I am in Haiti, having flown here from New Orleans this morning. I left at 8:30, I arrived at 12:30, and I paid $432. It is less beautiful than this film, which makes me wonder — has it deteriorated to so great a degree, or does the film idealize? Did they clean the streets before filming? Why does it so resemble a prosperous country?
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Both. It is important to note the dancing white folk in the first film, implying that there was money to be thrown around, a ruling class to cater to.
Since then, ongoing violence, the increase in population, and migration to Port-au-Prince slums have all contributed to the Haiti we know and love today (rolls eyes).
Besides, back then there was less deforestation, meaning less flooding, and fewer trash-creating products to dirty the streets and clog the waterways.
So, it was really Papa and Baby Doc who did the country in?
Yes, they did. That and the coup against Aristide, and the wealth gap.
It is very sad. They deserve better.
I would not say the United States is completely innocent either. Though, for me that is conjecture only.
The second video is fascinating. There is so much truth told in it (mixed in with the usual cringe-inducing things as well), truth that I could not imagine being said today on a film like that.
Well, the U.S. invaded and as I understand it, set things up such that the Duvaliers could get in. Then it protected them. I am now very curious about 19th century Haiti, I need to know more about it than I do. Now I am going to watch the second film again.
(I’m not really in Haiti, of course, just fantasizing — it’s my April Fool’s post.)
Ha! I was fooled.
I even managed to say rabbit rabbit and “fish” this morning to myself so I would not forget…
Though I suppose I am less guilty because all the lucky (?) people around me are always jetting off to places like Haiti or Iraq and nearly getting themselves killed.
The end of the second film really is amazing — I say these things in class and the students think I’m insane, I think I should show this video next time.
I’m glad someone was fooled! I figured people might believe it — it would be in character for me to go to Haiti. I’d really like to … worlds away and so close and so fascinating.
Check this out: an odyssey just for me:
http://www.websteruniv.edu/~corbetre/haiti/ptp/pandiassou.htm
You fooled me, too, because you seem like someone who would be flying to Haiti.
O good! It worked! The flight schedule and price are accurate, and the accessibility amazes me because the change from here to there would be so radical.
Heh. OK, I too thought you were in Haiti. But you should go!
O good! But I still do not know – have *you* recently been in Haiti? I took your photo of the Citadelle to mean you were there. Yet now I doubt.
Ha! Yup, I was there.
All right, then tell me if this is a good plan. I would go directly to the St. Joseph Guest House in PAP and stay there for a while to get acclimated and learn as much Creole as possible. Then I would go to Cap Haitien and visit, of course, but I cannot figure out where to stay up there, everything appears to be expensive, bad, or both. One should want to go to Jacmel and so on, I know, but I would like to go to really remote places that will blow my mind, like that Gregorian chanting place in the link above.
I tend to be a good traveler although I do suffer from claustrophobia and cannot tolerate windowless hotel rooms. I had crises in both Bolivia and Nicaragua for this reason and ended up in $35 a day hotels both times, much more than it was really necessary to pay for decency, so as to get a window. Now I have discovered that claustrophobia also attacks if I sleep in mud houses or huts, unless there are latrines outside the building. The mud huts I used to sleep in in Brazil were pretty good despite warnings about dangerous parasites, vampire bats, and so on. But mud houses with slop jars inside are more than I can take, as I discovered in Santiago de Chuco, Peru, last summer, much to my chagrin.
Having these limitations, do you think I can take Haiti? I can’t afford cruise-fancy lodgings and do not want them, either. This is my quandary. I do not, however, fear robbery and such things, I’ll be fine and totally comfortable re security, food, uncomfortable transportation, etc., etc. I am just slightly concerned re rooms since one should not be out late. One needs a place where one can breathe and read and so on.
Hmm. I’m not sure I can help much on these specifics… I went straight to Cap Haitien (flying direct from Fort Lauderdale), so don’t know about Port au Prince–though I’ve also read that the St. Joseph guesthouse is the place to stay.
And once in Cap Haitien, I stayed in a fancy place (the Hotel du Roi Christophe), which was very nice but certainly expensive. My impression was that there wasn’t anywhere that was both cheap and good–remember that there are hardly any tourists, not even backpackers, so there’s not really a market for such places.
I’m not sure that Cuzco or Brazil are good comparators. The closest I’d been to Haiti was Belize, another rather rundown Caribbean port city (though Cap Haitien is less centered on the port).
From what you’re saying, I’d suggest that you might think less of having a decent room than about finding somewhere that has a pleasant lounge or other communal area. The Hotel du Roi Christophe was marvellous for this: a lovely courtyard, bar, and terrace where I stayed up late, long after the hotel had otherwise shut down, reading and nursing a rum.
But I’m not sure that any much cheaper places in Cap Haitien would have had such a space. I could always be wrong…
Well, I’m showing $69 at the Roi Christophe, which only means one couldn’t stay there forever. It could be a nice respite from the rest of what I threaten to do in Haiti.
Cuzco is definitely no comparator. There are places in N/NE Peru, northern Brazil, and Mississippi that I suspect of being, though. I’ll have to see. When I went to Nicaragua, it was the second poorest country in the hemisphere and I was amazed to find how much worse it seemed than Bolivia, which was third at the time. I do not expect a voyage to Haiti to seem like a vacation to me, or even a research trip — the errors I made when I went to Nicaragua to recover from Hurricane Katrina. It will be an expedition.
That is very interesting about Belize. Very. I have not been there. Cubans are always telling me Havana is the world’s worst place but I have been there and I have been to many other Latin American cities and Havana is not the worst … and I am a better traveler than most Latin Americans and most professors, I do more and I see more, and I am sure I am qualified to opine on these matters.
To rant: it is not just that “Havana looked nice to [me] because you only saw what they showed [me].” I went there without a guide, I wandered freely, and I did not go to tourist zones like Varadero, so I don’t know who the “they” are who might have “showed me things”.
Ergo: if Le Cap is like Belize, then I’m fearless. I also became fearless about Jamaica when I went to Trinidad, adored it, and was informed by savvy Trinis and Grenadians that the fearsome Jamaica was no “worse.”
P.S. What airline did you fly on? I cannot figure it out. It is not AA, they only go to PAP. It is hard to tell from some of these ticketing websites that the FLL-CAP flight really exists, because they won’t tell you ahead of time what days they fly — they make you guess.
You probably will want to read this book. Silencing the past is something we Californians know a thing or two about as well.
I envy you your trip to Haiti. Age, distance, time, and health concerns militate against me when it comes to doing such things. Travel as much as you can now.
I flew on Lynx–which, ominously, is also the airline that flies to Guantánamo. At present I think they have the monopoly on the route (they also fly from Miami); flying them is something of an experience. Note that their planes have no bathroom! Apparently, they are shortly to have a competitor on the route.
Hattie – this is one of the books I’ve been meaning to get my hands on and you’ve inspired me to just buy it. It’s on its way. Travel, yes. I wish I were richer. Interesting travel is #1.
Jon – thanks! I’ve now been to the Lynx website and even it is something of an experience. Realistically I’ll be better off with N.O.-MIA-PAP, the air route is better from here, but the mere idea of flying straight to the Cap is so very intriguing.
(I also want to go to Cartagena de Indias, which I somehow associate with Le Cap.)