Two years ago, Steve, Greg and I spent an idyllic post-New Year’s week in Dominica searching for and swimming with sperm whales. It was truly a life highlight experience being in the water with these gentle giants, whose affection for each other was readily apparent. Our friend Cindi (Dive Discovery travel specialist) organized and accompanied us on that trip. Danny and Julie from the Bay area rounded out our congenial group, but their trip was truncated by the unexpected death of Danny’s father. Subsequently, we had enjoyed meeting up with them in New York City when our schedules overlapped. Our experience with the whales was so life-affirming that we quickly planned a sperm whale swimming reunion. This year, Cindi took two consecutive groups, the second including our friend Phil. Based on our prior trip, Steve, Greg and I decided we liked what we had seen of the “Nature Island” enough to schedule additional time in a different part of Dominica after our sperm whale stint was over. After considering diving, we decided against it (so much simpler packing for a snorkeling trip than SCUBA) and committed to adding on a 5-day Adventure Wellness Package at a resort called Jungle Bay, in the south of the island.
Panorama of northeast Dominica and Portsmouth, drone shot.
We had an inauspicious start to this trip. We’ve had travel interrupted before by natural disasters, including volcanic eruptions closing air space, but never could we have anticipated what transpired, costing us a precious day on the water. Steve and I took a non-stop American flight to Miami on Friday, January 2 and ran into Cindi, also staying at the Miami Airport Hotel, in the airport while searching for food. (In retrospect, Viena on the 7th floor of the Airport Hotel was probably our best choice). La Carreta (Cuban food) was closed so we managed with Margaritaville, which did have respectable margaritas and carnitas tacos, welcome sustenance after a cross-country flight with only pretzels on offer.
Saturday, January 3, 2026
My first clue, sitting comfortably in the Centurion lounge in Miami on the first Saturday of the new year, was a ping on my phone and a message flashing by with a dreaded word: Cancelled!
The word wasn’t punctuated with an exclamation point as I have rendered it here, but it leapt out at me with startling clarity.
Me: “No, no, no, no!”
We hadn’t had a chance to glance at the headlines that morning but a nearby conversation in the lounge brought us quickly up to date. Activity in Venezuela and the arrest of its President and First Lady were the culprit. This wasn’t just going to affect us, but would exert a wide-ranging ripple effect across the Caribbean, with the air space shut down for the rest of the day, cancelling hundreds of flights and stranding who knows how many travelers coming and going from the tropics.
Initially, I wasn’t concerned, learning that our flight was delayed. Until it happened again. Meanwhile, Danny and Julie, awaiting departure on a direct flight to Dominica on United at Newark, texted that their flight was delayed…first one hour, then another, then two.
After our flight cancellation, we were swiftly notified that we’d been automatically rescheduled for another non-stop flight, later the same day, while Cindi and Greg received notice they had been rescheduled for the following day…on two different flights. Not good.
Then the later flight on which we’d been rescheduled was delayed, by an hour.
Greg joined Cindi outside security in a long American customer service line, trying to sort out what was happening
Greg’s text: “…word is your flight is going to be canceled”.
Which is exactly what happened…later.
The American site offered to reschedule us…but to Monday! Danny and Julie encountered the same on their end after their flight was finally officially canceled.
After gobbling a few lunch offerings in the lounge, we abandoned our comfortable refuge and joined the throngs outside security trying to make alternate plans.
We fared better than Cindi and Greg had, finding a relatively quick Priority line. To my amazement, the agent rescheduled us, in the last two seats, to Sunday, the following day, on the same 10:10 am flight. She warned us we’d have to confirm at the counter the following morning that our Monday backup reservation was canceled, lest failure to show for it jeopardize our return.
There was no room at the inn we’d left that morning, the Miami Airport Hotel, at which we’d overnighted after flying in from San Diego the prior day. Greg had said he passed a comfortable night at the Even hotel the night before, so we snagged a room there. Greg and Cindi ended up at the Pullman.
We decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner to make the best of a trying day. We encountered unexpectly slow, creeping traffic. We inched along the freeway toward our destination, Stubborn Seed. We called to say we’d be late for our 6:30 pm reservation, only to learn it had been marked down as 6 pm and we’d been branded no-shows. Greg came up with a second idea which enabled us to bail from the interminable freeway, a Michelin starred place called Elcielo. Seated at the drafty bar, we enjoyed elevated Colombian food, dramatically presented. It was expensive but tasty, with cocktails around $30, including a premium offering for $38! Seeing Casa Dragones tequila, a high-end sipping tequila we became acquainted with in San Miguel de Allende, as one of the ingredients in a few of the cocktails was definitely a hint of what was to come. We sampled a range of bar offerings, including a ceviche that more strongly resembled an offering from an omakase Japanese restaurant than a typical chopped-up fish ceviche. The stone crab empanadas were assemble-your-own shells in the shape of a crab, with the stone crab filling and a bright, pineapple-forward salsa supplied in separate mortars. One of our favorite of the offerings was the yuca bread, a cheesy pull-apart bread served as balls on a copper wire “tree of life”.
In the middle of the night (3:45 am to be precise), I woke up and checked my phone for the news I was hoping to see: “Caribbean air space open.” We would miss only one of our planned five in-water days. This was enough to make Julie bail on the journey as she was already planning to leave early to attend a figure skating event in St. Louis.
Sunday, January 4, 2026
Trying to board an over-subscribed 7 am shuttle bus to the airport the next morning was an adventure. There were clearly more people than seats. I claimed one and ultimately sat on Steve’s lap, while several mothers held children in their laps to fit everyone in.
Back at the airport, we stood in a long Priority line for 45 minutes, only to be told that we were all set; no reservation for the following day existed that might jeopardize our return. When we entered the line, I had also called American, but had put myself in a virtual line for a call-back, after hearing that the wait was 90 minutes. When that call came through, after we settled again in the Centurion lounge, the agent contradicted what the earlier official had told me. It seemed the one hand did not know what the other one was doing.
Cindi, Steve and I boarded our 10:10 am plane and waited anxiously to see if Danny, flying in from Newark that morning, would make the tight connection. He missed it…by a minute or two. Cindi pleaded with the gate agent to no avail. Danny was rescheduled to the 12:15 pm flight Greg was on.
It turned out to be lucky Danny missed the flight. Lise of Hotel the Champs had arranged for a driver to pick us up at the airport. He misunderstood and thought there would be only two of us and sent a regular-sized car, which barely fit me, Cindi, Steve, and our luggage, and then only with considerable squeezing and bags on laps. Omar apologized repeatedly for the mistake.
Danny and Greg arrived at the hotel just before dinner at 7 pm. Steve and I shared the pumpkin soup and had to learn all over that the portions are enormous at Hotel the Champs. He made it through half of his chicken pizza and the others struggled with their sizable quesadillas. I had a delicious lionfish in a tart butter sauce with rice and vegetables.
Dominica, the Nature island, is volcanic and covered in lush vegetation and rain forests. Extending out from the island is the double hump of Cabrits National Park, where we did a short hike again this trip.
Monday, January 5, 2026
This was effectively a reunion as we did a version of this trip 2 years before, with the same cast and crew. We had marveled at the tenderness of the interactions we witnessed between the sperm whales, so we were back, hoping for more. The only change to our crew was our new driver, Omar. His van, emblazoned with Never Thirsty in dripping, horror-movie font letters, collected us each morning at 7:45 am and picked us up on the dock after our return.
Boat captain and whale whisperer Pernell Francis has been at this for 21 years. John the deck hand was again there to help collect fins and cameras as we pulled ourselves up the narrow boat ladder. As before, Pernell would stop periodically to listen with a directional hydrophone in the water, listening for clicking clues to the location of any whales in the vicinity.
On our first morning, there was a lot of sargassum on the water’s surface, which feels scratchy on the skin and makes seeing the whales that much more difficult. We had to push through the patches. Seeing its bright orange color, I realized what I had taken from the air to be weird sand bars must have been large aggregations of sargassum. It was a relief to be in the water after nearly overheating on the boat.
Although our first day out was not satisfying from a sperm whale point of view, we did see an unusual creature: Greg, with a sargassum crown (Steve’s shot).
Steve and I had decided to upgrade our gear to Cressi Gara Modular Sprint snorkel fins since our December Cabo San Lucas ocean safaris. It turned out there was some fine-tuning to do to match the fins to the right thickness of sock to secure them. On my 3rd entry, I lost one fin and almost lost the other! That was when I learned they float-an important discovery. John saw the fin floating vertically behind me in the water as I wallowed on the surface, hobbled by holding the camera and a fin. It proved virtually impossible to swim to the boat holding both fins and the camera. I had to put on a fin to make any headway.
Cindi loaned me a pair of short neoprene socks, which I wore with my 2 mm neoprene ankle socks, which helped to fill out the foot pocket. It took a few jumps to sort out the best way to layer these. Socks over the ankles of my wetsuit resulted in water bulging out the socks, making the footpocket more wobbly. I finally settled on the short socks on first, then my 2 mm neoprene ankle socks tucked under the pant bottom. Greg had a recurrent issue with water “cankles”.
Our yield wasn’t good this first day out. We saw a trio of sperm whales, but too deep and far for photography.
After cleaning up back at the hotel, Omar drove us to Cabrits National Park, where we did a short hike. Steve waited for us down below, trying to spare his sore knee. At dinner at the Intercontinental, I enjoyed a local speciality called sancoche with salt cod, coconut milk and curry.
Tuesday, January 6, 2026
Quick fly-bys seemed to be all we would get from sperm whales today. We ended up all the way down at the south end of the island. Even with the footpocket inserts in my new snorkel fins, I lost a fin on one entry. Greg pointed it out behind the boat. Putting it back on in the water put me behind the others, but as it turned out, right in the path of a travelling trio of sperm whales.
Even with her extra-long Cressi fins, Cindi looks diminutive next to a mature sperm whale. This one looks quite “bulgy” underneath, making me suspect this is a pregnant female.
At the end of the day, we found a pair of sperm whales. The larger female was unusually “friendly”, closely approaching, so close Steve had to gently close her mouth. She sneaked up behind Cindi, who was focused on the smaller whale. Bumped from behind, Cindi thought it was Greg knocking into her.
Greg tries to keep an inquisitive sperm whale from barreling over him, Dominica.
I had the same experience on our last jump. The two whales had separated. The group was with the larger female and I had the smaller to myself. Just when the whale was outpacing me, I felt something behind me and whirled around, to find myself face to face with a large gray head and pink open mouth! We had the distinct impression this whale thought we were playtoys.
Back at the hotel, I flew the drone. We stayed in for dinner, where I went with the vegetarian option, a savory lentil stew over rice.
Wednesday, January 7, 2025
Omar picked up his daughter on our way to the harbor, dressed in her gray pleated skirt school uniform. We were to meet Omar’s father, Shadow, later in the day, when he came to pick us up.
Today was dramatically different from the preceding days. Almost as soon as we exited the harbor, Pernell barked, in his usual terse manner, “Get ready, guys!”
We were already half-suited up, with wetsuits on, with the tops down, but his command catapulted us into action, donning hoods and tucking them in, zipping up wetsuit backs, gloves onto hands and feet into the footpockets of our fins.
Danny, a strong swimmer without need of a snorkel or long fins, with a graceful mother and calf sperm whale pair in Dominica.
For the next several hours, we were in and out of the water, sometimes seeing only a solitary sperm whale making a quick pass, up to a family of 5 cruising by. Even Pernell entered the water and seemed exhilarated.
A family of sperm whales surrounds a baby protectively, Dominica, Caribbean.
One sperm whale took off, leaving behind a huge brown cloud of whale poop.
We had company, 6 other boats, including two with snorkelers. A verbal altercation broke out between Pernell and another boat operator, who dropped his 6 passengers on us.
Lunch on the boat was fish veracruz style, with a dollop of potato mash and plantains.
In the late afternoon, we took a leisurely cruise through the Indian River, rowed by Stevenson.
A cruise on the Indian River, one of Dominica’s 364 rivers, is by rowboat.
Seen on the banks of the Indian River, a blue land crab (Cardisoma guanhumi).
Indian River reflection abstract, Dominica.
Snowy egret (Egretta thula), Indian River, Dominica.
Leo from Cindi’s second group arrived from Switzerland while we were out and joined us for dinner. He came a day earlier than the start of the second session to recover from jetlag.
We stayed in the hotel for dinner (marlin in coconut curry sauce with rice and vegetables for me).
Thursday, January 8, 2026
Omar had an unforgettable musical treat for us this morning as he drove us to the harbor, a Calypso song full of double entendres centered on a man’s Big Bamboo.
Cindi had a big male sperm whale on her wish list this year, which was finally granted. Unlike the prior day, there were multiple listening stops which were “all quiet” as we made our way south.
Finally, just after a quick cool-off dip (we were so hot we thought we would spontaneously combust), a solitary whale was sighted on the surface. It was a lone male with a distinctive zigzag white band on the undersurface of its midsection, prompting Greg to dub him Charlie Brown. As soon as we approached the whale lolling on the surface, it would dive vertically and then ease away at depth. This happened over and over. We spent the whole day with Charlie Brown. Pernell entered the water after a few passes.
The male sperm whale Greg dubbed Charlie Brown for its distinctive zigzag mid-section markings.
Phil arrived from San Diego, having survived a red eye to connect with the flight from Miami and joined us for dinner at the hotel. Our permit time with the whales was over, but our time on the island was not. The following day, Steve, Greg and I would transfer to the south of the island to Jungle Bay, for a different slice of island life.
It could have been an idyllic stay, all cool breezes, pina coladas, massages and lull-you-to-sleep gentle yoga, but no…I just had to try the infamous Boiling Lake hike…which would try to kill me! This (mis)adventure coming up…soon!
-Marie