Aba Wavine Cyrique- The hike and beach!

I have a new favorite spot on the island! On Sunday Ryan and I went on a trip with the Spouses Organization to Aba Wavine Cyrique, which is on the other side of the island. There were ten of us total, plus our guide/bus driver Theo. Theo's also the one who took the spouses to Bense Pool not long ago. It was a long bus ride (about an hour and forty five minutes which is a pretty miserable length on these windy roads) but no one was carsick, which was a nice change!

Aba Wavine Cyrique is essentially a waterfall that lands directly in the Atlantic Ocean. We'd heard about it, and I've wanted to go ever since. We'd also heard about the hike... which is the really adventurous part! To get to the trail head you have to drive out along a peninsula until the road ends, which is when you start hiking down steps for about ten minutes (it started to feel a bit like Boiling Lake) and then you reach the first cliff. This hike is memorable because you don't really hike. You lower yourself backwards down cliffs using vines and roots and ropes. Crazy, but fun! And they are real cliffs, not just steep hills. Nice straight up and down cliffs.

Since I am SO fond of heights (yes that is sarcastic) I was afraid I would completely panic, but it is such a work out and you are so focused on your next step you hardly have time to be nervous. There were three descents in total, as well as a number of spots where you edged along a narrow ledge to reach the next descent. Theo stopped along the way to show us cinnamon bark as well as this fern that left 'tattoos' on your skin. Pretty cool! The hike down was about forty-five minutes, which wasn't long at all, especially considering there are parts where only one person can go at a time.

It is definitely 'at-your-own-risk' hiking... most people climbing like this in the States would be wearing a harness and other safety equipment. Not here! It was a LOT of fun, however! It was very adventurous and everyone enjoyed it, including Theo! He actually made some money off of us... some locals didn't think we'd make it all the way to the bottom and back up. They were wrong, and we did the whole thing!

Here's a photo of our first descent... this is the part just before it gets REALLY steep. It's hard to tell here, but it is pretty much straight up and down. The ropes were thick and prickly and everyone had blisters from holding on so tightly!

This was the 'double rope zone'. It was tricky because the trees and roots were so thick that there were times you'd be five feet out from the cliff face! You can see that I'm focusing so hard that I didn't even look up for a photo! The scariest part (at least for me) was at the base of this cliff.... we moved onto a rope ladder that would sway and jerk as you climbed down to reach this narrow ledge. The rope ladder was so flat against the cliff face that it was hard to get a good grip with your feet and the ropes securing it were MUCH narrower... pretty much everyone admitted that this was the most frightening part. If the rope ladder broke you'd have a nice long drop onto the rocks below! Somehow I trust the roots and vines more than the rope ladder.

At last! Here's the waterfall, just off one of the amazing black sand beaches that Dominica is famous for. All those volcanoes help make some amazing black beaches! The beach really is that color, it's not just darker because it's wet. I'm still used to the yellow beaches you see in the States and on tv and in movies... the pitch black beach is still startling to me! But it is very beautiful!

And here's a photo of Ryan and I out on the rock below the waterfall! We're hard to see, but we're those tiny figures out on the rock in the middle of the waves. And those waves are INTENSE... I'm going to post a little 'story' about another spouse and I trying to reach the rock! The Atlantic is very rough down here and it will really batter you if you're not careful.

I can't imagine a more wonderful hike than this... although I have yet to see Victoria Falls, which is apparently amazing! I'll definitely have to go on that hike before I leave the island... although I'm not really sure if it'll be able to beat out Aba Wavine to become my favorite spot on the island. I can't wait for another trip to Aba Wavine.