Haití

This past weekend I went to Haiti with five other people from my program and our tour guide (Davidson) who is from Cape-Haitian, the second largest city in haiti located on the north coast, where we would be travelling to.

We left at around 6 in the morning. We arrived at the border and it was very hectic because it was market day. That means people are trying to make as many trips as possible before the border closes to get all the materials they need and to sell as much stuff as they can. We ran into our first problem when Davidson was like ok, everyone 15 dollars (for the immigration/visa fee) and we were like can we pay in pesos? And he was like umm it said dollars and we were like umm we assumed it was equivalent in pesos, why would we have american dollars when we have been living in the DR for the past 3 months?? So then we had to go find a random person who changed out pesos into dollars. The whole trip was very flying by the seat of our pants. Davidson, I am sorry to say, was not the best guide. Basically he would be like "follow me" and not tell us where we were going, we would have to ask every time, and like didn't really explain anything to us.

We rode about as many ways of transportation that there is: literally 19 people piled in the back of a truck, a guagua (tiny bus) filled to capacity, a weird concho thing, a boat, a motorcycle! The first day we went to the citadelle, old ruins of a castle and such. I got completely ripped off for a stupid straw hat. So Davidson tells us the climb up to the top will be about 2 hours and we were like are you serious? and he just laughed so we assumed not...OH YES. Only Marissa and I walked the whole way. I refused to pay money for a horse, which is how everyone else went up eventually. It was a climb, we were seriously scaling a mountain. But it was quite the accomplishment. We had to walk down in the dark, which was terrifying. The whole next day I was limping because I had somehow pulled a groin muscle eee. After that we went to dinner and then all of us were so exhausted we went right to bed.

The next day we saw two historical sites and a lot more of the city, and then we went to a beach after a terrifying journey in the back of a pick up truck on bumpy dirt roads with cliffs on the sides. That night we went to the only discoteca I think there is and it was soo cool. There was a dance floor in the middle and tables filled with people surrounding it. I have never seen better dancers than the ones that were there. It was like watching a professional show, it was so amazing.

Overall, it was really great to be able to see the country that I have been learning so much about. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Once crossing the border from the DR, the poverty is apparent. I could not believe the difference. Even the landscape is different because Haiti had cut down all their trees. There is trash everywhere and almost no electricity at all. It was also really big culture shock. I did not meet a single person who knew spanish or english, thus, we had to rely on Davidson for everything. We were used to being able to understand and communicate with people, and we couldn't. However, on the up side it made me realize how much spanish I actually do know and understand. It was so strange to hear a foreign language that I didn't understand! Also, the vibe was completely different too. No one really stared at us, no piropos. The music was very reggae like and happy. It was a really good experience to have.

our awesome shell collection

the beautiful beach
we took a boat like these ones to our beach
glimpse of the citadelle at the top with fruit trees
ruins
river in cap-haitien