If You Visit Haiti

If You Visit Haiti

By Michael Deibert

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must ride up to the majestic Citadelle Laferrière, completed on the orders of Henri Christophe outside of Cap-Haïtien in 1820, to see a place, as much as any other, where slavery was defeated in the Western Hemisphere.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must wander through the streets of Cap-Haïtien itself, gaze upon the beautiful colonial architecture, sample the rhum at one of its fine hotels and enjoy a meal along the Boulevard du Carenage.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must travel over the rough roads to Môle-Saint-Nicolas to see the ruined forts of the French, Spanish and British, all defeated by Haiti's liberators, there.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must take a boat across the churning channel that separates Port-de-Paix from Île de la Tortue to experience the wonder that is Point Ouest, one of the most idyllic beaches in the Caribbean.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must go to la ville de l'indépendance, Gonaïves, to visit its great vodou lakous: Souvenance, Badjo and Soukri.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must turn off Route Nationale 1 just beyond Saint-Marc to drive deep into the Artibonite Valley and witness the skill and endurance of the peasants who coax bounty from the unforgiving earth.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must spend a night at one of the glittering resorts along the Côte des Arcadins, sipping rhum and watching the sun set carnally into the Caribbean there.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must drive into the Plateau Central, to hear about the long history of peasant organizing there and to visit the gorgeous Bassin Zim waterfall.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must visit the beautiful waterfall at Saut-d'Eau, an important place of pilgrimage and restoration for vodou adherents.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must go to Port-au-Prince to see the exuberant, difficult life of the people there, listen to the the konpa pumping out of ebulliently-coloured tap-taps, and sample the delicious Creole food and rollicking nightlife of Pétionville.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must visit the green and restful world of the Parc de Martissant, in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of the same name.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must meet with groups like the Konbit Soley Leve and Lakou Lapè to see how Haitians are working hard to bridge the issues that have historically divided them and create a brighter future for themselves.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must see first-hand the great work that groups like the Centre de Œcuménique des Droits Humains (CEDH), La Fondation Heritage pour Haiti (LFHH), Réseau National des Droits Humains (RNDDH), Fondasyon Konesans Ak Libète (FOKAL) and the Fondasyon Kole Zepòl (FONZOKE) are doing to help uplift the country.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must ascend to the heights of Kenscoff and Furcy above the capital, to enjoy a strong cup of superior Haitian coffee in the bracing cool of the mountain air.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must visit Croix-des-Bouquets to see the extraordinary iron work and vodou flags created by the artisans there.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must sample the douce marcosse in Petit-Goâve and go to visit the stone sculptors in Léogâne.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must wind your way across the mountains down to Jacmel, to see one of the Caribbean's most radiant colonial towns, which sheltered Simón Bolívar during a key time in his struggle.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must visit the Grand'Anse to walk in the footsteps of great Haitians such as John James Audubon and Thomas-Alexandre Dumas.

If you visit Haiti, and you should, you must come up with your own list of wonders to let me know what I have missed.

Haiti will not perish.

Kenbe fem.

MD

A new push for tourism in Haiti against the obstacles

A new push for tourism in Haiti against the obstacles

Entrepreneurs are trying to build a tourism sector. But political and social turmoil, which twice has smothered attempts in decades past, is a daunting impediment in post-quake Haiti.


By Allyn Gaestel, Los Angeles Times

June 10, 2012, 5:00 a.m.


(Read the original article here)

JACMEL, Haiti — "Vacation to Haiti/It nearly broke my heart."

So rapped Miami hip-hop heavyweight Rick Ross in 2009, but the lyric could be current: Haiti is better known for its natural disasters and political turmoil than for its tourists.

Now, however, a pioneering class of Haiti-loving entrepreneurs is investing time and money to change that.

"People just have no clue," said Michael Capponi, a Miami nightclub and real estate tycoon who has set his sights on Haiti. "They know that it's an island, but they don't even know that it's an island with beaches."

Yet building a tourism sector won't be easy.

The earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 destroyed much of the capital as well as this historic southern beach town, killing several hundred thousand people. Political stability and economic growth were hit as hard as Haiti's cinder block homes.

Post-quake Haiti was again synonymous with disaster. Helping Haiti became a popular humanitarian cause; mission groups and aid workers flocked to the country en masse. And therein came a twist.

When they arrived, many aid workers became smitten with Haitian culture, rhythms and art. They embraced the tropical climate and color.

"This catastrophe has helped people discover Haiti again," said Lorraine Silvera, owner of Lolo's, an upscale restaurant catering to foreigners on a picturesque beach outside Jacmel.

So far, the main visitors to Haiti's tourist spots are aid workers and members of the Haitian diaspora, but businesses are hoping to expand to draw traditional tourists.

Forty-five minutes north of Port-au-Prince, the capital, is the Cote-des-Arcadins, a stretch of white beaches nestled at the foot of steep mountains. There the traveler will find Wahoo Bay Beach, a family-owned resort with lush gardens and a wide view of the turquoise sea. The Lemke family has invested in extensive renovations at the resort since October 2010.

This year, Genevieve Lemke and her daughter, Jennifer, tried to promote a college "spring break" trip to Haiti, partnering with the nonprofit business marketing organization Brand Haiti. They had scheduled two trips for March but called them off when Prime Minister Garry Conille abruptly resigned in late February, spurring tension in the streets of Port-au-Prince and alarming would-be vacationers.

"People abroad are still a little bit nervous about Haiti," Genevieve Lemke said.

Instability, both political and social, is one of the central impediments to Haitian tourism. And it has smothered hopes of building a tourism sector twice before.

After an international exposition in Haiti in 1949, the country was termed the "pearl of the Antilles" through much of the 1950s. The brutal dictatorship of Francois Duvalier put an end to that.

Tourism began to rebound under the loosened tyranny of the dictator's son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, in the 1970s, only to be crushed again with the onset of AIDS in the 1980s.

Some believe that Haiti may now have another chance.

Paul Clammer is writing the "Bradt Travel Guide for Haiti," due in November. It will be the first stand-alone, English-language guidebook to Haiti published since the 1980s. Clammer thinks the expressed interest in the book speaks to a potential "third big tourism wave."

Entrepreneurs and investors are literally banking on it.

For instance, the budget for Capponi's project in Jacmel, including a boutique hotel, has ballooned from $700,000 to $2.5 million.

Since his family founded Tour Haiti in 2004 in Jacmel, Jean Cyril Pressoir has worked for free. But he has his fingers crossed that the company will make a profit next year.

The Lemkes, meanwhile, don't know when they'll pay off their renovations at Wahoo Bay, but they still invest in upgrades every month.

All this optimism is not without its challenges.

Infrastructure for tourism remains minimal. International visitors must fly into Port-au-Prince's muggy airport and brave frenzied, cutthroat competition among porters vying to carry their luggage. Hotel prices are inflated because hoteliers have to cover the costs of private water sources, electrical generators to augment irregular power, and even private trash incineration.

The service sector needs kick-starting. A hospitality training school in the Cote-des-Arcadins, funded by the Brazilian aid group Viva Rio, has yet to open, but it is already receiving urgent inquiries from hoteliers across the country frustrated by incompetent workers.

To top it off, Haiti's business climate is notoriously lethargic. Capponi's boutique hotel, Le Village de Port de Jacmel, was scheduled to open in March. In May, the building stood half refurbished, inhabited by squatters, as Capponi struggled to get the government and skittish private investors to simultaneously commit to the project. Each group wants the other to go first.

The humanitarian disaster after the 2010 earthquake also created a dilemma for travelers: Who wants to sip a rum cocktail knowing that, just down the road, malnourished children are languishing in tents?

To address this situation, "voluntourists" are being encouraged to take trips that divide time between helping Haitians and enjoying the island. But even this has its problems. Critics say a couple of days of volunteering has minimal effect on needy communities, not to mention the fact that volunteers performing manual labor undermines the local labor market.

Yet visitors are still wanted, and needed.

"The way to help the poverty in Haiti is to come to Haiti, eat Haitian food, drink Haitian rum," Pressoir said.

Gaestel is a special correspondent.

Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times