The Beach

Saturday we went to the beach for the first time. It was wonderful.

We took the route that looked like it had the least turns in getting there so we would not get lost. We ended up driving right through a not so great area and it took almost 2.5 hours to get there. But we got there none the less and it was great.

There are really no "public" beaches like you would see in Hawaii or Mexico. You have to go to a resort and pay to use the beach. Often included in the fee is a buffet lunch. You also have access to all their facilities and pools. We chose a really small beach that was perfect for our family. We even brought Tally who is a really sorry swimmer for a Lab.

After playing on the beach most of the day we went to the pool where CT was trying to teach some Haitians to swim. It seemed odd to me that one would grow up on an island and not know how to swim. Kind of like growing up in CO and never going to the mountains. But I guess when the beach is a real treat you may not do those things as often. Travel, another thing to add to my list of things I take for granted.

We took so many pictures on the way there that the camera died and we only took a few at the beach.

Some of the interesting things we saw along our way;

This was a motorcycle tap-tap. I wish we could have taken a better picture, but we were not in a great area and just a few min earlier someone had spit in their hand then rubbed it over the car windows where the kids were sitting. Nice huh? Anyway, this motorcycle had a little buggy attached to the back and it was carrying 6 people.

This is a two lane road made into a 4 lane and sometimes even 5 lane road. People drive on the sidewalks, pedestrians walk in the street, and if the traffic going the other way is moving faster than you then you just go ahead and drive in that lane...into oncoming traffic.

There are cemeteries all over. Some have these elaborate shrines built over the graves. I think the earthquake must have really taken a toll on some of them as most look like this now, all crumbled down.

Banana, not to be confused with bananas. We call them plantains ( if you have never had one, they taste a little like a potato). People sell these everywhere. You will see men walking with 2-3 of these giant bushels to sell. We have a few trees growing in our yard with them also.

A USAID hospital we passed along the way. I would guess this was probably set up post-earthquake and still seemed to be working. It was nothing more than a metal roof with tarp walls and a dirt floor. A little different than the hospitals I am used to working in.

We drove though an area that was completely different than Port-Au-Prince. Justin has a Haitian friend at work who is from a small coastal town. He tells Justin that PAP is not "the real Haiti".

It was great in these "smaller" towns. More rural, more friendly, it felt "safer".

Still the same hard working people, only in the country. They had animals to help them.

The hillside. I hesitate to even post this picture as it doesn't do justice to the real life image. There are these rolling hills with little tiny shacks everywhere. Little shacks that I am sure were there pre-earthquake. Full of happy looking people. People who work really hard.

Here are two women on a Motorcycle so full of stuff I am not sure how they still kept the thing upright.