I wake up very early because today is a day when I want to hike a lot. I gulp down some cereal and milk before leaving Le Petit Paradis, where I was staying. Even though it's still early in the morning, it doesn't take long before sweat starts dripping down my face.
The hike through the morning village, past lots of beautiful plants, crashed cars and sulfur springs is already beautiful. Somehow the houses around here are all so colorful that it makes me happy to see them.
But soon the way heads off into the jungle. A pair of blue and yellow stripes marks the way because I am walking parts of the Waitukubuli national trail. After some more hiking, I reach back to the road and start putting out my thumb again for getting a lift. A short time later I am at the beginning of the trail of the day towards the Boiling Lake. A sign advises that this trail is going to be tough and that I should wear appropriate shoes and that it takes approximately 6 hours to complete just the hike, not including any breaks or stops to enjoy the scenery. Luckily I am still early so none of this is a problem for me.
So I start walking across the jungle. The path crosses a mountain and the view from it is tremendous but somehow I am on a mission. I don't want that hike to take 3 hours one way, I want to hike it faster. So I sweat, almost jogging up the steep mountainside, my heart pounding in my chest. Yet my jaw drops when I reach the ridge because the view from the mountaintop is simply too beautiful. Small clouds pass by in, obscuring the view of the lush green jungle-covered mountains in the distance.
Eventually, I walk back down this mountain, along a small river bed. The mountainside changes color. Shades of green, orange and yellow. A smell of rotten eggs lies in the air. Sulfurous vents steam in the distance, but the path is going to cross them.
Just looking at this valley from the path is gorgeous. It's called the Valley of Desolation and it's full of volcanic activity. A hot stream powered by the sulfurous vents runs through it, meandering and bubbling with boiling water from the geothermal activity. The steam and hissing noises, and the smell increase the closer I get, and it feels somewhat dangerous to be walking this path. But it's not too bad. I even walk closer to one of the vents to take some pictures and videos, carefully holding my breath because I am afraid of the gases. The place is a bit surreal you can feel the heat exuding from the earth.
But yet, in the distance, over another hill, there's an even bigger cloud of water evaporating. And the map says that's exactly where Boiling Lake should be. On the way there the river starts cooling down and collects into small lakes with surreal turquoise colors because of all the minerals within it. There are even some small waterfalls and hiking this way is nothing short of miraculous. I even met two people that I met in the hotel just the day before who were on the same hike. Sometimes the world is small. And Dominica is even smaller, yet filled with so much beauty.
When I reach the boiling Lake itself my mouth drops again and hangs open there, limp, for a while. This place looks wrong. There's a lake, but as the name suggests, the entire lake is boiling. A big bubbling hot column of water, like in a giant cauldron, emerges from the middle. And it produces steam, constantly.
Standing on top of a cliff overlooking the whole thing the smell of sulfur, like rotten eggs is overwhelming. You can't go down to the lake itself, but just looking from up above, perched high above in this cliff you can feel the heat bubbling up from the lake itself. Whenever the wind changes the steam and the smell shift with it.
Sometimes you can't see the entire lake because you're its steam cloud. Sometimes you can see it clearly, it's changing from minute to minute. After some time my brain starts to ignore the putrid smell and I'm taking out some of the food that I brought because I am surprisingly hungry. The whole hike has only taken me 2 hours one way.
I say goodbye to the two people I've met on the way here and I go back to the way that I came from. Stopping only for a short swim in one of the rivers "lagoons" for lack of a better word. The slightly warm water is soothing to the sore feet but I want to go the rest of the way so I hurry up again. On my way, I met even more people than I'd met on the ferry before and some more people from the hostel. Seems like all the tourists go here.
At the end of the hike, I am at the same place that I started from. There's one last beautiful thing left though and that's the Titou Gorge. Cold water, carving its way through the jungle and into a steep canyon-like cliff in the stone.
But because of currents it's not allowed to swim in it without a guide or life vest or at least that's what the guy at the entrance tells me.
I can go for a short swim but not enter the gorge itself. The water looks so enticing so I cool myself after the crazy hike to boiling lake. And who wouldn't in a place that looks like this?
It's only later that I learn that the dude blatantly lied to me and was just trying to make a quick buck off of the tourists by sitting in the correct place. I'm still a bit mad and sad about this because situations like this erode my trust in people and I very much like trusting people while traveling.
I'm happy when I reach the hostel again. It's such a tranquil place in Wotten Waven. The lights at night, the ambiance, the home-cooked food, and the two cute dogs. It's just so chill.