January 24: Dominica

Aidan:  We went whale watching today, but it was not worth it. There were no whales and we were also supposed to look for dolphins, but there were none of them, either. 

Aidan in a futile search for a whale

John: Aidan is right; the whale watching was disappointing. We went out in a fairly cool catamaran with a group from our ship, and after we were a few miles out to sea, they dropped an echolocator. They picked up signs of whales, including a characteristic sperm whale call (who call to each other, apparently, in a pattern that goes beat, beat… beat, beat, beat), but at no point were they able to figure out exactly where they were. So we came into port without seeing any marine mammals--too bad!  And rare, apparently; the captain of our boat said that they see whales 85-90 per cent of the time, so we were definitely unlucky today; less lucky, for example, than the group that went out in the same boat yesterday, who saw many whales and dolphins. 

Maeve: Mommy and I took a taxi to the lovely Emerald Pools, where you can swim and there are waterfalls. When we were leaving the ship, some women in the port area offered to braid my hair. Mommy lifted up my hat to show them my head, and they fell over laughing.

Maeve at the Emerald Pool