30 rulers is a lot! It was hard for me to imagine so much rain. I grew up in Arizona like you guys and we get excited if we get one inch! 🙂 The deadly caterpillars were eating plants that will kill any animal that eat it and if an animal eats them, the animal will die too! Nature is amazing! Here is a picture of the highest city in Dominica. It is 2,000 feet high in the rainforest!
Oh my goodness family! I can’t even pause to read your emails before I tell you about this trip!!!!!!! I just had one of the top 5 (possibly out of the top 3?) nature experiences of my life and how I wish you could have been there with me!!! I wish I could tell you about this trip in orderly fashion, but I have to skip to the best trip EVER! Ok, so I went on the “Rainforest 4X4” trip without knowing anything about it other than it was…in the rainforest. 😉 We got in huge jeep things with no tops, just bars. We went up over 2,000 feet through the rainforest for about 1 1/2 hours. It was the most incredible green I have ever seen! I wish I could describe to you how DIFFERENT the Caribbean is to even Hawaii! There is no comparison simply because it is such a different green. I’m constantly thinking of the pirates in these waters and all the history on this island. Well, we went to the highest village on the island at over 2,000 feet (the highest peak is over 4,000 feet, Dominica is the most mountainous island in the Atlantic) and beyond the village we stopped to hike a little ways across a rickety bridge and up a trail a bit. Honestly, we were already in shock, shaking our heads the entire way up that we were TOTALLY unprepared for the last part of our journey. Hang in there while I try to describe this and when I get home I will show you videos!! We all got on horizontal “bum life jackets” as we called them because if we were hurt, our bums would float just fine…and nothing else 😉 Anyway, Kara and I were a little nervous because we didn’t know what to expect (but not scared, don’t worry! We were with faculty and it was a SAS trip.) We climbed into the water and saw a little crevice. People were jumping from the top into a little pool just outside the crevice and honestly I thought that was all it was, then the whole group began to swim single-file into the crevice tunnel! I didn’t see it until we started swimming through it and all I can say was it was one of the top 3 experiences of my life!!! Think Peoria canyon, except absolutely covered in jungle growth (rainforest!!) all the way into a tiny pool area that was completely covered by the green growth above. We swam single file for quite a ways and Kara and I were absolutely in shock! Man, I wish I was better at expressing myself, it was absolutely incredible. Then there was a huge waterfall that came through the roof of the small pool. It would be worth the cost to fly to Dominica just to see IT (too bad there is no airport! 😉 Anyway, it just doesn’t cut it to try to type this in an email, but I can’t wait to show you my pictures and videos when I get back! Oh!!! And so you know, that is where they filmed part of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (which I have never seen but now am SERIOUSLY tempted to watch!) Kara and I were just ecstatic and totally on a nature high the whole way back the MV Explorer. I will continue this email with the rest of my AWESOME Dominica experience soon, I have to run to dinner and then have TONZ of homework to do before tomorrow morning :}
Love burst!
Destiny
Bring Me That Horizon 