Dominica Island News Blog: Sharing Every Dominican Moment with the World

It looks like visitors will have to pay more to access a number of Dominica’s attractions effective July 1, 2008. A quick note: The trails to Morne Diablotin and Morne Trois Pitons are now added to user fees sites.

According to visitdominica blog the changes are:

• Site Pass tickets increase from US$2 to US$ 3 for PRE-SOLD organized tours.
• Site Pass Tickets to be increased from US$2 to US$5 for all private tours and stay over visitors.
• Week pass Tickets to increase from US$10 to US$12.
• Day pass is no more.

Change in Ferry Schedules for Dominica

Steve over at Visit-dominica blog is also reporting a change in L’Express des iles Ferry service into Dominica from the period July 11 to August 31, 2008 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please note that if you’re traveling too and from Dominica using the ferry, that the ferry service will ONLY be running from Cabrits Portsmouth and NOT from Roseau.

Schedule is as follows:

• Guadeloupe: Departure: 08.00
• Portsmouth: Arrival: 09.15 / Departure: 09.45
• Martinique: Arrival: 11.45
• Martinique: Departure: 14.00
• Portsmouth: Arrival: 16.00 / Departure: 16.30
• Guadeloupe: Arrival: 17.45

Contact Whitchurch Shipping Dept at (767) 255-1125 or Ext 1126 for further information or visit L’Express-des-iles.com.

Great News for Renewable Energy in Dominica

In the recently 2008-2009 budget brought great news for all those interested in setup alternative energy businesses in Dominica. To encourage the use of alternative forms of energy on the island, the government has announced with immediate effect the removed all duties on equipment to be used in self-generation of energy.

Tourism Minister Takes Part in Discover Scuba Diving

This year’s Dive Fest at the Anchorage Hotel is so far is living up to all the hype, when the Ministry of Tourism decided to take part in the ‘Discover Scuba Diving’ and luckily the guys (Izzy and steve) from divefestdominica.com were right on the scene to capture the Minister’s (Amateur) plunge.

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Photo Source: dominica.dm

St. Mary’s Academy student, Rohaan K. Allport, is the winner of the 2008 Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) Environmental Poster Competition.

The FCCA poster competition is held annually and seeks to promote and stimulate environmental awareness among students and educate the younger generation on the importance of environmental protection this year’s poster contest attracted entries from approximately fourteen nations. Each participant’s poster should have depicted at least three (3) ways in which his/her destination can make a difference in preserving the environment.

Other programs held by the FCCA include: the annual FCCA Caribbean Cruise Conference and Trade Show, bringing together over 100 cruise executives and 800 cruise industry partners; the FCCA Foundation for the Caribbean, which serves as a tangible mechanism for the cruise industry to participate in the effort to support humanitarian and social causes throughout the Caribbean and Mexico; the Caribbean Beach Clean-Up Program; and Tourism Essay Contests for Caribbean and Mexican students.

Rohaan was awarded a cash prize of US$3000 as the winner in the senior category, along with US$3000 for his school at an exclusive luncheon aboard the Carnival Destiny. Government Officials from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Tourism as well as representatives from Discover Dominica Authority and Rohann’s parents were present at the luncheon.

Congratulations to Rohaan K. Allport.

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A number of people and even my friends who live abroad ask me about my home island, Dominica – What it’s like, why do I say, how a blogger like me emerged from a tiny island, stuff like that. So today I thought I had share a little about Dominica, just to give you some background on me and my home, and share some resource where you can learning all about Dominica.

My Home

While I was born in Guadeloupe, I spent most of my life here on Dominica. It’s a fairly small tropical island in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, gained it’s independence since in 1978 from England, a very catholic but highly politically motivated island.

I spent most of my childhood here, and have lived here my entire adult life. Both my mom and dad are 100% Dominicans. My mom lived most of her childhood years in Antigua, and then returned. My dad grew up in a small village called Newtown, which is just on the outskirts of the Capital city Roseau. Dominica is home, the only home I’ve known.

I will probably live in other places – I’m contemplating a move to Canada or New Zealand in the near future – but Dominica will be my final resting place, I imagine. While not all of the 70,000 people here know each other, we are fairly close-knit community, and you can’t go anywhere without meeting several people you know. If you meet someone you don’t know, most of the times it only takes a few minutes to find a connection – you are related to them somehow, or you used to work with their relative or your neighbor is their good friend or something like that.

I love Dominica and its people, although I don’t love everything about the island. We have our problems like anywhere else — we have government corruption sometimes, but have mostly honest government workers. We have problems with potholes and trash sometimes, but usually things run fine. There is a lot of trash and things that can be cleaned up and stray dogs in some areas, but above all the natural beauty of the island shines through. It can be very hot and humid here at times, but mostly it’s just stunningly beautiful weather in the 70s and 80s and sometimes 90s.

Nature Island of the Caribbean

Think of Dominica as a little slice of Heaven , but Island-style. Dominica is not like most the other islands, with huge malls and fast food restaurants (we have few of them, but not all), and Internet access practically everywhere. We have roads and power and British-style schools and everyone speaks English (though you will find some people speaking in a Creole dialect). And while we don’t vote for president, we are democratic and as patriotic as any other Caribbean island.

We are much very Caribbean in many ways, we’re also not in others. We have a lot French and Catholic traditions, for example. We celebrate Catholic holidays, and village feasts all the time, and many people speak Kwèyòl, a blend of our native language and French. We are very family oriented, but in a much extended family way, including not only second and third cousins and more, but a very extensive system of godparents and godmother.

More than just being French influenced, we are native islanders. We have a long tradition of being connected to the sea, of being connected to the land, of being very tribal in many ways through the Carib Indians who still live on the island to this date.

And so we are none of these things completely — French, Spanish,Carib, islander — but all of them at once. We are a changing community, from the more traditional elders to the more modern youngsters, with their Nintendo DS and MySpace and texting cell phones and Wiis and XBoxes.

I could actually write about Dominica for days, but I’ll stop here and answer any questions you have in the comments. In the meantime, if you to want learn more about Dominica, you can visit dominica.dm – not too long along the Discover Dominica Authority which is apart ministry of Tourism launched a new marketing campaign and website for the island. Anyway, go over there and take a look, if you’re interested in more about Dominica. It’s a great resource that will continue to grow in the years to come.

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