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We have now moved on, once again to the Bahamas, but this time we are spending some time in San Salvador.  We have heard a lot about it and did some research and decided to come and check it out for ourselves.

It is an island that is just a little smaller than Nassau but certainly not as developed - only 1000+ people live here.  It is like going back in time.  The people are very friendly, virtually no crime and you can take a golf cart around the island as transportation!  It is very flat with scrub brush as vegetation so if you are into getting some exercise it is an easy run around the island on a bicycle.

There are only two resorts - Riding Rock and Club Med. We are staying in a two bedroom apartment we have rented from Michelle who is part owner of the Riding Rock Resort which is about one mile from the main town of Cockburn.  It is part of 4 units and we are on the end so we have oceanview from all rooms - white sand and blue water - beautiful.  For the first couple of weeks we had a car to zip around the island and check everything out.  Way back in the 50/60’s there was a company here that spent a lot of time developing a good portion of the island so there is one main road and a lot of side roads to investigate.  We checked out the historic site where Christopher Columbus first landed in 1492 and also the Mexican monument commemorating the arrival of the torch on its way to the Olympic games in 1968.  There is lots of beautiful beachfront and we have made some enquiries on a few different pieces which interest us for our resort.

We are in process of checking out the diving.  Unfortunately it is a little more north than we like to be which makes the water a tad bit cooler - at the moment about 77 degrees.  Riding Rock had one of their boats out of the water for a complete refurbishment and we have been waiting for it to get seaworthy.  This happened yesterday and we went out for a couple of dives.  It was a little choppy so the boat was rocking and rolling a bit - we have been used to catarmarans for so long now!  Both dives were wall dives and the first one we saw a couple of hammerheads both of which were about 10-12 feet long.  Also saw a couple of reef sharks and a nice large crab fully out on the reef.  On the second dive no sharks but a nice large lobster and another crab tucked into crevasse.  Visibility was good.  As we are now paying for our diving instead of getting paid we are going to be a little bit more choosy of when we go out and it looks like it’ll be a few days as there is a bit of a front coming through.

Well, I guess it’s that time to let everyone know about our stay in Dominica.  We ended up only staying a total of 5 months as everywhere in the world the tourism business is quite slow.  Luckily for Dive Dominica they have contracts with cruise ships and they just keep coming whether they are full or only partially full.  This way the dive shop can keep most of their employees busy.  It also helps that the dive shop offers more than just diving and quite often the boats were almost full with snorkeling and whale watching trips.  For ourselves we worked only when needed which was not that often but kept us out of mischief.   It was really great having mum with us for over a couple of months and able to celebrate Christmas and New Year together.  We were invited to the owner’s place for Christmas dinner with family and friends which was a very enjoyable way to end 2009.  Mum and I also enjoyed going into town often to get fresh fruits and vegetables from the market.  It was an easy walk down to the main road to wait for the many buses that pass to go into town.  The only drawback is that the main town of Roseau is very uneven so you spend most of your time looking at your feet instead of what is around you.  It can be quite congested in town when one or many cruise ships are in.  Along with the usual shops, grocery stores there is all the municipal buildings, courts, police, etc., so parking is at a premium and traffic is a one way system.  They are in process of building a by pass so that you can eliminate going through town if you don’t need to.

If you are not crazy about water sports there are plenty of other things to do on Dominica and lots of taxis and buses to take you there.  There a quite a few waterfalls, some of which are easy to get to and some which require all day hiking and of course the famous sulphur baths.  One thing mum and I missed was not being able to walk down the white sand beaches of Turks and Caicos.  There are a few white sand beaches but they are up on the North east point of the island.  The rest are black sand beaches or very slippery rocks.  The most famous one of course is Champagne Beach.  This is where we take everyone from the cruise ships - divers and snorkelers alike.  This is where streams of  bubbles and hot water rise up from a submerged volcanic gas vent called a fumarole.  The area around here is stained a rust color due to the high mineral content of the gases.  Luckily most of the time the visibility is very good here and the bubbles very consistent and when the sun is shining they are spectacular.  Of course we always recommend not drinking the “champagne bubbles”.  Around this area is lot of living coral and lots of fish including a pair of banded jaw fish which anyone with a camera takes a picture of.  Also quite often you will see some nice size crabs in the many barrel sponges along with lots of basket starfish.  There are many great dive sites and we are always on the look out for sea horses, frog fish, bat fish, flying gurnards, upside down jellyfish and lesser electric rays.  Not a lot of big stuff here like sharks and spotted eagle rays but lots of healthy coral and fish.

Our friends from Perth, Maddie and Roger, were on their usual January vacation and were spending time in St. Lucia and Barbados.  They decided they were going to drop in and visit us for a day.  We went to meet them at the airport around 11.00 am and of course LIAT, true to form, was over an hour late.  Having traveled all morning by the time they got here they were starving so we went immediately to Red Rock Haven for lunch. It is a small resort on a black/white sand beach.  We ordered lunch right away and there were a few other customers and we were amused that the kitchen could not cope with bringing our meals all at the same time so as the meals arrived we were eating by ourselves.  The food was average and a little overpriced but the setting was lovely.  We drove the long way back through Portsmouth so that they could get a good overview of the island.  We stopped in Roseau briefly and picked up some food and wine for dinner to have at the apartment.  They enjoyed the view (which they were missing in Barbados) and we barbequed chicken on some real charcoal and a lively evening was had by all - including my mum!  In the morning we took them to Champagne beach and Soufriere to see the Catholic Church built by the French in 1759 and then up to Trafalgar Falls.  We had enough time for a quick lunch at the Dive shop and they met the owners and a few of the crew we work with.  Unfortunately it was time for the one and a half hour drive back to the airport but we had packed a lot in on a one day pass!

Before mum left in February we decided to treat ourselves and take a private tour with Khatts located at Fort Young Hotel.  It was an all day trip starting out with driving up to Indian River where we took a punt down the river to a little bar where you stop for a drink and a nature walk  before heading back.  The silence and surroundings were awesome and so peaceful.  After that we carried on to Portsmouth where we decided to stop and have lunch at the Purple Turtle restaurant.  We then headed out to Morne Diablotin (Devil’s Mountain - the highest point in Dominica at 4,747 feet) where we took an easy walk through the forest and were in awe of the huge gnarly trees and multitude of plants which our tour guide named for us.  We were lucky enough to see the indigenous parrots only found on Dominica - the Jaco and Sisserou.    By this time it was close to the end of the day so we had the whole place to ourselves - it was breathtaking.

Of course the plan was to do this so that Mum had a fantastic day out before she left to go back to England.  The next day she got up and said “she wasn’t leaving” and unbeknownst to her - she was right!!  Steve and I went into town in the early morning and saw the majority of people wearing dust masks.  We asked what was going on and found out that Island of Montserrat, which had a volcanic eruption earlier in January, and then the dome collapsed and created an ash cloud that went 9 miles in the air.  The wind, which generally goes the opposite way, was coming towards Dominica and covered the whole island in a layer of ash.  Consequently the airport was closed for the day - so mum got her wish and stayed!!  We managed to get her out going via Barbados instead of Antigua a couple of days later and she got back home without incident after that!

For us we were wanting to move on to another island.  There had been much talk amongst investors that San Salvador in the Bahamas might be the next place to become popular.  We have done a little research on this island and we decided it was worth taking a look at and doing some diving.   We stayed in Dominica until the end of March to get the dive shop through the busy March season and after that the cruise ship season was starting to wind down and then pretty much come to a close by the end on May.  So off we go again!

The time went by too fast as usual and the day arrived to fly to Dominica.  Had spent an agonizing few weeks trying to keep within the luggage allowance but ended up paying for excess baggage!  Spent the night in Miami and arrived the next day in Dominica - on time.  We picked up our rental car and drove across the island on about the one and only road.  The first portion was not too bad and in daylight but towards the end of the journey (about an hour and a half) the road was being torn up in preparation for repaving.  We encountered a lot of muddy slop and also an accident which held us up for about 15 minutes.  If you are feint of heart this is not the journey for you as the roads are narrow and lots of switchbacks - take a bus or a taxi!  We arrived at Castle Comfort Lodge to a warm welcome and we were shown to our room. Later on Derek called to say he would be over to meet us.  We met and had a drink at the bar and his wife Ginette was also there to greet us.  Steve and I had a very pleasant dinner at their restaurant and early to bed after a long couple of days of travel.   We spent the next few days diving so that we could get to know the dive sites and meet the crew - who were all great.  Dominica is known for its friendly people and this is definitely true.  In the afternoons we took a look at many apartments to rent (hopefully within walking distance of the Dive Shop) and ended up settling on a place.  It was built about a year ago but has never been lived in so everything was bright and cheery and brand new.  We negotiated with the real estate agent on price and date that we could move in.  We moved out of Castle Comfort Lodge on October 28th and into our new rental residence. It didn’t take long to settle in, unpack and enjoy the view. October 31st ended up being our first official day of work and I was on the dive boat leading a dive and Steve was on a different boat teaching a course.  The next week we had a group from DAN (Divers Alert Network) who were all staying at the Fort Young hotel.  The group consisted of mostly Doctors with spouses or friends staying for just over a week, attending seminars and diving in the afternoon.

We did more driving than anticipated as the weather turned out to be pretty good and only a few downpours here and there.  We ended up in Bathhurst and then headed out to Drummondville the next day to stay overnight there at the Best Western.  Made it back to Perth without incident and Helen and John were there to welcome us with a drink and dinner.  We then started preparing for where we were going to spend the winter and also John’s 60th birthday.  Unbeknownst to John, Helen had called in a favor from their friend Brad Kyle of Kyle’s Town and Country Chrysler.  Brad organized a Porsche for John for the weekend they were travelling to Barry to celebrate with friends and family.   The car was delivered on Thursday afternoon (the day of his birthday) complete with bow!  John arrived home from work and luckily for all of us survived the heart attack of seeing a Porsche in his driveway.  It didn’t take long for Helen to let him know that it was just rented for the weekend.  He then proceeded to take all his employees for a spin and it took quite a while to wipe the smile off his face!  On one of our trips to Kanata Diving Supply we found out they had taken a group to Dominica in 2005 and stayed at Castle Comfort Lodge and dove with Dive Dominica.  We decided to contact Derek and Ginette Perryman at Dive Dominica and see if they needed any help for the winter and as luck would have it they had just put an ad in the paper for Divemasters. We chatted on the phone and e.mailed back and forth specifying all the usual paperwork that was needed for a work permit.  We booked our flight with our points so we only had to pay the taxes.  We spent the next few weeks organizing what we were taking and visiting the people we hadn’t seen yet.  Our buddy Paul had been very sick over the summer but managed to get well enough to sit up for a few hours for us to go visit and make him lunch.  He was in amazingly good spirits considering all the pain he was in.  We gave him his belated birthday present of a t-shirt from Turks and Caicos.  We also went over to our friend Marnie’s place on Ferguson Lake near Calaboogie to see how she had finished off her house.  It looked really great and we loved how she had finished it off to make it wheelchair accessible.  We especially liked how she had designed her master bedroom and bathroom.  Her sister was there trying to finish up the landscaping before the winter sets in.  She took a break to have lunch with us.  We chatted about Dominica and Marnie started getting that look that said “maybe I have enough points to get a flight there’! - so we are hoping she can take some time off and come and visit us and get wet!  Great visit and Marnie has a beautiful spot over the lake.

In the morning we checked on availability of hotels in Digby and it seemed a much better venue so we changed our ferry reservation to Tuesday at 8.00 a.m. Decided to stay at the Dockside Suites - again had one room left at a good price.  After a great hot breakfast we took a quick tour around Liverpool and checked out the Fort Point lighthouse.  It was nice to see a different shape (square) and it was on a very nicely landscaped area.  We found out that Liverpool was the second busiest shipping port next to Halifax and is known as the Port of the Privateer.  Instead of taking the scenic road via Yarmouth to Digby we took the road across and the drive was really pretty with all the landscape turning colour with red being extremely predominant.  Arrived at Annapolis Royal to check out the Annapolis Tidal Generating Station. This is the largest straight-flow turbine in the world to generate more than 30 million kilowatt hours per year - enough electricity to power 4,500 homes.  A really fascinating spot and they do tours but unfortunately not while we were there.  This is also where we found out that the Osprey is the Provincial bird of Nova Scotia. Arrived in Digby about 3.00 pm looking for the Dockside Suites and the exterior is the complete opposite to the interior.  Had a great room with a balcony over the bay.  Sun was shining occasionally and it was really warm so we had a wander around the town and talked to a few of the fisherman. We were fascinated on how they would tie up their boats with such a high and low tide but they just have very slack lines and fingers crossed that the weather remains good!  Of course when in Digby (just like being in Rome!) you have to try the scallops - world famous apparently - but unfortunately the meal was a bit of a disappointment.  Steve and I had them fresh cooked in garlic butter with rice and everything came lukewarm and really not a lot of flavour.  We didn’t complain as the people are so proud of their heritage but, like me, if you were not a scallop lover to start with this would not encourage you to eat them - very unfortunate.

Set the alarm for 6.00 am so we would have enough time to get to the ferry by 7.00 for the sailing at 8.00 am. Still very warm at that time of the morning and enjoyed wandering around the ship.  Actually had wireless internet on board so we took advantage of it to catch up with our blog work and check out hotels that we may stay at.  Arrived at 11.00 to pouring rain and there are not a lot of things to do in St. John in that type of weather so we decided to head straight out to Fredericton.

Headed out at around 11.00 to check out Peggy’s Cove.  The topography started to change dramatically and was quite rocky.  When we arrived at “The Cove” it is very pretty but quite touristy - the most amount of people we have encountered on our trip.  We mentioned this to the waitress at the restaurant and she said that tomorrow would be even worse as there were 5 coaches from the cruise ship in Halifax - we chose the right day!  A little breezy and cool but luckily no rain. There are lots of warnings about walking on the rocks when raining as they can be quite slippery as they are very smooth.  Took a picture of the famous lighthouse and the Cove then moved on to Lunenburg to check out the Bluenose II.  Drove through Mahone Bay - obviously a very popular spot -  a very pretty town and had some craft fair on that day.  When we arrived in Lunenburg the Bluenose was out on tour until 3.30 pm so we decided to check out the other historic landmarks - one of which is the St. John’s Anglican Church built in 1753 that unfortunately had a fire in  November 1st 2001 (they never did find out the reason why but the insurance deemed it accidental).  It was then restored to its original glory in 2005 with help from private investors and the government and they managed to restore all the pews in the congregation.  It was going to be torn down but then it would not be considered a heritage site.  The chancel area has a beautiful dark blue ceiling with many stars hence being known the Church of the Stars and the guide explained that it was painted exactly as what they saw in the sky on Christmas Eve 1753.  In this area they also have brightly painted organ pipes. It is a beautiful town with all the buildings very well kept.

  We decided to buy a couple of t shirts at the Bluenose shop with all proceeds going to the upkeep of the ship.  We saw it in the distance and waited for it to come in and once everyone had “abandoned ship” we went on deck for a look around. We then headed for Liverpool with an easy run through and we could see the newly opened Best Western from the Highway.  We went through town to check out the Lane’s Privateer which just had a couple of rooms left - one queen on the second floor with a great view over the water.  Great place with character, restaurant, pub, gift shop and book store.  Had already booked the ferry from Digby to New Brunswick and tried booking a hotel in St. John and everything was booked. Decided to head down for an excellent dinner in their dining room and took an evening stroll before heading off to bed.  In the morning watching the news we realised that the Prime Minister was having a conference in St. John and that was why everything was booked - so change of plan!

Spent the morning before leaving checking on schedules and prices of ferries over to Portland or Bar Harbor, Maine or possibly leaving Digby to go New Brunswick.  Didn’t make any final decisions and headed out to Halifax.  Only took just over an hour and again the weather was beautiful.  Found our way to the downtown Tourist Information Centre but very little parking so Steve dropped me off and I said we were looking for accommodation for the night.  I was informed of a special at the Best Western overlooking the water for $99.00.  He called and they had availability for a Queen for the same price so gave them my credit card to secure it.  When Steve arrived he was surprised that I had made a decision so quickly. 

Got directions and it was a little further out of town than we wanted (not walking distance) - we just wanted to park and check out the downtown area.  Arrived at the hotel and mentioned my mistake and asked if we could cancel - no problem - but they would be happy to upgrade us to a lakeview larger room for the same price.  We realised there was no way we could get a place downtown for close to the same price so decided on taking a taxi into town and back to save us the problem of finding parking and paying for it. We were allowed to check in early so we headed downtown for a lunch on the waterfront at Saltys.  After that we wandered down the boardwalk with the sunshine beating down on us.  There is the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic with some artifacts outside that you can check out.  Got to Pier 21 where it is famous for Canadian soldiers leaving and coming back from both World Wars and the gateway for all the immigrants arriving to Canada - our version of Ellis Island.  We checked out a few things but decided not to take the tour as it was over an hour.  On our way to the Citadel we passed the Alexander Keith’s Brewery and they had tours up until 8.00 pm so we chose to go to the Citadel first while the weather was still good. We arrived and it was closing at 5.00 and said if we waited 10 minutes we could get in for free so everyone chose to wait.  It is quite the fort with an army display that is fascinating.  It carries General Wolf’s cape that he actually died on (you are not allowed to photograph it).  Walked around the top of the fort and checked out the cannons, shells and gunpowder - a great view.  There are two huge masts that look like sailing ships which were used for communication.  Unfortunately didn’t have too much time but saw all the highlights.  Left to do a tour of the brewery but there was a charge of $15.95 per person which we felt was a little pricy.  Checked out a little bit more of downtown before stopping at the landmark - Halifax Ale House - while the sun was setting and caught a cab back to our room.  Went for a wander around the property and to see what was around in the area and there was a small pizzeria which made souflaki with their own home made tzatziki sauce so that’s what we had for dinner in our room while looking out our window and the gorgeous view.