Caribe Tours into Haiti

Dominican Republic to Haiti...

Our travel plans for the trip from Santiago to Cap Haitien had been made from a relatively safe distance in England with advice from New Zealand, and they involved the Caribe Tours Coach service.  And in reality everything turned out as smoothly as intended.

We were to make our way to the Caribe Tours Coach station on Avenida Febrero 27, and both google maps and the hotel desk staff confirmed it was there...  However what wasn’t clear was that there were two Caribe Tours Coach Stations on a very long Avenida de Febrero 27 – about 5km apart.  Our taxi dropped us off at the first terminus, but when we went to buy the tickets it took my limited Spanish and the desk clerk’s English a little while to explain that we need to get to the other terminal for both tickets and to leave for the journey...  Oh dear.  Except with great kindness the clerk arranged to put us on the next passing coach and drop us off at the correct terminal, and at no charge, saving us a few US dollars taxi fare.  At the correct terminal we were ushered into a back office where the tickets are issued and after relieving us of our passports we were given return tickets, and waited for 90 minutes for the bus to arrive.  Apparently there is a website, where in theory tickets can be ordered and paid for, but according to many travel discussion forums the advice is that it is usually “down”, and certainly my foray into Spanish speaking cyber-space left me in no doubt it was no way to part with cash.  So no option but to get there early and wait.  As it happened the coach was only half full, but given there is only one coach a day we wanted to take no chances.  Once on the coach the Caribe Tours staff take over, and after serving us lunch – pork, rice and bean sauce with bottled water – we were off for the border.  Vastly improved roads compared to the same route four years ago: all the road works that meant that journey was almost entirely on un-made up roads, this time it was tarmac all the way – even if speed bumps feature liberally through each and every township and settlement, and preceding each of the frequent Police road blocks.  Once at the border we were ushered into a courtyard, where there was a cursory Customs Authority glance, and we were taken to the front of the queue to have our passports stamped.  Then surrounded by pedlars and children we drove across the new 2 lane bridge and into Haiti, where at the plush new immigration building we were invited in, asked for our passports and then shooed back into the coach, and (in time) reunited with our freshly stamped passports.

And so the seeming transportation from South America to Africa occurred over a single sluggish river.  Even though this was a return journey it was still fascinating how different the Dominican Republic is from Haiti: strongly Spanish influenced East of the former island of Hispaniola becomes the distinctively French and African West.

And from then it was a 90 minute journey to the enclave that houses the coach overnight to be reunited with Bernadette and her daughter Ruth who were waiting for us with a reassuringly familiar though barely holding together taxi, including the obligatory cracked windscreen and baffling door system that seems to affect each cab where only the driver knows how to open them.  (Invariably involving repeated depression and elevation of the lock, and then the pulling of a piece of wire – photos will follow.)

And then to our flat – the fifth floor of the church, and the barely finished home for the pastor: spacious, comfortable, running water (cold and hot), breezy and a remarkable lack of mosquitos!

We soon met up with our flat-mates: Robyn who had set it all up, and Claire and Jo – New Zealand physiotherapists who are currently running the course to train up Physiotherapy Technicians.  Claire and Jo have offered three months to live in Haiti and are taking the class along a specific learning programme – more of this later.

Then after a meal in the local Hotel – a favourite of ex-pats from all over the world – we retired to a fantastic night’s sleep under a fan and a splendid blue mosquito net.