Top of the World
It is the greenest island in the Caribbean nicknamed, due to its lush vegetation, "the island of nature". Dominica is part of the Windward Archipelago in the Lesser Antilles and is separated by two sea channels, to the north by Guadeloupe and to the south by Martinique. It owes its name to the day when Christopher Columbus sighted it, on November 3, 1493, on a Sunday. It differs from the other Caribbean islands both for its morphology characterized by rainforests, lakes, hot springs and two hundred rivers that cross it far and wide and that, afterwards, form splendid waterfalls, flow into the Caribbean Sea. Dominating the entire island, which is home to the Morne Trois Pitons National Park, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997, is the Morne Diablotin, the highest peak in the Eastern Caribbean which, with its 1447 meters high, stands imposing on the narrow handkerchief of land occupied by the island, just 47 km long and 26 wide. Don't miss a trip to Boiling Lake, the second largest steam lake in the world with water temperatures ranging between 80 and 90 degrees, as well as a trip to the Valley of Desolation, marked by a lunar landscape and dotted with hot sulphurous springs. Mecca for hikers and naturalists, Dominica is also loved for its history characterized by a strong French and, later, English influence, but above all for having preserved, the only island in the Caribbean, a small community of pre-Columbian lineage (the indigenous Carribeans). But the primates do not end here: Dominica is the only Caribbean island to have gained independence and established a parliamentary democracy before joining the Commonwealth. Thus, this cocktail of British, French and indigenous cultures and traditions fascinate every traveller: a successful example of peaceful coexistence and solidarity between different ethnic groups.
