Dominica...the 8th Wonder of the World!

So this post will be mostly pictures.  Last Saturday we went on a little mini island tour.  We hit 3 hot spots here in Dominica and all 3 of them were amazing!  So without further ado...some of the spectacular beauty that is Dominica!

 These are all from the Emerald Pool.  They call it that because the fresh water pours into a pool where the rocks are a dark greenish color.  So the pool looks Emerald...seriously!  It's about a 7 minute hike in and when you approach the clearing, it is just breathtaking.  You can swim in the pool too (we didn't do that this time, but I will the next time we go!)

These are the Sorensens (new first semesters that we met here!).  That's Whitney and her hubby Tom (he's the student) and their little boy Camden (such a sweetie!). They're from Utah/Nevada...BYU grads...

Oh the faces...though I appreciate the iPhone 5 and its feature which lets me take decent selfies.  Otherwise you guys would probably get a bunch of pictures of of just nostrils or just scalps...

Looks like a screen saver doesn't it?!  Oh it's just gorgeous...  Here...lemme show you a quick little video clip so you can get the full effect...

Ok, next is the Screw Spa.  It's a natural sulphur spring (they're everywhere here in Dominica...it's a volcanic island!).  Not sure why they call it the Screw Spa and I'm not sure I want to know! There are several different pools here.  Some are cooler and some are piping hot.  Jonathan and I didn't get all the way in (if you know me you know I don't get in water I can't see the bottom of), but most of the rest of our group did.  The water looks dirty, but it's not.  The sulphur makes it that color.  Lot's of people ask if it smells bad.  Honestly, when you're there, no.  Not at all.  But driving into the area there was a faint smell of egg salad...

That's the view outside the spas...

Again...like a screen saver huh?

Understandable...

Because if you drop your sangwich in the sulphur spa, you're not getting it back.  I'm sure the reason they put this sign up is to cut down on the egg salad smell from so many people bringing their lunch to the spas and dropping it in as an offering to the toot god...  (that's probably only funny to me...)

And lastly...the Trafalgar Falls.  This used to be a triple water fall, but after a hurricane came through not too long ago, the third falls (it was a hot water falls) got cut off and/or redirected.  It's still spectacular though!  There is about a 15 minute hike in to see the falls from where we are taking pictures here, but we're told you can hike to the top and swim in the pools.  That's on our Dominica bucket list for sure!

Us at the falls...a good selfie of the two of us, but you can't really see the falls.  Use your imaginations people...

There's sulphur here too...that's what's making those rocks look orangey...

The jungle...looks like ferngully right??

Conrad the Terrible.  Exercising his super power of flying through the air with the greatest of ease...and a slammin' cape...

And there she is.  Oh so gorgeous...

This is the second one...

Jonathan getting a little drink...

Heehee...I like this one...

And here's another quick video so you can really see what these beauties look like.  It's a little hard to take a picture with both falls in the frame...

So there you have it.  There are many, MANY more sights to see here.  We will try to hit all of them in our 16 months here.  It will be hard to top these three, but we are told that the Boiling Lake is spectacular too.  We're also looking forward to some snorkeling and whale watching this weekend!  Woohoo!  I'm sure there will be some awesome pictures from that...