The description was apt. Dominica is a lush, rugged, mountainous land among the Windward Islands of the Caribbean, rising between the French sister islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Waterfalls cascade in spumes and torrents, filling the air with the sound of arcing water.
Red-orange flamboyant trees flare on the vivid green hillsides. The relatively few visitors who make their way to Dominica find an extraordinary place, a bit of the Caribbean that retains its pristine nature, accessible but largely unsullied by the package tour hordes. According to tourism officials, Dominica received around 69,000 visitors in 1997, a far cry from places like Jamaica, where 1.9 million tourists swarmed that year. The vast En Grand Bois La forest is a festival of botanical diversity, harboring mahogany and mango, cedar and bay, breadfruit and palm. More than 80 species of orchids flower in this great oceanic rain forest.