Haiti, a country I’d wanted to see for a long time, but missed my chances of going years ago when I should have and instead with the country in turmoil, if I was to complete my goal by the end of November, I was going to have to visit soon. My work circumstances had changed and in my head I’d planned to go to Haiti in October, but now I was booking a last minute trip to South America and I would wrap Haiti into that trip. There are not many places I won’t go to alone, but Haiti was one I was actually quite nervous about. I messaged my buddy, Adam, whom I’d met in Tuvalu about 5 weeks ago. “Hey, Haiti - 8-10th sept, you in?” I got back immediately a “yes”. Then a day later a “no” then a “yes, followed by a “no, not a good time for work”. I sent him the flight and hotel details. A few days later when I picked up signal again I had a “f*ck it, I’m in, I’ve booked my flight”. And that was it.
The day before we were due to meet we msgd again. “Thanks for booking the hotel in Cap, I’ll book us a hostel in Miami. How are we getting to Dominican Republic?” Adam said. I laughed. I hadn’t booked him a hotel, just me. The flights to Haiti (Cap Haiten) were USD200. But the flight back to Miami from Cap was USD1,000. There was no way I was paying that! So we’d booked flights out of Dominican Republic. We were going to have to cross the border and bus it down to Santo Domingo for our flights. I’d read trip reports from other travellers that this was pretty simple so that was the plan.
We met in Miami and immediately went to South Beach for my orientation of Miami nightlife. Adam had landed late so it was already 9pm before we sat down to eat, drink and watch numerous drag show performances (actually very good) and live bands performing whilst we are our burgers and cuban sandwiches and drank champagne cocktails to celebrate in advance our crazy adventure!
The next day we flew early to Cap Haiten. Despite being visa free, there was a USD10 entry fee! But it did mean we skipped the immigration line and went straight through. Adam, as always was taking photos and videos so I went thru and changed cash and got a SIM card. By the time I did this, checked in with our driver that he was outside, Adam was thru. We left the airport and headed to the car. Adam saw a souvenir he wanted and believe long everyone selling anything was surrounding him. The driver was getting concerned for our safety and go me to the car. Adam was still trying to buy his souvenir although he had no change and I kept hearing the Haiten guy saying “the rest for me” basically refusing to give change. Adam eventually gave up on the idea of change and got in the car. Our driver was pissed with him. He’d ended up paying USD10 for something that was worth less than a dollar. 😂.
The drive from the airport to the hotel was a rude awakening to intense poverty, a breakdown of government services and a lack of any form of driving licenses. There were cars and bikes everywhere, where there weren’t cars and bikes there were piles of rubbish, bags, bottles, paper, anything that you’d usually put in your garbage can, was there in the piles by the side of the road. People were sitting in these piles, on them, next to them, almost unaware they were sitting in trash. At one point we saw a digger truck coming to move the rubbish, but to where was a mystery and whom was paying for this? It was unclear. There were barely any jobs. There was no real tourism industry, no government jobs and the rare shop/hotel couldn't employ everyone. Business was totally entrepreneurial. Use what you have/can find and try and sell it/make something from it to sell. There were no weekends, everyday was the same struggle to make money to eat that day. People were thin, but there was not a vibe of danger, violence or that anything was going to happen to us. We asked our driver “is it safe for us here?” He responded “yeah, the locals want tourists, they won’t let anything happen to you. If it looks like someone wants to hurt you, local people will protect you”. He advised us, that was not the case in Port au Prince, where gangs ruled the streets and didn’t care for anyone. We had deliberately come to Cap as we’d heard similar. I don’t have a death wish, especially not this close to finishing my countries.
The hotel was situated beautifully up in the hills with amazing views of Cap Haiten. The thin roads the car slipped through were tiny and it took a skilled driver to get to the top. The hotel had a pool (always a hit with me, and quite unexpected!) and a bar, restaurant and shop. It was brightly coloured and surprisingly was quite busy. We found our room, got changed, and straight away headed back out. We had a lot to see in our short time in Haiti and we wanted to maximise every minute!
We started with a drive around Cap Haiten, I’m not sure if this was intended but due to the traffic being so bad, we saw quite a bit of local life. There were lots of signs of French colonial influence in the style of the buildings, and narrow streets, but this was mixed with years of neglect and disrepair leading to an interesting look. Add in the rubbish, and you don't have a pretty picture. Nevertheless, you saw friendly people, people working together, people trying to survive under some of the worst circumstances I’d ever seen in my travels.
We drove for a while outside of Cap haiten towards the Citadelle - the real highlight of north Haiti. I wasn’t too up to speed with Haitian history given how quick this trip had been booked, so was keen to learn. Haiti, is an interesting country as it was the first country, in 1803, that was born out of a successful slave revolution. On the 1st January, 1804, Haiti as we know it today, was born. Haiti also became the second free nation in the western world, after the USA. However, that freedom came at a cost. France refused to recognise Haiti as a country and in solidarity the USA and Europe followed suit. Haiti therefore was locked out of world politics and trade for 25 years, until it took a loan from a French, American and British banks in order to pay i50 million francs, reparations to France for loss of the slaves and therefore their "property". This equated to around USD 21bn in todays money. and was a contributing factor to why Haiti is so poor today.
We got out of the car, and onto motorbikes, where we were transported higher into the hills for a good vantage point.
After the bikes, which I’m fairly comfortable on, were the horses. Anyone who knows me and has travelled with me, knows I’m not keen on horses. Firstly I’m super allergic to them, secondly I’m quite scared on them (slight irrational fear here, but) since having a super bad asthma attack after going horse riding in Ireland when I was little, I’m not keen. But other than walking in flip flops and a long skirt, there was no other option than to get on.
The guy leading the horse seemed focused on one thing and one thing alone. Money. The whole way up thru the beautiful winding paths to the citadelle, I heard non stop about how much money he wanted me to pay him for the horse ride (we’d already paid) and how much his tip would be at the end. I tried to tune out, not to be rude, but to focus on the incredible views that were unfolding around me, and to soak up every minute of the experience. I was also very tense and anxious, being on the horse and was tying to distract myself.
The Citadelle - Citadelle Laferriere, was commissioned in 1805, and completed in 1820, and was built by 10,000 former slaves, but 2,000 died during the build. The Citadelle included over 350 canons mainly left by the Europeans in the battles for the island. It is now a national symbol of Haiti and is on the currency as well!
Adam and I both have our little quirks when we are travelling. Adam like to get a one handed hand stand photo in every country. I like to get a back tattoo photo (sometimes with someone pointing at the country, other times without). The Citadelle seemed the perfect place to get these shots. I had taken a lot of videos for Adam in Tuvalu so I generally knew what he was looking for and he’d kindly said he liked the Tuvalu pictures better than any other country and laughed when he realised that meant the visually impaired photographer had a better eye than fully sighted people. We laughed about it! 😂
We took our shots before moving into The Citadelle itself, down the many corridors and up numerous flights of stairs. There were many cannons, some even on their original wooden stands which the British or French seals on them. They were cold to touch and one even had a cannon ball still in it! You could see by the stone floor how they had manoeuvred them so long ago by the semi circular dents in the stone. The Citadelle was somewhat starting to fall apart and was in real need of some major restoration work in order to secure this incredible building’s future.
From the top of The Citadelle, there were again amazing views out over Northern Haiti but also over the grounds below. Adam ran all the way back down so I could record his handstand from above. Luckily there was no-one else around as we shouted back and forth to each other to try and create the best shot!
We spent far too long for our guides liking at The Citadelle and soon found ourselves rushing to get to the Sans Suchi Palace before it closed at 4pm. We had to go the horses and motorbikes in reverse. I reluctantly got back in the horse for the downward ride, my feet still barely touching the foot hold of the stirrup. The guide was telling me to lean back and put my weight into the stirrups, I looked at Adam, who was so comfortable on his horse and realised his legs were bent. I was in a totally different position. Legs dead straight trying to reach the footholds and balancing precariously on one butt cheek or the other. I was holding on for dear life and wishing that it would be over soon, again trying to focus on the scenery and not the talk of money that was going on around me.
Eventually after being told for the third time to relax, lean back and put my weight into my feet, I suggested it may be a good idea if I could reach the stirrups in order to put my weight where it should be. The stirrups were adjusted slightly - at least I could reach them on tiptoes and we continued. Finally we were down, and were mobbed by women selling souvenirs. Again Adam indulged them and starting trying to haggle. I was so relieved to have gotten off the horse unscathed, I’d walked straight over to the motorbike ready to leave. Adam was still trying to free himself from his captors and get to the bike with a souvenir! Eventually we made our way to the palace!
The Sans Suchi Palace was a lot lower down the hill from the Citadelle. We arrived at 3.50pm, so didn’t have long to explore and the guard tried to get us to pay again for entry! My French is limited and therefore I just kept a blank look on my face until he’d got bored and let us through. The day tour was expensive as there were so many people involved, I wasn’t going to pay entry twice for no reason!!
However upon seeing the Palace I probably would have paid twice - it was even more impressive than the hilltop building we’d just spent the afternoon at.
There were two main structures, the kings Palace (the larger building) and the Queens Palace. Large amounts of the structure still remained although the roof no longer was there. The statues and columns remained in tact and showed the money that at one point in time, had made Haiti a very rich country.
After pushing the boundaries of what 4pm actually meant, we headed out to return by car to Cap Haiten. We stopped at a local cemetery (where zombies roam at night). The cemetery was well ordered, but nature was taking over. Almost all the graves had vines covering them or hanging off them, but there were also clear pathways through the graves so that family and friends could still come and pray.
There were also lots of examples of street art. Some functional (it was cheaper to paint on a wall than it was to have a sign made) and others that were purely for decorative purposes. I really enjoy seeing street art and believe it brightens up a city if done tastefully. We drove past quite a lot on the way to the cathedral.
The I love Cap sign and the cathedral in cap Haiten were our last stops of the day - it had been a super long day having woken up ion Miami and then plans, cars, motorbike and horse adventures and I was ready for a swim and bed! The cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption was built whilst Haiti was still a French colony in 1670. It was damaged by a large earthquake in 1842 and underwent considerable restoration work. The square in which the cathedral stands was one of the cleanest parts of the city and seemed to be a large meeting point for Haitians.
The I love Cap sign would have looked better lit up at night, but still a good photo opportunity nonetheless.
The hotel was in stark contrast to the rest of the city. Up in the hills, with a large veranda, swimming pool and bar. It felt very surreal leaving the city below, filled with rubbish, starving people, and heading up to have beer in the pool to watch the sunset. I wondered how such a place could exist here and there was no security in sight. How could this place exist in harmony with the poverty below.
The next day, after a long sleep, we headed to the beach. It turns out it was a private beach for only the rich Haitians which made sense as I was concerned we'd be swimming from a beach filled with rubbish. This was not the case at all.
The beach ws incredibly clean, and was not exactly busy. Again, I wondered how this resort survived in the economic climate of Haiti. The water was warm and clear and we both spent ages - Adam snorkelling and me kinda floating around enjoying the vibe of the chilled out beach resort. Turns out there were no changing rooms at the resort, so after a change of clothes under a rather wet towel, we continued on our way to the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. As we were leaving we bumped in, a famous singer from Haiti - I must admit I had no idea who he was, but his girlfriend was asking us why we were in Haiti and what our plans were. We said wed been here a few days and were heading over to DR today. She asked in surprise "isn't the border closed?"
"not that we are aware of" we responded and asked our driver to check.
"No, it's open he said!"
We headed to the Statue of Heroes, in memory of those that died in the 18 November battle in 1803, whilst fighting for the independence of Haiti. Again this area was kept very clean by the locals despite the state of the rest of the city.
We continued driving towards the border, wondering to ourselves, whether the border was indeed open or not. Wondering what our options were if it was not and wondering why there were so many problems between two countries that shared one island. Id seen photos of the border between the two countries and I always thought they must be over exaggerated - the DR side, beautifully green an the Haitian side, brown land with no crops - I was sure the photos were symbolic as Haiti was so green - trees everywhere despite the poverty.
We arrived at the border and indeed it was closed, or at least that's what we were being told, despite the fact people were walking in and out of the gates - some allowed, others not. we eventually managed to be allowed in, where we were told to sit on the curb and wait. Again, some people were allowed to walk towards immigration, others weren't. Adam, in his schoolboy French was trying to get some understanding, whilst I spoke to others in English who were also waiting to cross. Some had been there for a week trying to get across. Each day, they had been told to come back the next day... I was starting to get concerned. I looked up flight from cap to Miami and for Lauderdale (or indeed to anywhere that wasn't Haiti) but there was nothing going that day and everyhitng ws fully booked, the next day.
After a few hours, I could tell Adam was starting to get annoyed. He'd been speaking to the border guards for ages and was getting nowhere. He looked at me and raised his eyebrows and I suddenly realised what he was suggesting. I gave him a slight nod knowing that I was very uncomfortable with what he was about to do, but that also, there didn't seem to be any other option at this stage and getting stuck in Haiti really wasn't an option I wanted to consider. and suddenly I heard in English "My wife has cancer and we really need to get our flights back to the US for her treatment". He grabbed my hand and we started to walk in the direction of the border. "Act pathetic" he said to me. Not something I was very used to doing!! No-one stopped us, but there was one major floor in this plan. We hadn't been stamped out of Haiti, so unlikely they would let us into DR.
We got to the border and indeed the border was shut - guards both sides lining the gates. The Haitian guards were telling us, the DR guards had shut the border, the DR saying, if we wanted to go through, the British (or American for Adam) embassies would have to call and ask them to let us through. This sounded weird to us, but we were willing to give anything a try. Adam tried ringing the American embassy but only get recorded voice messages, but no-one to talk to, whereas I got hold of the Foreign Office emergency line and admitted rather sheepishly that I was in Haiti (against foreign office advice) and gave them a rundown of what we'd been asked to do. I also told them that as I was bald, we'd told them I had cancer. They asked if it had worked. "not so far" we responded.
We let the DR guards know we had the British embassy in London on the phone, whom then refused to take the phone. That appeared to be a waste of the embassy staffs time, who told us, they couldn't stay on the line as they were also trying to help Brits after an earthquake. We apologised profusely for wasting their time and they wished us luck, saying they would call back later to check on us.
Hours and hours later, all of a sudden, the Haitian guards came up to aAdam and told him to go and get stamped out. He got my passport from me (after all, I couldn't run back given I was having to act all pathetic) and he went to get us stamped out.
We returned and we waited around 100 people came through from DR into Haiti - most were carrying chickens with them, which seemed very bizarre to us, but no-one seemed to consider this odd.
Once they were thru, we were told we could go and were pointed in the direction of immigration. There was no-one in the queue in from of us, and no-one behind us. But yet the immigration staff refused to get up and instead just sat there, for around half an hour, we were there in no mans land whilst seven or sight staff just looked at us, and ignored us and went back to sleep of whatever they had been doing before we turned up. Eventually, they stamped us in and made us pay USD10 - we had no idea if this was normal/standard.the cost or they just wanted money. But to be honest, having spent around 7 hours at a closed border, we were very keen to get as far away from here as possible and return to the US. Eventually, we were thru and freedom...
and now on to Santo Domingo to get our flights... After three attempts to get the right bus, we were on our way to the capital, our hostel and our morning flights!
On to the next adventure!! Massive thanks to Adam for joining my ill thought out adventure. See you soon, buddy!
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