Dive Review of Anchorage Dive Center/Fort Young/Papillote Wilderness Ret in
Dominica

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Anchorage Dive Center/Fort Young/Papillote Wilderness Ret, Mar, 2006, by Bruce Hall, Maine, US . Report 2335.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	In order to experience all that Dominica has to offer, we decided to split our stay between Fort Young Hotel in Roseau and Papillote Wilderness Retreat 5 miles up into the rainforest. Fort Young is a 4 star hotel right on the water with easy access to Roseau. The construction is completed and the facilities are in good shape. The Oceanfront rooms are excellent with the older side more spacious (although only 2 double beds) while the rooms on the new side have king size beds but are a little smaller. The food at the hotel was good (for Caribbean fare) but a little pricy. We also ate at the La Robe Creole, which is across the street where the food was good and inexpensive and they serve the best rum punch we had on the island. If you want to experience the local food try the Guiyane, the local beer is a $1.50 and the pastries are very good. There were cruise ships every day, sometimes two or three at a time. Apparently Dominica has now been discovered. We dove with Anchorage Dive center for 4 days and were very pleased. They picked us up at the Fort Young dock (although they were always late even by Caribbean standards) and the excellent dive sites around Scott’s Head were only a 15-minute boat ride away. Dives were all they were hyped to be, no large animals but a tremendous profusion of life everywhere. The reefs are covered with hard and soft corals and large barrel sponges abound. The small fish cover the reefs with many schools exceeding twenty-thirty members. We saw turtles on almost every dive along with many spotted morays. Favorite sites were Dangleben’s Pinnacles, Village and Caribe’s Lip. The hot springs at the Champagne dive site are interesting for about 5 minutes but the site is mostly a mud flat. The dive masters were very friendly, upbeat and clearly enjoyed their job. They pointed out a lot of sea life and allowed everyone to burn off the last of their air at the end of the dive under the boat. Boat’s were well equipped, clean and always had plenty of water and fruit juice. The second half of the week we spent at Papillote, which is located up in the rainforest in the Morne Trois Pitons National Park. Our room had an incredible view down the valley and was comfortable but a little spartan. This area is so dense with ferns, palms and all manner of tropical foliage that you could imagine King Kong breaking out of the rainforest at any time. The island is very mountainous and the flight in from San Juan takes you through the passes with peaks on either side of the plane, shrouded in clouds. The inn lacks AC or a pool but the evenings were always cool and the hot springs baths make up for the lack of a pool. The meal plan at the inn is your only real choice as there are no other restaurants in the area. The food was ok but limited choices. We hiked to Trafalger Falls from the inn but had to employ a guide for the rest of the hikes, a bit costly but well worth it. Our guide would spend the entire hike explaining the various flora and fauna while cruise ship excursions blew past us on the trail. We did not try the boiling lake hike but we did the Fresh Water Lake, Middleham Falls and the Titu Gorge trips and they were all fabulous.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Caribbean, Mexico, Red Sea, Mediteranean
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	calm
Water Temp	74-76°F / 23-24°C	Wetsuit Thickness	1
Water Visibility	60-80 Ft/ 18-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	No restrictions
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Small rinse tank on board

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Dive Review of Anchorage Dive Center/Fort Young/Papillote Wilderness Ret in Dominica

Anchorage Dive Center/Fort Young/Papillote Wilderness Ret, Mar, 2006,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Anchorage Dive Center/Fort Young/Papillote Wilderness Ret in
Dominica