Well, as of today we have 5 days left in Dominica!! We are both so ridiculously excited to come home and walk on carpet, not be bothered by mosquitos, and sleep under blankets. Actually, we are definitely most excited to see our families, the rest are just extra benefits.
I only have a few blogs left before we leave here. One of the things I have wanted to do on the island since I first heard about it was take the 3 hour hike to the Boiling Lake. This is one of Dominica's claims to fame, as it is the 2nd largest boiling lake in the world. The challenging part about doing this hike is getting there, because it is such a long hike. I have wanted to do this hike for as long as I've known about it, but every time I've tried to get it set up something has come up and it just hasn't worked out. But last week, on very short notice I found out that our friends Ryan and Robb (Ryan is the guy who started inLIGHTin, the youth ministry), were going on Wednesday. So, I basically invited myself and so the four of us (Ryan, Robb, Nathan Robb's brother and myself) headed out on Wednesday morning. It rained steadily for the first hour of the hike, which turned an already muddy hike into a VERY muddy hike. We started out with a short climb then a steep descent for the first hour, a very steep climb and a short descent for the next hour, and then a steep descent and another climb in the last hours. The whole trail was stairs made out of logs and cut into the muddy trail. Pretty much every trail here has stairs on it (see picture above), because if it didn't, the trial would be so muddy you'd end up sledding down it instead of hiking, or it would be completely overgrown within a week. We hiked through the Valley of Desolation, which reminded me of Yellowstone, because there was bubbling sulphur pools and vents scattered all throughout the valley, which was really cool.
When we finally got to the lake itself, we couldn't see the actual lake because of the thick steam that was rolling off of it. After awhile, it cleared up enough for us to see the rolling, blue-gray boiling water. It was like nothing I have ever seen. According to the Dominica travel website:
"It is believed that the Lake is actually a flooded fumarole, a crack through which gases escape from the molten lava below, rather than a volcanic crater. The natural basin of the Boiling Lake collects the rainfall from the surrounding hills and from two small streams which empty into the lake. The water seeps through the porous bottom to the hot lava below where it is trapped and heated to boiling point." It was really cool.
"It is believed that the Lake is actually a flooded fumarole, a crack through which gases escape from the molten lava below, rather than a volcanic crater. The natural basin of the Boiling Lake collects the rainfall from the surrounding hills and from two small streams which empty into the lake. The water seeps through the porous bottom to the hot lava below where it is trapped and heated to boiling point." It was really cool.
Then we turned around and headed back. The total six hours of hiking stairs definitely wore me out, and my calves certainly felt it the next day!! I am so glad I got to go though, it was a cool experience and I can now say that I "conquered the rock!"
Because of all the rain that day, the mountains were covered in a thick fog. Even though it blocked some of the scenery, it was very beautiful.
There's still a lot of fog in the air, but below it you can see steam rising from the mountains--that's coming from the lake. 
These are the awesome guys that allowed me to tag along with them! Robb, Ryan, and Nathan. 
The Valley of Desolation. The trail (although it was hard to find) cut through this on its way to the lake, which you can see putting off steam at the back of the picture. 
Group shot!
And we made it! This is me in front of the lake. 
It was hard to get a clear picture of it, but here you can see the water boiling in the middle, as well as the cliffs surrounding the lake. It was pretty amazing. 
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