Let’s look at Dominica, a lush, mountainous island in the Caribbean that is famous for being almost entirely covered in rainforest. There are around 70,000 people living here, and the capital is Roseau, a colorful town where the mountains meet the sea. The official language is English, but most people also speak Antillean Creole, a beautiful language based on French.

Dominica covers about 751 square kilometers (290 square miles). To imagine its size, the country is roughly the same size as the city of New York in the U.S., or about the same size as the island of Madeira in Portugal. It is very different from its neighbors because it has rugged, volcanic cliffs instead of long, flat sandy beaches.

The most popular sport is Cricket, and the island has produced many great players for the West Indies team. Their national animal is the Sisserou Parrot (also known as the Imperial Amazon), a stunning purple and green bird that is found only on this island and nowhere else in the world.

The flag features a green field with a cross of yellow, black, and white and a red circle in the center containing the Sisserou Parrot surrounded by ten stars, where the green represents the lush vegetation, the triple-colored cross stands for the Trinity and the various origins of the people, and the red circle symbolizes social justice.

The food is fresh, organic, and full of spice. You must try Callaloo, a thick, leafy green soup made with dasheen leaves, coconut milk, and various meats or seafood. Dominica is also known for its “mountain chicken”—which isn’t a bird at all, but a large native frog! While it used to be the national dish, it is now protected to help the species recover.

Dominica is home to Boiling Lake, the second-largest flooded fumarole in the world; it is a bubbling, grayish-blue cauldron of water that stays at a constant boil! The island also has 365 rivers, one for every day of the year, many of which end in spectacular waterfalls like the Trafalgar Falls. It is the only Caribbean island that still has a significant population of the indigenous Kalinago people, who have lived there since long before Europeans arrived. If you love the ocean, it is also the whale-watching capital of the Caribbean, as a resident population of sperm whales lives just offshore year-round.

From the steaming volcanic vents to the deep, silent forests, Dominica is a land of pure, untamed nature. Merci! That means “Thank you!”