Dominica Filipo Edition
Herbalism, road trip to a waterfall, cooking with locals and the most beautiful hike in the Caribbean
Last time we were here, we met a local called Filipo on the Indian River Tour (cuddling with iguanas, you may remember... 🤣). It was already clear to us back then: when we come back here, we want to do something with Filipo. With this mission in mind, we dropped anchor in Portsmouth ⚓
Day 1
Thierry has tracked down Filipo on the beach. We chat to him for a while and he actually remembers us. We tell him that we'd like to do something with him. He's delighted and immediately suggests a few things for us to do. We tell him that we want to hire a car tomorrow and drive around the island, but would like to meet up with him the next day. Okay, all right. So we set off on a walk to the village of Portsmouth.
Filipo catches up with us just a few minutes later. He shows us the way, he says. On the way, he picks another thousand herbs to make tea, buys us fruit and introduces us to the people. We then meet Kaya and Gabriel by chance and all walk into the village together. There happens to be a reggae concert by a local band tonight, so of course we go and see it. It starts to rain, we continue dancing and arrive at the Cervino soaking wet. How simple life can be.
Day 2
We leave our boat at around 08:00 in the morning and take the dinghy ashore. While we are waiting for our hire car, Filipo joins us with his packed rucksack, beaming like a schoolboy. He asks: "What's the mission?". 🤣 We explain to him that we hadn't actually expected him and that it wasn't in our budget to pay him for two days. He says it doesn't matter, he doesn't want any money from us, we're friends after all. All right Filipo, welcome on board! 😅
So off we go into the countryside. This island is so colourful, so crisp and healthy. We take a track to a small, white spring. We continue a little further by car and about half an hour later we arrive at a small waterfall. Filipo catches a crab with her bare hands and shows us the baby crabs she is carrying in her fanny pack. Sooooo cool! Then he catches another shrimp and climbs a tree 🤣 This guy is marvellous.
We stop in a small village and have lunch in a snack bar. We continue in the direction of the Syndicate waterfall. On the way there, we stop at an art gallery, or rather an artist's house, which is open for visits. Mega cool to see.
The road to the waterfall is adventurously narrow, but our driver Mr Thierry does a great job. We only ever understand Filipo's instructions at the last second and sometimes have to stop and tell him that we don't understand what he means 😂 He talks very indistinctly and sometimes a bit confusingly, and at least once in every sentence he says "yea man, issa vibez!" 👌😂 From the car park, we walk a little way through the forest to the waterfall. Here we take a freshwater bath 🤩 and wash our hair with hibiscus leaves. Simply crush them in your hand and mix with water to create a soapy consistency. How cool is that? We eat delicious mangoes from Filipo's garden that he has brought for us. On the way back, we take a walk along a forest path, marvelling at the huge, old trees and even see a few parrots. We get back to the boat late, have something to eat and fall tired into our bunks 😴
Day 3
On the third day, Thierry goes to the market early, the other two take it easy and I have to work for a few hours again. In the afternoon, we meet up with Filipo on the beach. He has invited us to his house. But before that we have to organise a car in town, because tomorrow we want to hike to Boiling Lake, which is in the south of the island. Today we have Lennard with us, a traveller from Germany who was on his own, so we invited him along.
Filipo has a colourful little house and a cat called Ganja 😂 You get the picture... He's the sweetest person, he went to the market and bought double the amount so we could cook it on the boat. 😍 He lights coconut shells and lemongrass on fire with the help of wax that we scraped off a tree in the forest yesterday. It's really incredible how well Filipo feels and knows the forest, its inhabitants and its herbs. We can learn so much from his nature. We cook a stew with him using local root vegetables, lentils and homemade coconut milk. Then we sit around the fire under the starry sky and eat together with two of Filipo's friends. A wonderful evening comes to an end, relatively early, as we have to leave at 06:00 tomorrow morning. Let's get going! 😊
Day 4
The time has come: Boiling Lake, here we come! 🤩 We meet Filipo on the beach at 6.00 am. We get into the car and follow our friend's, as always, very incomprehensible instructions 😂 We waddle off from the car park and it soon becomes clear that this hike is something unique! It goes uphill, through the greenest greenery under huge trees that must be ancient! Filipo jumps off like a freshly coiffed spring sheep, in flip-flops of course. As we ascend, the flora and fauna are constantly changing. We leave the tree line and are now in fern country 🌿
The path is steep, but so far easy to walk on. We come over the first summit and descend again on the other side. Here we now come across more streams and small, differently coloured waterfalls, orange-coloured earth and more rocks. On a kind of plateau, the "Valley of Desolation", we take a break and eat something. The hot spring is already flowing through here and hot steam is coming out of the rocks in several places. Down in the town, we bought a few eggs, which we now boil in the river 😉 From here, you can already see where Boiling Lake is located: under the cloud of steam behind the next summit. We tackle the last few metres in altitude and there it is, smelling of fart and steaming away: Boiling Lake at around 800 metres above sea level. The temperature on the shore of the lake is around 90°C 🥵 and the water in the centre of the lake is boiling. We stay a little higher up on a plateau and enjoy the view.
So we tackle the way back. It's a tough one, because it feels steep and overhanging up the mountain again, and then down again on the other side. We arrive at the entrance, which is located at Gorge Titou, at around 16:00 (you may remember that we swam here last time with Atlanta, Andy and Kent. Once again, we don't miss out on the cool refreshment! On the way back, we stop off in Filipo's home village to visit his friends and family. He doesn't miss out on a little iguana hunt on the beach and amuses more than just the kids. 😆 We arrive back on the boat in the evening, tired but incredibly grateful and satisfied.
Filipo is an amazing person, he has so little and gives so much. During the whole time he spent with us, he never once asked for anything or demanded money. We still gave him a bit of money as a token of our gratitude, which he was so happy about that we were happy too. Our last day of the Filipo edition is now approaching: we are sailing from Portsmouth to Roseau and are looking forward to meeting a very special sailor 😉,
Day 5
On the fifth and final day, we invite Filipo into our world. Although he deals with sailors every day, he has never been on a sailing boat before. Thierry picks him up at half past nine in the morning and off we go. Together we sail to Roseau, in the south of the island. Filipo is so happy, it's really nice to watch. Unfortunately, we don't have much wind, but that doesn't matter, we have time.
When we arrive in Roseau, we go for a swim and then we cook. Filipo sleeps on board with us, which also makes him happy as a schoolboy 🥰 Unfortunately, he sank his mobile phone in the river a month or so ago, which is why he can't be reached at the moment. We got a few old mobile phones from Thierry's mum Christine, and we gave him one of them as a present. We get a really touching hug as a thank you. No joke guys, this man's appreciation is so immense. He told me that he needed a new passport because his old one had expired. And with the money we gave him, he could finally afford the stamp. Unbelievable, isn't it? It really touched me. I think a deep connection and friendship has developed here. Of course, we don't know whether we'll ever see Filipo again. But that is the fate of the traveller.
Five super intense but wonderful days lie behind us. Grateful and once again aware of how privileged we are, we leave Dominica. Our next destination is Martinique. What three fish have we hooked here? The secret will soon be revealed...
But until then, keep cool and don't forget:
Issa viiiiiiibez!