Dominica: Escape into nature on this Eastern Caribbean island

VALLEY OF DESOLATION, Dominica — As I picked my way over hot rocks and bubbling mud in the pouring rain, I realized Dominica was not for the faint-hearted.

I was hiking to the Boiling Lake, a bizarre cauldron of steaming-hot water, 200 feet across, and one of the strangest sights on this rugged and beautiful Caribbean island.

The hike is a six-hour round trip that runs through dense rainforest and over mountain ridges before emerging in the Valley of Desolation — an eerie, treeless swath of volcanic devastation striped black and orange with mineral deposits and swirling with mist and steam.

Like so much in Dominica, the journey takes effort — but it's worth it.

This jagged, densely rainforested island, about 29 miles long and 16 miles wide, is located between Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Eastern Caribbean, 375 miles southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. A poor country of 71,000 dependent on agriculture and tourism, Dominica brands itself the Caribbean's "Nature Island," and the name is justified.

Visitors will find exceptionally friendly people, all-but deserted black-sand beaches and a mountainous interior of dense rainforest, clean rushing rivers and jungle waterfalls. Even for a halfhearted hiker, it is inspiring — almost any walk can end with the chance to swim in a river pool beneath a sparkling cascade.

"There is such a delicate balance of nature here," said Jem Winston, an enthusiastic Englishman who runs 3 Rivers Eco-Lodge, an environmentally friendly retreat near Dominica's wild east coast. "We've got everything — heavy rain, heavy sun, volcanoes, earthquakes."

My friends and I based ourselves at 3 Rivers, the rough-and-ready resort Winston has carved out of a former banana plantation.

Winston fell in love with Dominica years ago as a young backpacker and worked as a taxi driver back in England to raise the money to buy his piece of the island. Opened four years ago, 3 Rivers consists of four simple wood chalets, with beds and mosquito nets, kitchen and bathroom. Each has a hammock-slung balcony overlooking lush green grounds, paths lined with mango, guava, star fruit and papaya trees, and forested hills. Four even more secluded cabins nestle in woods above the main site.