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.