History and Friendship in Cap Haitien

A blog post by Adam. Happily, our plane from Port-au-Prince landed in Cap Haitien without incident. We had a reservation at an extremely expensive hotel, and so we decided to stop by a cheaper alternative on our way, just to see if we could save a substantial amount of money. As it turns out, something about the smells, lack of light, and general security concerns made the the cheaper option a questionable proposition for even thrifty Sean or me.

The nicer hotel was much nicer, with good light and pleasant smells. Better than the hotel itself, however, was its location. Across the street from a bay, a long even clean streetlight-illuminated sidewalk straddled the sea wall along the water. Each of our three nights in Cap-Haitien we would stroll on this walkway, accompanied by Haitian walkers and students, who came to do their homework beneath the rare operational street lights. It was the nicest urban landscape we saw in Haiti and it was only steps from our hotel. Instantly we felt worlds away from Port-au-Prince.

Cap-Haitien would thus be a very different experience than our previous three days in Haiti. Whereas the capital had been an opportunity to experience Haiti's contemporary arts, Haiti's second city would be our chance to go into country's past. Our first stop was the Citadel and San Souci, possibly Haiti's most spectacular sight. Christophe, who ruled northern Haiti immediately following independence from France, built this impressive fortress and palace about 200 years ago. As always, the journey to the sight was as eventful as the sight itself. It involved a taxi, a tap tap, a walk, and then a long time on a horse up into the mountains. It was well worth it. The Citadel and its surroundings were like nowhere I had been. It is no wonder that this fortress built to protect Haiti from foreign invasion was never attacked. 

Melissa with her horse, Fifi.

Sean and Delcia pose with the Citadel

The Citadel with a view of the hills and the Caribbean in the background.

Christophe's palace, San Souci, was destroyed in an earthquake following his suicide (he was about to lose power and decided he would rather die than be ruled by someone else). Still, from what remains, it's clear it was a palace to rival any European palace of the time.

San Souci, still impressive even without a roof.

At its prime, the palace was full of busts imported from Europe. Today only this bust remains.

Having seen the splendor of Haiti immediately following independence on our first day in Cap-Haitien, we spent our second day seeing a little more recent history - the architecture of Cap-Haitien. While both humans and nature have destroyed the city five times since it was first founded several hundred years ago, its downtown still boasts beautiful architecture, full of color and balconies.

An example of Cap-Haitien architecture

Our final stops in Cap-Haitien included the bank and the city's only ATM machine, where we met a Chilean UN peacekeeper, a visit to the local beach, and a guest visit to a merchant marine English class. Once again Haiti's contrasts were ever present. The spectacular Citadel, beautiful architecture, and incredibly welcoming Haitians (the merchant marine school welcomed us in like we were celebrities...we were after all tourists in Haiti, which shocked them) in stark relief against a city with little infrastructure (only one ATM!), a history of violence (hence, the peacekeeper...although the peacekeeper said that the violence of a decade ago had mostly disappeared and his mission was now focused on various aid projects), and a lot of trash (it was the dirtiest beach I've ever seen...so dirty that we opted to stay out of the water).

After three blog posts on Haiti, I think it's pretty clear that it isn't such an easy place to travel (I even said so much in my first post). It's the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and the signs of poverty are ever present, even amid the country's tremendous artistic, historic, and natural beauty. Ultimately, it takes a certain kind of traveler to make the trip, and we were lucky enough to have friends who were up for the adventure. Leah, Sean and Delcia were wonderful travel companions and turned a challenging experience into an adventure. And of course without Melissa's French, it's hard to know how we might have survived. Going to Haiti was undoubtedly a unique opportunity, but I'm pretty sure I would never have done it alone. I'm happy I did it, but I'm even happier I had such great friends and a wonderful partner to do it with.