March 24, 2009
Up and down in Haiti
To get away from it all, try the beautiful mountains and beaches of this Caribbean country
By nick frisch
The Haiti you see on the news is a filthy concrete-and-rusted-metal reality of the world's poorest people, a former war zone ruled by gangs and where UN peacekeepers are now cooperating with the local police to keep the Caribbean country safe.
Sure, it's not as smooth as a weekend in Bangkok. But with some preparation, incredible beaches, mountains, castles and friends can be yours - and almost yours alone.
So undeveloped is Haiti's tourist industry that visitors are truly seen as guests, not just moneyed customers. This is the most memorable part of any Haitian visit: the people who persevere and offer a warm welcome in spite of poverty and instability.
A base of sanity and comfort in a uniquely disorienting country can be found at The Oloffson Hotel, which appears thinly disguised as the Hotel Trianon in Graham Greene's 1966 novel, The Comedians. It is the definitive place to stay in downtown Port-au-Prince, the capital city, which can be reached daily from New York and Miami by American Airlines. (Most of the country's rich prefer to live high above the capital in the airy suburb of Petionville, where most hotels and fine restaurants are.)
In Haiti's tourist heyday, when the dictators were brutal but kept order, everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Mick Jagger knocked on Oloffson's door.
If you're not staying there, at least visit it for one of their famous rum punches made with Barbancourt, the special rum that is Haiti's pride and joy and among the world's finest.
In Port-au-Prince, stroll down the central boulevard and park of Champ de Mars and take in the glittering white presidential palace. Here you will find the statue of a revolting African slave installed by the infamous dictator Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier.
The nearby national museum chronicles the history of Haiti, a republic born of the world's first successful slave uprising. The revolt remains a point of immense national pride as do the Haitians' ancestral roots in West Africa.
Another Port-au-Prince highlight is the Marche de Fer, or Iron Market, where strong, pungent smells swirl around piles of grain and vats of oil. More exotically, large piles of crucifixes and chicken-sacrificing swords are on offer for Haiti's two main, and often overlapping, religions: Catholicism and Vodou (voodoo).
An easy half-day journey from Port-au-Prince is Fort Jaqcues, a well-preserved stone fortress that commands a stunning view of the capital below from a high mountain perch. You can ascend by tap-tap, Haiti's ubiquitous and highly colourful answer to a public transit system. They are similar to the jeepneys in the Philippines, but even more flamboyantly painted.
Of cigars and coffee
If you are travelling farther afield, there are kamyons (from camion in French), which are salvaged from old schoolbuses in the United States. These will take you as far as the port town of Cap-Haitien, near the famously tranquil beach at Labadee.
When cruise ships dock here, it is filled with the kind of tourists you tried to avoid by coming to Haiti in the first place. Otherwise, Cap-Haitien has one of the most beautiful white-sand beaches in the Caribbean and it could be yours alone.
South of Cap-Haitien, Citadelle Laferriere, the largest fortress in the Western hemisphere, looms like a huge ship balanced impossibly on the top of a mountain.
Built at the start of the 19th century by Henri Christophe, a Haitian leader who modelled himself after Napoleon, this mighty fortress was named a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1982. It is a stunning 7km hike away from the village of Milot.
The trail passes through the grounds of the Sans-Souci Palace, built by Christophe to rival Versailles and is now an attractively decaying ruin strangely out of place in the Haitian countryside.
The surrounding mountains are among the rare Haitian slopes that have not suffered severe deforestation.
South of Port-au-Prince, along the southern protrusion of Haiti's crabclaw shape, lies the town of Jacmel. Its colourful, easy-going flair contrasts with Port-au-Prince's poverty and scheming soldiers and politicians.
It is also one of Haiti's safest cities with quiet streets, attractive townhouses and a burgeoning local arts and crafts industry.
The city specialises in phantasmagorical papier-mache masks that are for sale all year round, and inquisitive and determined visitors might snag an invitation to a local Vodou ceremony.
Jacmel residents are proud of the town's port heritage, and its oncerobust trade in cigars and coffee lives on in an unmistakeable local joie de vivre. An annual highlight is the Mardi Gras carnival.
For a few days of total tranquillity, nothing beats the town of Port-Salut, located over a beautiful mountain pass from the far west port town of Aux Cayes.
Several beach camps offer basic but comfortable amenities at around US$40 (S$60) per night, as well as total peace and gorgeous, unpolluted waves to splash around in. It is the perfect place to unwind after the ups and downs of this mountainous land.
5 things to do
1 Do get travel insurance, especially for medical evacuation. Medical care is poor and the biggest risk to your health while visiting is not violence or crime, but poor roads and ancient vehicles.
2 Do read the news and register with your embassy in Port-au-Prince before you go. Knowledge is your best ally in staying safe.
3 Do patronise Haiti's only Chinese restaurant, Chez Wou, in Petionville. It is run by Taiwanese from Kaohsiung.
4 Do take along a French phrasebook. French speakers are usually easy to find, though some Spanish and English are occasionally spoken.
5 Do pick up a bottle of Barbancourt at the airport duty-free ? it is one of the world's finest rums.
2 don'ts
1 Don't wear shorts except on the beach. Haiti is conservative and sees very few tourists. You will be received more warmly in clean jeans and a T-shirt.
2 Don't flaunt expensive jewellery or other accessories.
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