Day 6 - Land Hoy!!! - Haiti
Shamal
Mon 3 Mar 2014 21:43
18.06.2N 73.41.8W
Land Hoy!!!! This is a belated
upate as we arrive and dropped anchor in Ile a Vache in Haiti first thing
this morning. Belated as I needed to check-in at Immigration in the town across
the bay and it was quite an experience.
We hired a guide (you really need one) and we
caught a piroque that takes passangers across the bay (about 6 miles) to
the town (Cayes). The problem is that there is no dock of any description in the
town. So the piroque comes as close as possible and you then leap across to a
rowboat which takes you closer still in to what can only be described
as a building site on the shore. The rowboat can't get onto the shore so a
"porter" then carries each passenger "piggy-back" the last few meters. Felt like
someting from Victorian times.
The check in process was OK but I needed to get to
a bank with an ATM to get some local currency (Gouds). There is 1 bank in Cayes
that has an ATM..... and it wasn't working. So we had to negotiate entry into
the bank itself, with a guard armed with a shotgun whose job seemed to be to
prevent anyone getting into the bank. Eventually he let us in and after a long
drawn-out process I was able to draw £100 worth of Gouds.
The trip back to the boat was a pain as the
process of getting from the shore onto the piroque is reversed. The return
journey was done under a tarpaulin which everyone in the boat pulls over their
heads to keep the spray out. We were half way back across the bay, in what
seemed to be a rather overloaded piroque, when the engine stopped and we bobbed
around like boat-people for 10 mins until the engine could be coaxed into life
again.
So, that's enough excitement for 1 day. We are
looking forward to Spaghetti with a bottle (or 2) of French red. This will be
the 1st alcohol we have had in 6 days. (I knew we could do it).
We will be staying here for 4/5 days or so, or
until a good weather window appears for the trip to Cuba. So the updates to this
blog until we leave will be when I have something to report and not necessarily
every day.
Best Wishes,
J&G.
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