– photo of Dominica’s colorful Saturday market by Alex Outhwaite
When you imagine the Caribbean, what do you see? Probably cruise-ships, mile-long beaches and luxury hotels. The island of Dominica, however, defies these clichés. Unlike many other islands in the region, it is low-key, and is not dotted with beaches or flashy resorts, thereby, no mass tourism. What it does offer is rainforest-shrouded volcanoes, scenic hiking trails that lead to beautiful waterfalls, hot springs, and colorful markets.
Dominica is often called the breadbasket of the Caribbean. One of the reasons for this is its abundance of tropical fruits and a visit to the local fruit market is an explosion of colors. No matter when you are traveling, you will have plenty of options – avocado, carambola (the tangy star-fruit that we all love so much), cherry, custard apple, guava, grapefruit, limes, mango, oranges, papaya, passion-fruit, pineapple, tangerines and more!
Here is what Alex Outhwaite* has to say about Dominica’s fruit market:
“Saturday’s market day is a great opportunity to see the vibrant personality of Dominica and the fresh fruits on sale are worth the trip alone. In true Dominican style, it is extremely colorful. What I absolutely loved is that there’s just so much fresh fruit growing naturally around the island. We saw the largest avocados I have ever seen! It’s nice coming to a place like this where everything’s just so fresh and so colorful. There’s a lot of stalls stretching out into the streets, and people are selling on the pavement and a lot of people are selling from the back of their trucks.”
*Alex Outhwaite is a television presenter with a travel focus. She has presented TV shows broadcast in over 35 countries including popular travel shows like “Backpack” & “Off The Grid” and cooking show “Quest”.
