2009 November 4 Leave USA Enter Haiti

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Goodbye Andy. It has been nice knowing you.

To all the readers who sent Andy to Haiti. We will be having a memorial breakfast for Andy at Chubby's restaurant in Orland, Indiana sometime this month stay tuned for details.

I envy you going to my favourite spot in the world . I knew it well in the fifties when I stayed at Hotel Mon Reve in Port au Prince ( Probably no longer there ) Hotel Olaffson , where Liz Taylor shot a movie , is probably still a tourist trap . In my time the Haitians were the friendliest people and honest beyond belief considering their poverty . In Jacmel , where there was a beautiful unspoiled beach , the locals would laugh at me and tell me I would get my swim suit wet ! Their French is pre- the US invasion in the 20's , consiquently a touch flowery.
Try taking the local bus up to Cap Hatian , you may have to push it if it gets stuck in a stream , but you will also get to bathe with the local fellow travelers . At the Cap you will get a donkey to climb to the Fort on the top , My guide was a ten year old and I slept alone ther that night trying to conjour the sprit of it builder.Talking of spirits , Barbarancourt is the best Rum in the world ! take a factory tour .
Obviously my time there was before Papa Doc and it was completely safe . The Voodoo drums would sound all over the Island but everybody was in church the next morning ! Back then I even took my new wife to see the worship of the Hougon and witness the sacrificial frenzied dance .
My last visit to Haiti things were trying to get more touristy , I believe the dancer Kathrine Dunham started an enterprise . You might invest in a few local Paintings , they were charging a fortune for them in Puerto Rico last year !
Being now in my eighties it is the one place in the world I am anxious to revisit , and if you make it ,I Will !!
Bon Chance , Robin