Do not confuse Dominica with the Dominican Republic. They are two completely different places. Dominica is a small island in the eastern Caribbean, only about 29 miles long and 16 miles wide. What makes it remarkable is its natural landscape. The island is covered in dense tropical rainforest. It has 365 rivers, one for every day of the year. Its mountains rise steeply from the coast, and hot springs bubble up from volcanic activity deep underground. The most dramatic feature is the Boiling Lake, the second-largest hot spring in the world. The Kalinago people, the island's original inhabitants, have lived there for hundreds of years. They are one of the few indigenous Caribbean groups to survive European colonization. The British controlled Dominica for over a century before the island gained independence on November 3, 1978. Today, Dominica is one of the poorest countries in the Caribbean. Its economy depends on farming, especially bananas, and on a growing ecotourism industry. The island's thick forests and rare wildlife attract visitors who want to see nature untouched by large-scale development. Hurricanes are a constant threat. In 2017, Hurricane Maria destroyed over 90 percent of the buildings on the island.