Caribbean and Central America Travel

Dominica is one of the most unspoilt islands in the Caribbean. Covered by a lush rainforest, Dominica is a haven for nature lovers, with its many waterfalls, springs, rivers, and the world’s second largest boiling lake.

Not to be confused with the Dominican Republic, Dominica (pronounced Dom-in-eek-a) was discovered by Christopher Columbus on a Sunday – Dominica in Latin. For its Carib Indian settlers, however, the island is known as Wai’tu kubuli, which means “Tall is her body”.

Though history, the island has been claimed by the French, who eventually relinquished the island to the British. Dominica became a British colony in 1763, after hundreds of years of isolation. The emancipation of African slaves in the British empire gave way to Dominica having the first British Caribbean colony headed by Africans. The British took control of the country once again in 1896, but eighty years later Dominica finally became an independent nation.

When Christopher Columbus sailed back to Europe, he was asked to describe the island of Dominica. He picked up a piece of parchment, crumpled it in his hands, then laid it on the table. He pointed to the crumpled paper and said “that is Dominica.” The island is so mountainous that there were hardly any flat lands.

The island has a land area of 289.5 square miles, yet it is only populated by approximately 70,000 people, most of which lives around the capital city of Roseau. The rest of the island is unspoilt nature: tropical forest that covers about two-thirds of the island, thousands of flora and fauna, some of which are said to be extinct in other parts of the world.

Like all tropical countries, Dominica only has two seasons: wet and dry. The dry season comes in January and stays until June, with temperatures averaging above 70 F (20 C). Hurricane season hits its peak in late August until early September.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 7:04 am and is filed under Caribbean, Dominica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.