2012-11-12 Dominica:

Another new port for us Dominica.  We had absolutely no idea what we were doing that day.  I had heard of Champagne Reef, but thought it was mainly an area where bubbles were in the water and wasn't sure it would live up to all the hype.  After all, I could stay in the jacuzzi and see a bunch of bubbles!  The port wasn't much to look at.

 The info I had said it was the nature island so I figured we'd head off the ship and see if we could find a tour.   We headed to the info booth and asked about tours.  As an afterthought, I asked about Champagne Reef.  She said it was a quick taxi ride and accessible from the beach and was an excellent place to snorkel.  That's all I needed to hear! --- back to the ship we went to change into swimsuits and grab our snorkel gear then head to the taxis.  Fortunately there was another couple there waiting, too, so we got to share the taxi cost---which was then $30@ rt.  At the destination, we paid a $2@ admittance fee and were led down a boardwalk and dirt path to the "beach"--made up of rounded rocks.

At first I was little concerned, all I saw was a rocky shoreline.  Then a tiny sandy opening appeared.

 Just to the left of the entrance starts the large area where lots of bubbles come up from the bottom of the ocean giving the area it's name.  I'll have to admit, it was more impressive then a jacuzzi and there were quite a few fish in that area.

We noticed a tour group was already there and snorkeling quite a ways off shore.  So we ventured out there, too.  That's where we found a fabulous reef!  We snorkeled for well over 2 hours.  Here are just some of the sealife we saw there.
Yellow tail snapper---

 ?

 pretty coral---

 Lots of schools of fish---

 Really neat coral species--

 more coral and fish----

 an eel---

 A banded butterlfy fish.

 Another fish I've not seen before---

and another--- (Rock Beauty?)



 And the bubbles really were pretty neat!

 The variety and colors of the coral were amazing, too.

 We saw a couple different tour groups come and go while we were there.

I could have stayed there much longer, but the other 3 in my group were getting anxious to leave.   So we headed back to the taxi.

The poverty of the island was pretty apparent as we rode through the port town.

(Hurricane Irma and Maria in 2017 made  a direct hit on the little island.  Word is it's been destroyed.  So sad---it had a lot of charm!)

 After tipping the taxi driver another $10 and tipping the young man at the entrance to the place who actually swam out to the reef with us, we ended up spending about $45@, much better then the $80@ fee the ship excursion was and we got to spend more time there.  For a day that started out shakey (couldn't find my ship card and had to get another one; I also mistook contact cleaning solution for soaking solution and my eyes didn't like that much) , this turned out to be a fantastic day!
 The little island as we cruised away.

 This turned out to be one of my favorite Caribbean islands so far.