On Saturday we took the Ross bus down to Roseau, the capital of Dominica. My expectations were that of a more developed city with more shops and things to do. We were dropped off in the 'downtown' area I guess you would call it, and just wandered around. Roseau did have more shops and a few bigger grocery stores but the conditions of Roseau compared with that of Portsmouth were of equal degradation, if not worse. I am tempted to think that this is a backwards country. In many respects it is and the people seem to be without ambition. I am then reminded that it is an island with different lifestyles with somewhat different ideologies than the West. Whatever the case may be I remember our 37 year old native taxi driver, George, telling me about how they were flourishing under an agriculture-focused nation 10 years ago. It is the course of developing nations to go from agriculture and transition to an industrialized nation. It appears that they are definitely in the lag phase.

From Roseau we took a taxi down to Champagne Beach. It was the first time that either of us had gone snorkeling. I guess I got pretty spoiled for my first time since Dominica is supposed to be one of the top five dive/snorkeling places in the world. - It was definitely a lot of fun and amazing seeing so many different, brightly colored fish. Although no white sand, it did offer bubbles emanating from the sea floor which was fun to swim through, and hence why it is named Champagne Beach.