Montrouis to Baradaires Haiti

---

December 19th 2006

Internet service is scarce in the Providences so we can only update our blog when we are in Port au Prince. As for us, we are safe and well, life has been on the adaptation side, with learning to ingest all that takes place here with the poor, United Nations presence, decrypting the Creole language, the shear amount of people everywhere and every day life. Haiti is a unique place, very different from what we have already visited in the Caribbean. I would say it is more like Africa with a Caribbean flair. The country side is quite beautiful, with a sad side with respect to how so many Haitian live. Things that you don’t see here are chain restaurants (no McDonalds believe it or not), shopping malls, grocery stores as we know them. If you want to eat a quick bite, you have to take a chance with street vendors who prepare their meals on hot coals, right on the sidewalk, under the hot sun (if you like taking risks with your digestion…or risk having plutonium Sh#ts!!). We refer to these as McDon’tnalds. So we are taking it all in day by day..

Montrouis to Baradaires Haiti

We set sail at 4am on Tuesday heading to the west end of Ile de la Gonaive, rounding the end before setting sail for the village Baradaires. We arrived at 1pm and dropped the anchor in front a small fishing village called Grand Boucan. Within minutes, villagers set out to greet us in their local wooden boats here called BOIS FOUIE (a mango tree hollowed out and shaped into a canoe type boat). With the local courtesy visit, advising us that it is very safe here and if we need anything, or wish to visit their village, they will help us in anyway. We ended up hiring a local guide (Fisherman) to help navigate us throughout the bay. Upon advice of being more protected of the weather from our guide, we dropped anchor in front of his village called Bria. Bria is one of many local fishing villages, where we were, once again, greeted with a warm welcome by the villagers and, this time, we gladly visited their little town. Having them all looking at us, while speaking Creole, we all laughed while we tried to decipher each others languages.

Wednesday morning, our guide meet up with us once again to take us to visit more local sites by means of our skiff. First destination was for the village of Baradaires, some ten miles away. In order to arrive to this village, you need to navigate up a small river, about three miles long. As we were navigating up this small river, which is a true jungle of palm trees, banana plants, and local vegetation everywhere, the view of the mountains covered in rain forest. The villagers where surprised by our arrival, as all stood along the river bank. In the village, we were greeted by the mayor, who took us to his town hall in order to sign the official visitor’s log, (have to say that there were only a few pages filled in the many, many years it has been there!). After the mayor introduced us to a bunch of villagers, we where off to the central market, buying banana “regimes” (the entire branch that carries all the hands of bananas) , wild rice and bread fruit, which resulted in a skiff full of local produce.

The bay of Baradaires, is a very large bay, about eight miles long by four miles wide. Tons of bays that make perfect anchorages with great surrounding protection from the prevailing winds.

We head back to our mooring in Montrouis on Thursday and returned to town on Friday afternoon (after a well needed bath for My Love III). It is always interesting to discover new, almost unchartered grounds. This is the stuff great stories are constructed from….

If you wish to see where these villages are located, please visit our web site at www.webesailing.com and click on “locate us”. This link will show you exact positions on google earth, for every stop we have made with position reports.

Cheers,
Annie & Eric
www.WeBeSailing.com

---

Photos

Our local guide, during our visit
Our local guide, during our visit

Villager carrying coconuts for market
Villager carrying coconuts for market

Our modern skiff
Our modern skiff among the local Haitian boats called BOIS FOUIE

Local Haitian ship building along the river
Local Haitian ship building along the river

Haitians making charcoal
This is going on throughout the country, as the Haitians are cutting down the vital rain forests and producing charcoal with it. Every where you go you can smell the charcoal fires burning from up in the mountains. Local say this has been for some twenty five years now that this is going on, no petrol to cook so they sadly have no choice but to keep cutting down the forests to make charcoal. Since the embargo many years ago the country is such disrepair.

Comments

[Rene & Chantal (Rebel)]

real adventure ...
Hey Hello!, Nice to ear from you... I believe I'm reading the National Geographic… a few weeks ago it was NY and “all the modern” activities and now the very minimum to stay alive day by day …. Great life experience… Please continue your quality comments & pictures. Most important “have FUN”…