Life is nothing but sweet mangos right now. I'm staying in Soufriere, the archetypical sleepy fishing village, where everybody knows everybody else. There's the sound of people playing dominoes coming up from a little shop in the street.
I'm watching the sunset over the horizon from the little balcony of the beach house that I've been staying in for the last couple of days. A beautiful circus woman is staying in this little green, quaint house at the beach. She offered me to stay with her for a few days and the time passed by way too quickly.
I've been spending my time with simple things, cooking, swimming, sitting in the hot spa with volcanic bubbles at the beach, and talking to some of the locals. Every other day I play volleyball with a bunch of friends from a hostel nearby. It might be the most beautiful volleyball place, ever. Surrounded by surreal green jungle and mountains in the distance, a big open space, with a small white net, and a patch of dirt in a big meadow. Little goats are grazing in the distance and the light is falling over a mountain nearby in long golden streaks through the mango trees.
Whenever I go there, I collect a bunch of mangoes to put in the fridge and eat them in the morning with porridge the next day. Peanut butter, oats, mango, a pinch of salt and sugar. It's perfect. There's also a little shop downstairs that sells chocolate tea and "bakes"–little fried pieces of bread—every once in a while. There's a local old lady up the road who makes cheap coconut cake, too, which is delicious.
A bit further up the road, past the volleyball fields and the mango trees and the hostel, there is a small river coming out of the jungle with hot sulfurous water.
Somehow this water is refreshing even if it's bathhouse warm. Sitting there on a small rock, surrounded by the green of the jungle, with the warm water splashing and sploshing around, bubbling over me with a soft touch, I can't help but smile. It's very beautiful. How can places like this exist?
Places that are so overabundant with nature, so beautiful in so many different aspects? And how come I am there too at the right time, with somebody I care for... living a beautiful life, with no care in the world?
There is also Scott's head, a little way ahead of Soufriere. It's a good walk from Soufriere, especially in the sunlight of the day but the hike up to the mountain in the sea is worth it. The view onto the little village of Soufriere is stunning and you can see the coral reefs and turquoise and blue waters of the surrounding area.
And every other day in the morning there is a small group of people hiking in the surrounding areas for the sunrise before it gets unbearably warm. The backcountry there also forms part of the Waitakubuli National Trail. Golden light in the morning, the view of the sea from a distance, what else does one need? There is even lemon grass growing at the side of the road and of course mangos, everywhere.
Overall, I wish I could have stayed longer there in Soufriere, it's a little gem, a paradise, far away from the modern world. Dominica in general was and I enjoyed it tremendously but my time there has to come to an end because I have to go back to Germany and before that want to stop by for a couple of days in Martinique.