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Port Au Prince, Haiti
In December 1980 I went to the Caribbean country of Haiti on business. The capital is
Port Au Prince which is where I went. Haiti shares the island of Hispanola with
the Dominican Republic and Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Below are some pictures of Port Au Prince I took while there. The original pictures
were 35 mm slides. I used my digital camera in the super macro mode to digitize
them to present on this web page.
Port Au Prince from the Air
This picture, made from the air, shows the city of Port Au Prince. The
city is on the coast but it is built on a hillside. You can see that the
mountains are very close to the city and the coast.
El Rancho Hotel
This is the hotel where I stayed. Its name is El Rancho and was a real fancy
place - especially for this poor country. There was even a Rolls Royce automobile
parked outside!
Entrance to the El Rancho Hotel
This is the main entrance to the El Rancho Hotel. Because the climate is so warm,
there is no door to the hotel - only this open air breeze way. After checking in,
a porter must carry your bags to your room. My room was at the top of a spiral
staircase. After the bags are delivered, the porter gives you a rum punch drink.
View of the Pool From My Room
This is a view of the hotel pool from my room. Note there are no trees on the
mountains in the distance. Most of the trees have been cut by the population
for firewood leaving the hills bare and the area very susceptible to erosion.
There is a very good restaurant near the pool where I ate breakfast every day.
The restaurant also served the other two meals and they had very good French
chocolate ice cream. One thing I remember is the coffee - it was very strong!
Street Scene in Port Au Prince
This is a typical street scene in Port Au Prince. The streets are very crowded with
people on foot and cars (mostly French made cars but Mercedes were there, too).
The roads were crowded and chaotic with little order. There was a
sort of "mass transportation" in the form of a pickup truck that functions as
a "bus." This "bus" can be seen in the picture above with a cover on the back
and benches installed in the bed for people to sit on. Many times these "busses"
were seen with an unbelievable amount of people stuffed into the back of the truck.
Iron Market
One interesting place I visited was the so-called "Iron Market" which
was really a big flea market shown in the picture above. Everything was sold there
including used tubes of toothpaste, used underwear, 1/2 pair of shoes, and
a foul-smelling bean soup (complete with flies). However, inside one of the
adjacent buildings (with iron gates) were tables of carved wood items. I purchased
several of the wood items and brought them home. You had to bargain with the seller -
they would be offended if you gave them their asking price.
The picture below shows three wood items that I purchased. The item on the right
is shaped like a wine bottle. It breaks in half so you could insert a wine bottle
inside. The cap comes off also, and when turned upside down, it looks like a small
wine glass.
One Person I Recognized
Haiti is not one of your popular tourist spots. However, I did see a celebrity
that I recognized and he is shown in the picture above. Do you recognize him?
This is Art Linkletter and I took his picture one morning at breakfast. I suppose
he came here so he would not be bothered by the general public but I guess
it did not completely work as I bothered him anyway. He did not seem to mind
me taking the picture. By the way, the temperature even in December was warm
enough for one to go swimming in the pool.
Haitian Money
Above is a picture of a Haitian 5 Gourd note, equivalent to one US Dollar.
The 5 Gourd note was printed by the American Bank Note Company.
Below it is a US Dollar I picked up there. It is very well used - it feels
"wilted". It must have been through many pockets.