of 2011.  How neat is that? 

Venture into the rugged landscape Spiderman-style on an Extreme Dominica canyoneering tour, which takes visitors rappelling down pristine waterfalls, deep gorges, and volcanic bedrock canyons.          -National Geographic

Canyoning was every bit as incredible as it looks and sounds!  Thanks, Extreme Dominica, for a fantastic adventure! 

Font used: Penn Avenue from dafont.com
Photos by Clare Wilkinson for C Squared W

Dominica: a beautifully kept secret

It was pretty cool to discover an article on Dominica in yesterdays Lexington Herald-Leader:

The bright spot was my final destination: the beautiful island of Dominica. Not to be confused with the Dominican Republic, Dominica (pronounced Dom-i-nee-ka) lies between the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe in the southern Caribbean. Of the 103 countries I have visited, this is one of the most beautiful.  - Patti Nickell

{Photo by Clare Wilkinson}

In five days, travel writer Patti Nickell explored a good portion of the island and went to many awesome spots, places that Charlie and I would definitely take visiting family and friends or recommend to visitors.  It was fun to read about our island home and some of our favorite places here.  The article also just gives a really nice overview of what Dominica is like and how beautiful it is.  You can check out the article in its entirety here.

Happy Domiversary + New Year!

It's official - today is our Domiversary! We've been here in Dominica for exactly a year, today! It's hard to believe. Last year, we had planned to arrive on the island a few days earlier, but due to winter weather on the east coast, we didn't arrive in Dominica until New Year's Eve.

Here we are on one of our first days in Dominica, touring the campus and exploring the area:

And here we are now, a year later, and knee-deep in adventures!

We have grown to love this little island and are proud to call it our home.  We're excited about spending our second New Year's here with friends. Have a happy New Year, everyone!

10 Days In Dominica: Day 8

Does your spouse like it here?

Why, yes.  Yes he does.  Although Charlie spends most of his time studying, he loves the island and all the adventures it has to offer.  He loves all the hiking and swimming.  He's a beach guy at heart, so when he has the chance to enjoy Dominica, he feels right at home.  When he's not busy studying all of this...

He loves doing things like this...

And this...

And this...

I know Charlie is looking forward to spending more time enjoying the island {and some time with me!} after his test on Tuesday. We're planning for a fun afternoon together - an outdoor adventure of some sort, followed by a lobster dinner at Sunset Bay. Can't wait!!!

10 Days In Dominica: Day 4

Day 4: What has been your favorite trip?

There have been so many good ones, but I think that my all-time favorite trip has been the Seven Waterfalls hike, which I have been on twice so far, once each semester, and I hope to continue the trend! This five-hour hike is difficult and is the perfect combination of difficulty, astonishing beauty, adrenaline-pumping jumps into waterfalls, and refreshing icy swims in the waterfalls pools. I know I've mentioned the hike before, but I absolutely love it. When you finish, you are exhausted, but so proud of how far you've hiked, trekked, and adventured.

The fact that you see seven "official" waterfalls, plus several more if it has rained recently is just awesome. Swimming in the waterfalls is the best part of all, and you can swim in about five of them.

What is really cool is how different the same waterfall can look, just a few months later, based on the weather and amount of rainfall. Check out the photos below of the same waterfall, taken in February (during the dry season), and in June (during the rainy season).

The waterfall was so much bigger in June, that looking back at my photos from my first trip, I had a difficult time matching up the two.


Although I've been lucky enough to go on this trip twice (once with strangers, once with friends), I am still dying to do this hike with Charlie. He's also been wanting to go on this adventure, so we're hoping to make it happen this semester... we'll keep you posted!

***Update: I have now done this hike three times - Charlie joined me last time! It was, as usual, awesome and impressive

the past two months in photos

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