I have more detailed information to post in the coming days about Dominica, the island that's so cool it has a parrot on its flag, but I thought I'd get the ball rolling with some photos from a snorkeling expedition to Soufriere Bay, on the far south of the island, surrounded by the town of Scott's Head.

Arriving at Soufriere Bay. Twenty miles south of there is Martinique. There's an old cannon up on top of the lump, but we're more interested in what's in the bay.


Looking out at the bay. We got a ride down from our base camp in the high rain forest with a guy who had a CD with one song on it, played over and over. By the time the ninety minute drive was over (which only covers like twenty km, but this is the Caribbean, and you know how those roads can be), all I could think of was "So tired of love songs, so tired of tears," which was the only line he would sing along with, though he did so with a conviction and emotional gusto I've not seen since the days of Rites of Spring.


Looking back at Dominica



Hitting the water.

Three feet below the surface, and already there's cool stuff.

It's surprising how difficult it can be to actually catch one of these buggers in your photo.

About ten feet down.

Fishing is forbidden in Soufriere Bay, which is a protected environment. You can see how well those regulations are working out.

Another one of those things. I really should learn how to identify this stuff, shouldn't I? Well, that's why I arranged for my sister to become a marine biologist.

Space alien, about ten feet down.

Where the reef ends and the ocean floor begins, about twenty-five feet down, which is about as far down as I can free dive without necessitating some sort of emergency rescue at some point in the day.

I will never get used to the drop-off. One second you're paddling around in a reef, no more than a few feet underwater, then you hit the sandy ocean floor, swim around, everything's grand. And then, just beyond the scope of this shot, the water plunges from twenty-five feet to a couple hundred feet and sperm whales are supposedly battling giant squid down there somewhere. It's absolutely breathtaking and causes a massive adrenaline rush no matter how many times I experience it.

My merman imitation.

Some big funnel-shaped coral thing. It was full of water. can you believe that?

Gotta come up for breath some time, and this is what you see when you do. Not bad.

Hey, fish! They were gone by the time I got deep enough for a better photo.

This was me trying to snap a shot of a wickedly evil looking eel that was hovering a few feet from me as I dove into one of the craters that pockmark the bay. I missed him. But man, you should have seen the thing. If there is a more evil looking creature in the world than an eel, I've not seen it. Anyway, I got some more of that yellow coral in the shot, so it wasn't a total loss.

Please ignore the love handles. I've managed to work most of those off since this photo was taken.

Sorry, it's just so photogenic.

When I was young, I lived out in Kentucky farm land, and because my grandfather was a farmer, I spent a lot of time on actual farms. The rest of the time I just ran around outside. As such, I enjoyed a rich, dark tan for most of my young life. Then I moved to Florida and it was more of the same. I still labor under the impression that I am tan and less susceptible to burning than the average pasty white guy.

As you can see, eight years of living in New York city versus eight hours in the Caribbean sun quickly and painfully proved me wrong.

You can view the whole Dominica Flickr set here: http://flickr.com/photos/teleport-city/sets/72157594218107831/

Labels: Travel