Calibishie | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 15°35′N61°21′W / 15.583°N 61.350°W | |
Country | Dominica |
Parish | Saint Andrew Parish |
Time zone | UTC-4 (UTC) |
Calibishie is a village in Dominica, located on the north-east coast of the island, immediately to the east of the village of Hampstead. The Calibishie Coast Travel Area is thought by many to be the most scenic and unspoiled region of Dominica. The Calibishie coast is one of the few areas in the world where the distance from the seashore to rain forest is little more than a mile. Calibishie is home to Dominica's Batibou, Hampstead, Hodges, Point Baptiste, Turtle and Woodford Hill Beaches.
The area has palm-fringed beaches, freshwater rivers with secluded bathing pools, waterfalls and dense rain forest with exotic birds and lush vegetation. Tourist attractions include cycling, snorkelling and scuba diving.
A wide variety of accommodation is available along the coast. The local population is very friendly and quite a few small, local restaurants have begun to sprout up the meet the needs of growing tourism to the area.
Calibishie gets its name from the native Arawakan language that was spoken by the island's first occupants, the Kalinagos, later renamed “Caribs” by European colonizers. In Arawakan, the word cali translates to “net,” and bishie is “reef,” thus Calibishie has been translated to mean "net of reefs". [1] The Kalinagos utilized Calibishie's natural setting as it lies along the only barrier reef on the island. The location provided sustenance through fishing and agriculture, along with a forest above the village, which they used for wood materials, such as carved canoes.
With the advent of British and French occupation of the Americas, Calibishie along with the whole of the island changed dramatically. The British brought slaves from West Africa to work the estates of Hampstead and Hodges. In 1838, full emancipation was granted to Dominica's slave population. Calibishie subsequently became a fishing and farming community, and residents continue to work both of these industries in the village today. With the completion in 1956 of the Transinsular Road that links Marigot with the west coast via Pont Casse—the campaign for which was led by British Parliamentarian Elma Napier, who had settled in Calibishie—Calibishie's farmers could transport their products more easily to sell in Roseau. The second half of the twentieth century also brought roads connecting the villages on the north coast to Portsmouth, and in 1972, the road connecting Portsmouth and Roseau was completed. Roads benefited farmers in Calibishie; however, it has also been noted that the newly acquired accessibility drew people away from local farming ventures and into town. [2] In recent years, Calibishie has also seen an influx of tourism from North America and Europe, and numerous guesthouses have been established to cater to these international visitors who venture to explore beyond the cruise ships of Roseau.
Calibishie, like most of Dominica's villages, was traditionally a farming and fishing community. Even with the growth of tourism, commercial businesses, and civil service jobs in recent decades, farming continues to play an important role in the local economy of Calibishie. Since the 1992 discontinuation of preferential access of Dominican bananas to British markets, [3] banana farmers in Calibishie have had to diversify their crops. While bananas are still the most commonly seen crop grown on the ridges above the village, Calibishie farmers market a wide range of local crops, which, in addition to bananas, include fruits such as plantains, pineapple, coconut, passion fruit, papaya; ground provisions such as cassava, dasheen, potato, yam; vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage, carrots, parsley, celery, pumpkin, breadfruit, and tomatoes. After several years without a local market, Calibishie village council chairman and farmer Froggy Peters re-launched the Saturday market in fall of 2012, and the community has enjoyed the market's growing success in the subsequent months. Farmers yielding higher outputs sell their products to larger distributors in Roseau or neighbouring islands and international markets. Fishing, while not as common as farming, is still a source of income for some residents of Calibishie.
The economy of Dominica is reliant upon agriculture, particularly bananas, with the financial services industry becoming increasingly the island's largest source of income. Banana production employs, directly or indirectly, upwards of one-third of the work force. This sector is highly vulnerable to weather conditions and to external events affecting commodity prices. The value of banana exports fell to less than 25% of merchandise trade earnings in 1998 compared to about 44% in 1994.
Roseau is the capital and largest city of Dominica, with a population of 14,725 as of 2011. It is a small and compact urban settlement, in the Saint George parish and surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, the Roseau River and Morne Bruce. Built on the site of the ancient Island Carib village of Sairi, it is the oldest and most important urban settlement on the island of Dominica.
The Kalinago, also known as the Island Caribs or simply Caribs, are an indigenous people of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. They may have been related to the Mainland Caribs (Kalina) of South America, but they spoke an unrelated language known as Island Carib. They also spoke a pidgin language associated with the Mainland Caribs.
Saint Andrew is one of Dominica's 10 administrative parishes. It is bordered by St. John and St. Peter, St. Joseph, and St. David.
Saint John is one of Dominica's 10 administrative parishes. It is bordered by St. Andrew to the east, and St. Peter and the Espagnole River to the south. It has an area of 59 km² (22.78 mi²).
Lennox Honychurch is Dominica's most noted historian and a politician. He is well known for writing 1975's The Dominica Story, the 1980s textbook series The Caribbean People, and the 1991 travel book Dominica: Isle of Adventure. Also an artist and a curator, he was largely responsible for compiling the exhibit information for The Dominica Museum in Roseau. Honychurch is the grandson of writer and politician Elma Napier.
Portsmouth is the second largest town in Dominica, with 2,977 inhabitants. It lies on the Indian River on Dominica's northwest coast, in Saint John Parish. Cabrits National Park is located on a peninsula to the north of town. Portsmouth has its own sea port in Prince Rupert Bay.
Cabrits National Park is on a peninsula at the north end of the Caribbean island of Dominica, north of Portsmouth. The park protects tropical forest, coral reefs and wetlands. There are hiking trails and an English garrison called Fort Shirley. Cabrits National Park occupies 1,313 acres and was established in 1986.
Scotts Head is a village on the southwest coast of Dominica, in Saint Mark Parish. In 2001, its population was 721. Predominantly a fishing village, Scotts Head overlooks Soufrière Bay, which is protected as the Soufrière Scotts Head Marine Reserve. It is also a popular snorkeling and diving site for tourists.
Vieille Case, sometimes spelled as Vielle-Case, is a village on the north coast of Dominica. The Commonwealth of Dominica in the West Indies was first inhabited by the Kalinago tribe referred to by the Europeans as Caribs. Itassi is the Kalinago name for the area in Dominica which is now known as Vieille Case.
Paix Bouche is a village in northern Dominica. It has a population of 306, and has one of the island's steepest roads. The name comes from the local Creole expression meaning "shut your mouth".
Massacre is a town in Saint Paul Parish, Dominica, with about 1,200 inhabitants. It is located on the central west coast of the island, to the north of the capital, Roseau, on the Massacre River.
Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically situated as part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The island is nestled by the Republic of France with Guadeloupe to the northwest and Martinique to the south-southeast. Its area is 750 km2 (290 sq mi), and the highest point is Morne Diablotins, at 1,447 m (4,747 ft) in elevation. The population was 71,293 at the 2011 census.
Tourism in Dominica consists mostly of hiking in the rain forest and visiting cruise ships.
Dominica Botanic Gardens is located on the Caribbean island-nation of Dominica, in the capital of Roseau. Once known as one of the finest botanical gardens in the region, it was severely damaged by Hurricane David in 1979. Following restoration efforts, it remains a focus of cultural life in Roseau, and a center of conservation research on Dominica.
Elma Napier, also known as Elma Gibbs and by the pen-name Elizabeth Garner, was a Scottish-born writer and politician who lived most of her life in the Caribbean island of Dominica. She published several novels and memoirs based on her life, and was the first woman elected to a Caribbean parliament.
The Kalinago Territory, previously known as the Carib Reserve or Carib Territory, is a 3,700-acre (15 km2) district in the Caribbean island-nation of Dominica. It was established for the indigenous Kalinago people who inhabited the region prior to European colonization and settlement.
The Dominica Museum is the national museum of Dominica, an island nation in the Caribbean Lesser Antilles. It is located in the capital, Roseau, on a quay in front of the Old Market of Roseau, which was the centre for slave trading during colonial times. Its building was formerly an old market building and a post office dating to 1810.
Belles is a small village in the Caribbean island nation of Dominica. It is located at 15°27′12.7″N61°19′11.4″W and is a part of the country's St. Joseph administrative division. Its population is 500. Belles is a historical site for a few reasons. It is a major part of the highway system to the northern part of the island. The roads were blocked many years ago by Rastafarians who were not happy with the government. Many of them escaped to Jaco Flats and used it for refuge. This is a site that was used by the Maroons hundreds of years ago. As of 2016, the Esprit and Benjamin families own and control a majority of the private land.
Woodford Hill is a village in Saint Andrew Parish in north-eastern Dominica. Woodford Hill was an estate extending from Eden River to L’anse Noire. An Amerindian village existed at the mouth of the Woodford Hill river about 1,400 years ago. The present day village of Woodford Hill is on the western boundary of the old estate. It is made up of various sections including Small Farm, Mount Sylvie, Falang, Larieu, Fond Cole, Joe Road, and Big Cedar. According to the 2011 census report, Woodford Hill had a population of 1,034.