The Hike for Reasonably Priced Fish

            We returned to our guide Willem's house for our final day on Ile a Vache. The plan was for us to take a long hike to the marketplace to purchase fish and other ingrediants to cook up later in the day. We were to spend the night at his place and then head back to the mainland of Haiti the next morning.

             Like the day before, Willem and his dog met us at the end of the beach at the resort and we walked to his house to drop off our stuff. Walking around the property I saw he had a solar panel used to collect sunlight during the day which could be used to power lights and other electrical outlets at night. We started on the trail and things were going well at first, but we had one slight problem in that the dog kept following us. His property does have a fence, but there's plenty of openings for his dogs to get out anytime they please. Time after time he would see the dog and have to throw a rock or a stick in its direction to scare it back home. Once we thought the dog was gone, soon enough we would turn around and see it trailing us, and Willem would have to make it run back. The dog's last attempt came when we were about 20% into our hike, so the dog certainly knows the island.

            The hike was far more challenging than I anticipated and luckily we brought a bottle along with us. We walked over busted concrete bridges, up hills, down hills, on beaches, on dirt roads, back on beaches again, the trail never seemed to end. What also made it tough was that there were animal droppings of almost every species all over the place, so one must really walk carefully. Plenty of the local people were walking around on that in barefoot, which had me in some surprise. Willem must be quite a popular person on the island as almost every person we passed greeted him and offered a small chat. I took noticed that several of the homes throughout the countryside had graves of their relatives on their own property in mosuleum-style. Since there's no vehicles on this island, that I saw of, the mode of transportation besides feet or boat is via a donkey or horse. Frequenty we would hear a gallop and a few seconds later a person would come buy riding on a horse. Both adults and even small unsupervised children would also be riding donkeys back home with the goods they purchased from the marketplace.

            After about more than an hour of walking we did finally reach our destination, which was a jam-packed affair of people and booths. There were tons of trash on the floor and people were in close proximity passing by eachother. I was warned to guard my pockets very carefully. The marketplace is only open on Mondays and Thursdays, so on those days it seems like everyone on the island has to be there. We bought another bottle of water for our journey back as well as some fried finger foods from a vendor to hold us over. Our main goal was to purchase fish, and fishermen were catching them near the waters off the marketplace so we knew they would be fresh. It turns out two of the fish vendors we asked wanted way too much for their product. In Haiti, almost everything is a negociation when it comes to making purchases, and of course the marketplace is no exception. Unfortunately, these ladies weren't budging at all. The first lady had a whole cooler filled with fish and one would think she would want to get rid of them for as much as she reasonably could, but no. So in reality, we just walked away with some peppers and onions, but not the main goal of fish.

            We returned via the same route we got there with and passed the same terains, complete with animal droppings of course. Willem showed us his grandmother's property he grew up on and he asked some other fishermen we passed if they had any catch to sell us, but they didn't. The dog was happy to see Willem back and Plan B became for us to eat conch instead. As we took a nap at Willem's house to rest from the very long and challenging hike, a woman came over to cook up the food. She made a conch soup and prepared fried plantains, rice with peas, and cut raw onions that had a very spicy sauce on them. Willem sent for a young boy to buy two bottles of soda for us at a nearby vendor a few minutes away from his house. The sun went away as we ate, but Willem was able to provide us with some light from his solar powered generator. For the night, we were to sleep on his bed and he was going to sleep on his couch. Willem had to go out somewhere, but he was to return a few hours later. The first snafu was that it was only 7pm which is far earlier than I'm able to go to sleep. With not enough power available for a TV and limited light for reading purposes, time at night on the island moved very slowly.

            We did have a light in the room, but as soon as Willem returned home and sounded like he was settled in, she turned the light off and all of a sudden there was nothing but pitch black. There could have been a million dollars or a polar bear in front of my face and I wouldn't have seen it. I suggested we have some light as generally its a good idea to be able to see what is in front of you, even at a limited capacity. She was able to use her cell phone flashlight feature and we kept it on near my edge of the bed. Then for some reason something in my head told me to use the light to check the side of my bed against the wall, so I shined the light there and saw the absolute biggest spider outside of a petshop or a zoo I've seen in my life. Granted we did have a mosquito net covering the bed area that was to protect us from bugs, but no net is full proof. I woke her up and informed her of the spider, she was scared to even look at it thinking it was much bigger.

            When she finally mustered the courage to look at it, she complained to me it wasn't big at all and killed it with a shoe. She must have had a bad angle seeing it, as it wasn't as big as a tarantula, but it was certainly much larger than the ordinary house spider she claimed it to be. The thing looked like something that would be used for a Halloween decoration in someone's window. The fact it was initially pitch black in the room and something like that could be walking on my face made me keep that cellphone light on. I constantly used it to check around me and noticed the occasional mosquito or other bug flying around inside the net, just waiting for me to fall asleep. The night was long as it was maybe only 10pm and I still had about nine more hours to go till the sun would rise. Even with the light, I covered my whole body in a sheet and wasn't taking any chances of another one of those big spiders getting on me. Somehow, someway, I eventually drifted off asleep and woke up to little beams off sunlight entering the small openings of the metalic roof. I can't remember ever being so happy to see the sun.

            Haiti could be intimidating in certains regards, but that spider was the scariest thing I ever saw there...

The Thug of Lover's Island

            Day Two of our trip to Ile a Vache in Haiti included a journey to yet another small island fifteen minutes away called Lover's Island. We started the day with our complimentary breakfast at Abaka Bay, which included the first cup of coffee I had in Haiti. Afterwards, we met up with our guide, Willem, who waited for us at the end of the resort's beach to take us into the village and ultimately to the place called Lover's Island.

            The walk to the village took about ten minutes, going up and down hills and passing by various farm animals tied up to ropes. Willem even bought his trusty dog along with him, who probably knows the trail just as good as he does. We eventually made it to the village, which could be described as a fishing community, and first made a rest stop at Willem's house. The dog that was walking with us was a female, and two of her offspring were waiting for us too at his place, especially the younger pup who was more than willing to pose for pictures. A simple motor boat took Willem and us out to the waters and there must have been a small leak at the bottom because the driver kept using a small bowl to scoop up water and toss it overboard. We passed a few tiny islands and fishing boats as we buzzed through the calm waters. There was even one tiny island which was summerged under water, but clearly visible by the white glow above on the water's surface. Apparently, when the tide is high, the land is covered. When the tide is low, it pops out from under water. The island we went to didn't have this same issue and was above water level all year round.

            The residents of the island live a very simple and old fashioned life style. In fact, one small child was scared of seeing me as he wasn't used to caucasians. The homes were mainly little huts made out of leaves from the coconut trees. Most, if not all the children were walking around naked, and the only "clean" water source was a well with sand at its bottom. How people drink that and don't get sick is somewhat of a mystery to me, but I guess it works for them. After walking around a little and seeing the place, we picked up a number of colorfully designed sea shells. There were so many to choose from just laying around on the sand, but we were only able to take a small few with us. There came a point where we asked ourselves where do these people go to the bathroom and there didn't seem to be an outhouse around, well, at the opposite side of the island we smelt something foul and got our answer. Hopefully, none of the sea shells are used for toliet paper as in 'Demolition Man'(1993). Getting back to the good side of the island I checked around to make sure there were no surprises laying around, and when it seemed clear, I went in the water for a quick dip.

             When lunch time came we had a number of seafood delights as in lobsters, grilled fish, and conch cooked right in front of us. For drink, we had a few coconuts cut open for us, and each time we would turn our backs on a coconut, one of the goats would come over to try to drink up the juice inside. Most of the people there seemed friendly, except there was one guy, who was dressed like a LA gangbanger, being bossy to people around him and complaining we should be paying for spending time on his land. The thug, as we named him, didn't say anything to us directly, but he was making his opinions known to Willem and his fellow islanders.  Nothing much came of it, but overall poverty sure had its influence on the residents. One girl wanted to charge money for a number of shiny-looking shells she had in her possesion(which we could pick up on the floor for free), and then another lady wanted money for really no reason other than she claimed visitors usually give her money. After lunch was finished and we were done with our visit, it was time to head back to the main island we were staying at. Before getting into the boat, a group of small children on the beach stopped to pose for pictures. With their bodies wet from the water and the white sand sticking to them, they looked like an African tribe with their war paint on, ready to head into battle.

             Once we were back near Willem's, we made a little detour to the village library that had a few large speakers out front blasting music for people to dance to. I didn't know it was a library at first, but once I went inside and was offered a beer, I looked at the shelves and noticed encyclopedias and other books housed all around. As I sat, two small children, with clothes on this time, noticed my camera and started dancing so I could take pictures of them. They were quite amused at seeing themselves in photos and videos that I showed them. Willem, and the dog, escorted us back to the Abaka Bay resort and with my swimming trunks still on, I decided to go in for another dip in the nice water. As I was swimming, I went out a little further than I normally would have, and while moving my arms I felt something slash across my left arm, which left a red mark. I'm not sure what caused that, might've been a long and sharp tree leaf that was in the water, or some type of water creature I bumped into. Either way, I stayed in closer from that point on. With my goggles and snorkel on, I was able to scan the underwater surface and saw all types of colorful small fish. There were also shells and small pieces of coral laying around the ocean floor.

             Naturally, since we ate lobster for lunch on Lover's Island during the afternoon, that night at the Abaka Bay hotel resturant, they had to serve lobster for dinner...