The Citadelle
A few weeks ago, we got together with two other cruising couples to take a quick one day tour into Haiti. Our tourguide and driver, Tim, had come to Haiti years ago to do reaseach, and now lives in the Dominican Republic. We met at 5AM at the marina parking lot and got ourselves settled. There wasn’t room in his pickup’s cab for everyone, so Gray and one of the other guys rode in the bed on cushions Tim had pulled out of his boat. The drive to the border took about 2 1/2 hours, taking us on the familiar road to Imbert and Santiago, then through new country east to Monte Cristi and north to the border at Dajabon. We arrived at Dajabon before the border opened so we stopped at a local hotel for a sit down breakfast. Dajabon is famous for its market days, which can be crowded and hectic. We chose to go on a day that the market was closed, so everything seemed a little sleepy. The town is a bit more substantial than Luperón, with wide streets and a big square. It is the northern of the two land crossings from the Dominican Republic to Haiti. We parked the truck near the crossing and walked to the immigration office, where Tim handled our paperwork and fees as a group. While he was doing that, we checked out the scene before us. The border is defined by the shallow, muddy Massacre River. About 20 or 30 feet above the river, a bridge wide enough for two cars or so passes from bank to bank. There are gates at either end for immigration to check people through. We saw a lot of Haitians going back and forth with wheelbarrows or other improvised handcarts carrying everything from blocks of ice to engine blocks. Looking across the bridge, Haiti does not look too promising. Everything you can see from the border area is bare packed dirt. There is one large tree in front of the immigration office and a water truck goes by from time to time sprinkling the earth to keep the dust down. There are lots of vehicles in various states of repair and people standing around waiting to be booked as transport. There is a line of small cooking stands off to one side. These are basically corrugated metal awnings on poles over the dirt. The cooking is done on charcoal fires in one big pot. There were also people doing laundry in the river and laying their clothes out on the river banks to dry. At the border, there were a few armed UN peacekeeping forces from Uruguay milling around. We are not sure what their function was, since they did not talk to us or anyone else we could see.
Tap Tap or Haitian limousine. This is the one that took us on our day trip around northeastern Haiti.
We walked across the bridge and waited in the Haitian immigration office to get our passports stamped. While we were there, we met a few Canadian tourists who were crossing to the Dominican Republic. They had had to stay overnight in Haiti because they arrived at the border crossing after it closed the afternoon before. There had been some confusion about the border closing early that day because it was a holiday. We learned that there is a time difference between the DR and Haiti, with Haiti being an hour earlier. Once our second round of fees were paid and we had our passports back, we set off to get a car for the day. The first option was an SUV. It took a while to get the driver to commit to a price for the day, then he finally said: $600. He would not be talked down so we went on to option number two: a typical Haitian tap-tap. This is a medium duty commercial truck with the back half of a small school bus welded on to the frame for passengers. They are generally brightly painted and form the basis for public transportation all over Haiti. We booked the truck and driver for $160 for the day and got on our way. To get into the bus, we hoisted ourselves up on the bumper and through a hole cut in the back. The inside had a bench running the length of the cabin against each wall (not attached to the floor or anything fancy like that). They had removed the third bench which usually runs along the center. Fully loaded, one of these vehicles carries between 60 and 70 people. That is, four rows of people (two rows sitting back to back on the center bench) on the inside and as many as will fit on the roof. Ours merely held the 6 cruisers and a teenage Haitian boy who Tim knew who came along for the ride. It was once we got on the road that we started to see some of the appealing and unique parts of Haiti. At first, we drove east on Rue 121, the best road in the country. A nice, paved road is a luxury even in the Dominican Republic, and although we enjoyed this part of the drive, it was hard not to notice that we were almost the only ones using it. Once out of Ouanaminthe (the border town), the landscape changed dramatically. We were treated to scenes of beautiful green mountains, lush fields, and occasional views of the pretty northern shoreline. We had expected to see signs of environmental destruction, but although we did not see forests, there were lots of trees and everything was covered with green vegetation. We certainly don’t want to deny Haiti’s environmental problems, just register surprise that it was not universally visible on the surface.
A typical home in the Haitian countryside. Some homes are left like this, others are covered with stucco and painted.
One thing that really struck us as odd was the quality of the clothing people wore. Even men digging ditches had nicer work clothes than we do (ours are stained with chemicals, paint and riddled with little holes). Apparently, there is a surplus of donated clothes in Haiti. On market days, Haitians carry clothing to the Dominican side of the border to sell. They use the cash to buy food and other necessities. Along the road, we could see lots of small settlements. In this area, most of the Haitians make their living from small farms. Some of the things that we noticed were the small houses, the communal well-pumps, large bags of charcoal wrapped in white plastic, and cooking outside. The farm animals all looked healthy and happy. We often saw cows, goats, chickens, and pigs – but never in large numbers. Around the houses you could see lots of fruit trees: banana, papaya, guava, and mango. Several times, we passed through medium-sized towns. Just as in the Dominican Republic, we saw lots of small snack stands, restaurants, bars, and betting venues. Also the same as in the DR, we saw men gathered around tables outdoors playing dominoes. What was different, though, was when we saw men walking around with clothespins pinned to their faces – sometimes forming an entire beard of pins. We learned later that the clothespins are a punishment for the dominoes losers. We guess if you don’t have money to gamble with, humiliation is almost as good. When we drove over bridges, we were treated to the sight of Haitians taking full advantage of the rivers below. There were kids swimming, and women doing the laundry, often carrying their loads in tubs balanced on their heads. Bus drivers parked their vehicles in the middle of the river and washed them in place. Eventually, we had to leave the nice road, which leads to Cap-Haïtien, to turn toward the small town of Milot. We bumped and banged along and eventually got out of the truck at the plaza in front of the imposing crumbling palace of Sans Souci. Sans Souci is located just above the town of Milot, but well below the height of the mountain above which looms the fortress of La Citadelle. We viewed Sans Souci from the outside. In its day, it was intended to rival Versailles, and while it never quite got to that point, it is a vast pile. Built in 3 years from 1810-1813, it served as the palace for the Haitian king (and tyrant) Henri Christophe. When he fell, it was ransacked. Twenty years later, it was ruined for good by an earthquake.
One of the batteries flanking the Citadelle as seen from the height of the fort. Note the stacks of cannonballs in place behind the cannons.
We had to purchase admission to the Citadelle, which requires hiring a guide. While the admission itself was not much, the excursion could get expensive if you gave in to all of the people who followed you around asking for money. Given the general poverty in Haiti, it is not surprising that people would swarm around asking for a handout or trying to sell handicrafts. Even though the Citadelle is a UNESCO World Heritage site and well worth a visit, we were the only visitors that day. In fact, there was only one other visitor that week, and he was a Haitian. So naturally, our visit caused a stir. From Sans Souci, we drove up a steep and winding mountain road. We were surprised to see that there were settlements all the way up the road. From Milot, the hills had seemed isolated and unpopulated. Eventually, the road stopped and we had to take a trail the rest of the way up Pic la Ferrière, a height of 3000 feet. We were told that the trail was a 45 minute hike or a 20 minute horse ride. Horses and their guides were lined up waiting for us. We chose to walk, although it may well have been more pleasant if we had taken the horses, since their guides followed us the entire way up the hill pestering us to reconsider. All of the way up, our self appointed guides told us facts about the fortress. The Citadelle is gigantic. From the side facing the sea and Cap-Haïtien, it projects up 130 feet and out from the mountaintop like the prow of a ship. The Citadelle was and still is the largest fortress in the Western Hemisphere. Completed in 1820, it took only 15 years to build – it helps that Henri Christophe used slave labor and encouraged efficiency through brutal treatment. Some say that over half of the 20,000 workers died in the construction and that the mortar holding the stones together is mixed with their blood. The fortress is remarkably intact. There are still stacks of cannonballs seemingly ready to be fired from the hundreds and hundreds of cannons. The fortress was intended to house 5000 troops at a time, and you can see how they would easily fit in. Of course, from the top of the mountain, the view is fantastic. You can see all of the way to the city of Cap-Haitien and the ocean beyond. It was a little hazy when we were there, so we had to squint, but we could just make it out. Supposedly, shots from the fortress’s cannons could reach the city, over 30 km away. You can walk through the entire fort, which takes a while. The king’s private apartments are just empty rooms, but are pretty spooky. The chapel, for instance, is built on top of the dungeon, which was apparently used quite frequently. We were struck by the fact that there were hardly any alterations to the original structure – few signs and no safety railings or gift shops. It was very unlike the typical modern tourist attraction and made it easy to imagine how the fort must have been in the past.
Haitians take carpooling seriously! This truck is approved for the HOV-20 lane!
It took quite a while to tour the Citadelle. Aware that we were cutting it close to get to the border crossing on time, we skipped touring Sans Souci. Tim felt that we did have time for a quick visit to a local backyard rum distillery. Individual Haitians have been distilling rum in sheds behind their houses for generations. The methods have changed very little over time. The only “recent” piece of equipment we saw was a diesel motor to run the cane press. The motor looked to be at least 50 years old. The still itself look ancient. After we left the distillery, the Haitian boy that had been riding along with us, came in from his perch on the roof and sat with the rest of us. Cindy struck up a conversation with him in French. He was able to understand Cindy’s French well, but she had problems understanding him – mostly due to the road noise inside the truck. Still, he managed to convey that we were going to need a hotel, because the border was definitely going to be closed by the time we got there. Note for our readers: this is where it starts to get a little weird. Local knowledge is usually right, and it was this time. Apparently, Tim mistook the time given for the border closure for an hour later than it was due to confusion about the Haiti/Dominican Republic time difference. When we got to the border, we could see that the gates on the bridge were closed and locked. We piled out of the truck, and Tim asked us to stand by while he talked to a few people. When he came back, he told us not to worry – we’ll just cross the river. We walked toward the riverbank and before we knew it, tons of Haitian men were swarming around us, prompting us to take a lift on their back. Since that seemed to be what Tim had in mind, we followed his lead and each hopped on the back of the nearest Haitian guy. Cindy happened to have camera in hand and was able to snap a picture of Gray in the middle of his clandestine journey. There didn’t seem to be any correlation between the size of the guy and the size of his burden. Gray and Tim easily eclipsed their mounts. Nevertheless, we got to the other side mostly dry and scrambled up the Dominican bank. Once there, not surprisingly, we were greeted by Dominican officials. The passports came out, some money changed hands, and we quickly made our way to Tim’s truck and out of town before anyone changed their mind. In the end, even with the “fees” charged by the border guards and the tips paid to our erstwhile mounts, we spent about what we had expected to spend for the day. We think it was well worth it, since we don’t know if we will ever pass by Haiti again.
Gray crosses the border into the Dominican Republic in style.
Our time in Haiti shattered our preconceptions. We expected a wasteland packed with desperately poor, starving people wallowing in misery (like on those Save the Children TV commercials). The reality was a lush green land (although without many large trees) and people living their lives. At least, that was the country we saw. Our guide told us the slums and shanty towns around the large cities are much poorer than the countryside and very dangerous. The people outside the cities are still very poor, but there are businesses operating, people working and other signs of civilization. We felt safe during our entire visit, although there were some shady characters lurking around the border (no more so than Tijuana or any other border town between countries with different levels of economic development). We highly recommend traveling in Haiti with an experienced guide. It is the second oldest democracy in the Western Hemisphere (founded just after the US) and has a rich history and culture. Royal Caribbean cruise lines stops at La Badie, Haiti. Although the area (at least on the Travel Channel) looks like a tourist reservation, there are still sites to see. (Here is an interesting article on Haitian tourism). Getting to see the Citadelle or other sites inside Haiti will require a special trip. If you stay in one of the many luxurious all-inclusive resorts in the Dominican Republic, consider a short side trip to Haiti. It might be difficult to find a travel agency to arrange the tour, but it will be worth your while. Many of the hotel operators on the DR side of the border have contacts in Haiti and can help make arrangements. Cindy and Gray
