June 20 to 21 - Wahoo Bay Beach

We survived the drive back towards the city and made a stop at Wahoo Bay Beach.  We arrived just in time for supper.  We placed our order, unloaded the trucks and headed to our rooms.  We were led to a set of newly renovated rooms.  Dad and Jeff were in a room.  Karen, Mom and I were in a room.  Uncle Mel, Aunt Marsha and Matt were in a room.  Mandie and James had their own room.  We had a common porch overlooking the water.  This is the view looking out at the mountains.  Looking to the left, we were looking out at the water!

June 19 & 20 - Plateau Anse Rouge

Getting from Passe Catabois to Anse Rouge was a fairly direct route.  However, there is not exactly a well established road.

Here is our map.  Driving in Haiti is more a directional thing and less about landmarks.  We headed in the right direction with the names of a few villages along the way: Atrel, A' Larbe and then finally Anse Rouge.    We knew we needed to head south towards the coast.  We used our Haitian GPS, instead of a box in our car, we stopped people on the way to make sure we were heading in the right direction.

June 18 – Drive to Post Metier, La Coma and Passe Catabois (Continued)

After we left La Coma, Uncle Bruce took us to see the newest project he has been working on. We drove to the site. We walked about a quarter of a mile or so to the floodplain where their project is starting. He shared a bit about how the areas we were in used to be one of the most productive areas for plantains and bananas in the 1960s and 1970s. For a long time, the area had been decimated by rains washing the silt and debris right off the mountainside and dropping the debris and basically changing the soil composition so much that nothing would grow in the area. But now it looks beautiful, lots of grass and trees growing up tall and strong.

June 18 – Drive to Post Metier, La Coma and Passe Catabois

After our yummy breakfast of leftover Diri-o-Lait, Haitian bread and fresh from the tree bananas, we loaded up the truck and hit the road (AGAIN!).

This time we were heading South West. I tried finding any of these towns on Google Maps but not a one shows up? Are you surprised! I was not. Basically if you find Baie de Moustique (Mosquito Bay) on the Northern coast and go straight down and inch or two and that is sort of where these are located.

We went past the Port-de-Paix airport and found ourselves facing Tois Revier (Three Rivers). We have followed and crossed this river several times over the past 4 days but each crossing was over a nice big bridge. This time . . . no bridge in sight! Just what I was hoping for! So we watched a few other vehicles cross as well as people and donkeys. Once Dad felt that we could make it, we “dove” in.

June 15 to 17 – La Pointe

We woke up to a traditional Haitian breakfast – Spaghetti! We polished off the heaping plate, packed the trucks and off we went. We drove back to Goniaves and stopped at Chez France for a potty break. They were not open for business but someone let us in the side door to use the restrooms. We then drove to the NW turn off and headed to La Pointe.

There are only a few main roads in Haiti. One goes from Port-Au-Prince to Goniaves and heads Northeast towards Cape Haitian. One goes Northwest up through the middle of the Northern Peninsula towards Port-de-Paix. The other goes along the coastline of the Southern side of the Northern Peninsula towards Anse Rouge.

La Pointe is where Centre Medical Beraca (CMB) is located. Part of this complex is the House of Hope (HOH), where many of the kids have tuberculosis (TB), as well as other conditions. Some of the kids stay for a short time, while others become permanent residents. In fact, one of the co-directors, Linda Felix, was brought to the HOH as a young girl and grew up there. She now has a major role in working with the new generation of HOH kids! The other co-director is a missionary, Jenny Reitz. She lives in an apartment above the HOH (http://houseofhopehaiti.blogspot.com/).

June 14 – Climbing down from the Citadelle/Sans-Souci Palace

The Citadelle is incredible. Such a huge complex and so steeped in Haitian history. We spent the better part of three hours walking around the complex.

By 1pm we were ready for the walk down. Well, not so much ready for the walk but ready for lunch which was in our trucks at the midway point, three miles down.

Despite pleading to be able to walk down instead of riding down, we loaded up on our respective “horses” and began the slow move down the mountain. Now you have to realize that to provide stability on the way up we had to lean forward a bit so what does that mean for the way down . . . yep, you guessed it, we had to lean back, way back. Not so easy to do on a Haitian saddle.

Thankfully Dad walked with me the whole way down. I was feeling very insecure and needed the company. Jeff was with us too but was walking ahead to take some pictures, including this one of me.  Each horse had a guide leading them (blue shirt) and our tour guide, Charlie (white shirt).

June 14 – Walking around the Citadelle

We got a group photo and then headed inside.  The first step inside was so cooling!  The thick stone walls kept out the heat despite the sun beating down.  Charlie was full of great tid bits of history.  What amazed us was the size and the ingenuity in building the Citadelle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadelle_Laferri%C3%A8re).

The first place we come to inside is the rounded part.  Inside it is basically a triangled room with no roof.  Because there was no roof, light just flooded the whole area.  It was a series of cannon ports.  There was a pulley system to get them all the way up and over to the respective ports.  This section did not have any cannons anymore.