Sunday and Dominica

First words out of my mouth “what time is it?” and Bernie’s response “10 o’clock” WHAT!  I guess getting up so darn early yesterday and going to bed around midnight I really needed a good long sleep.  Nothing woke me up (maybe it is the bigger pillows – steward shoved two regular pillows into one pillow case making a normal size pillow) I did not hear others around us get up and go about their day, I did not hear us docking in Dominicia, even the latte’s smell sitting on my bedside table didn’t wake me.  But boy do I feel rested. 

wish my bus was like this

good laugh at the street names in front of the church

I am very very excited about today’s tour.  Alice arranged a cooking tour today with Dominica Caribbean Cooking Experience, but that is not until noon so we have a bit of time ashore wandering around.  Thankfully we are at the pier right in town so we can easily walk around.  A lot of things are closed because it is Sunday but we did walk by a few churches and listen for a bit to the beautiful choirs.  We walk towards the IGA and I pick up my Kennedy Rum Punch for the cabin….  Now this good stuff, it is strong though so you do need to mix it with some soda, I like to mix it with Sprite --  for me at least.

great restaurant located right across from the downtown pier

lots of places to shop

 At noon we meet up with the rest of the group, we are seven in total from our ship and Michael is there and directs us to his waiting van for the ride up into the mountain to his home.  He informs us that we will be joining a group from the other ship that is in port (a German Line) and we meet up with a group of about 10 from that ship and they have someone from the cruise line to translate and even the video crew is on this tour too – but it might be hard for us to buy the DVD since well we are on Princess.

Michael explained to us that him and his wife have been doing these tours for a while, originally they started the cooking class in a closed restaurant in town but around 8 years ago they moved it to their house which is situated up on the mountain side with a beautiful garden and an amazing view.  Right away when we arrive we feel like we are visiting friends in their home and well we need to help with the cooking.  Daria the hostess welcomes us all and introduces us to the chef Elizabeth and their assistant – sorry I forgot her name. 

We stand around a circular counter and Daria explains what we are going to make, how to prepare and describes local cuisine, their ingredients and we get hands on experience right away.

the spices we used

Her and Elizabeth have us prep the rice and bean dish, one person is in charge of cooking that.  Then she prepares some pumpkin for a drink, I know it sounds weird but trust me it was amazing.  She then goes into the demonstration for how they make their spiced rum and she is right Captain Morgan has nothing on this rum!  We then prepare a marinade for a fish dish (today it is marlin) and that gets started.  My favorite is next, the plantain dish where they are sliced, put in flour then a batter mixture then in fresh coconut and then fried.  Lots of steps (Bernie is put in charge of frying them along with one of the German guests).  I along with Alice and two others are put in charge of the drunken grapefruit dish, lots of laughs were heard here.  Another group prepared the salad and dressing.  Everyone got a job or two to do. 

What was the best experience for me was the whole group mixing and mingling even with the language barrier, Germans, Americans, British and Canadians working side by side us learning some German and thankfully many of the Germans speaking a few words of English for us.  If only leaders of nations could be here to learn a few things.

We serve ourselves and sit at a large communal table where we get a performance from two younger people who sang traditional songs from Dominica, beautiful.  We cheer in English and German and dig in while staring out at a beautiful view.

After our meal we all give our email address to get the recipes delivered to us once we get home. And I for one know that I will definitely be making some of them.

Michael takes us all back to the ship and makes a quick detour up to the lookout for some photos then we are back at the ship around 4 pm.

I will add that we were asked for our emails so they could forward the recipes but a month after the tour we still had not received any recipes   I sent them an email and they forwarded them to me finally and asked that I send to the group, but I don't have everyone's email, and was disappointed that they were even asking.  I think they should print out the recipes and hand them out at the end of the tours from now on.

the pier at Dominica - downtown one

Ironically dinner tonight in the Horizon Court is the German themed buffet and we think we are going to head there for our meal.  Also it works out well as there are a few events tonight that we want to attend. 

Tonight’s entertainment includes;  GLBT Get Together; Interdenominational Church Service; Accent is playing in Explorers; Tortuga Rum Cake Sampling; Sol Provider is performing in Club Fusion; Interactive Trivia; Are You Smarter than a Crew Member Gameshow; Best of Abba with DJ Alex; Karaoke and Boggie Shoes is the big production show.