Tag Archives: mountain

Haiti

Last weekend I got to do something that I did not think I would do before coming to the Dominican Republic, and that is going to Haiti! We had a free weekend, and a bunch of other American students and I were able to find a tour company that did weekend trips to Haiti. It was a bit expensive, but well worth the experience.

Drive to the Border

We met just outside our university on Friday morning at 5AM. After cramming into a van, we headed towards the border. On Fridays and Mondays at this particular border crossing, it is completely open. This is because there is a market between buyers and sellers from both the DR and Haiti. My passport got four stamps that weekend: my first was to leave the DR, my second to enter Haiti. On Sunday, I got the same stamps, but for leaving Haiti and entering the DR. We were at the border for probably over an hour, and for most of that time the flow of people crossing the border did not slow down. Pictured below is a scene of the people crossing the border, taken from the immigration office. It’s a bit of a distance away but you may be able to see that nearly every person is carrying or towing something with them in hopes of selling it.

Haitian Border

The Citadelle

After the border, we were on our way to the Citadelle, the largest fortress in the Americas. After driving up what seemed like a hundred switchbacks, we were at a spot where we could not drive any further. We walked the rest of the distance up to the fortress. It was not more than a 30 minute walk from where we stopped driving. Once at the fortress, we were directed around by a local guide. The fortress was built to protect Haiti against an attack from the French. The Citadelle was threatened more so by earthquakes than the French, as a French attack never came. However, the fortress remains an icon of Haiti and is featured on the country’s currency. It is situated on top of a mountain, and really makes you wonder how each stone, cannon, and the endless amounts of daily supplies were carried up there. Here is a picture shot from the base of the wall.

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Here is another picture at the Citadelle of the hundreds if not thousands of cannonballs stored there.

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The Citadelle itself was very impressive, but also very much so because of the views of the mountains that you could see from it. Here I am below, on the roof of the Citadelle, pictured with this beautiful ridge that I could not leave without taking a picture with.

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Sans-Souci Palace

The second part of the day was spent at the Sans-Souci Palace, which was near by the Citadelle. It housed Henri Christophe, the man responsible for building the Citadelle. Here are a couple pictures of the palace.

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To be honest, this palace reminded me a lot of Roman ruins, probably because of their shared use of arches. Although I was very tired and sweaty at the end of the day, I had a fantastic time. I was able to visit two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in one day. If that does not count as a successful travel, I don’t know what does.

The rest of the weekend consisted of going to the beach, out to a discoteca in Cap-Haitien, and a lot of driving. I don’t have any pictures of the city itself. It was very difficult to get clear pictures through tinted glass on a bumpy road, so I decided to kick back and just observe. I was practically mesmerized as we were driving through the city. People-watching is one of my favorite things to do while traveling somewhere new. Cap-Haitien was a bustling city, which actually reminded me of the DR in some ways. I saw a countless number of people selling things in the street. The buildings were painted with very brightly colors and built from concrete. The roads were quite bumpy at times but not torturous to drive through. Motorcycles were fearless when it came to weaving in and out of traffic. Our last stop in Haiti before returning to the DR was to the statues of the fore fathers of Haiti.

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This tour made me realize how connected each country in the Americas is. I often thought of the Dominican Republic and Haiti as faraway lands, but we are much more connected than we think we are. The US, along with Haiti, the Dominican Republic and countless other nations has fought for their independence from European settlers. It was very cool and eye opening to see this connection in a country that I previously had very little interest in.

Photo of the Week

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There is a very popular festival all throughout Latin America taking place called Carnaval, I will explain more in my next post, but here is a picture to act as a bit of a teaser. Masks are a huge part of Carnaval, and as you can see a lot of work goes into making them, even the small ones sold in flea markets. I picked this up at a flea market down the street for less than $5. It is entirely made of paper Papier-mâché, and elaborately painted. That’s all I will say for now, see you next time!


Location: The Citadelle, Haiti

Yunnan: Part One

Yunnan Part 1:

As part of our learning experience, IES arranged for us to go on a 2 week trip to Yunnan Province, including many a cool cities and villages.  It was a four hour flight from Beijing to Kunming.  When we arrived, I was amazed!  Compared to the frigid sub-zero capital, Kunming seemed like paradise.  My teacher described it as the San Francisco of China: palm trees, mountains in the distance, 70 degrees in the winter and 80 degrees in the summer.  Yeah, pretty nice. 

We stayed there for a few nights before heading out to a different city called Dali.  Dali is known for its historic significance as well as its old city, which features old school Chinese architecture and quaint stores and shops.  There we did a bicycle trip and even went to a hot spring.  The hot spring actually surprised me a bit.  Apparently, most hot springs are sulfur hot springs.  That means that the hot water is accompanied by a foul-ish-but-you’ll-get-used-to-it-egg/fart smell.  This was especially apparent when I took a poo and washed my hands with warm water.  I thought to myself “dang, it couldn’t have been THAT bad”.  Also, in Kunming and basically all of Yunnan, the bathrooms are characterized by squatter style toilets, no toilet papers supplied, no soap in the sink, and no towels/dryer.  As a person with limited leg flexibility, it took a good getting used to and training from my more balance sensitive friends before I could effectively cop a squat.  Also, bring your own toilet paper and sand sanitizers.  Although some of the nicer hotels will have completely western style bathrooms. 

We had a buttload of hiking trips.  I think we had 4 hiking days in total, which is complete nonsense if you ask me.  Beautiful, awe-inspiring, and majestic.  But complete nonsense.  The first one was by a smallish mountain in Dali.  It was well paved, the incline was gentle, and the altitude wasn’t too high.  Completely doable, I thought.  But the fact that there was no fence freaked me out something fierce.  I walked almost exclusively on the right, where the comfort of a mountainous wall was present.  The second/third hiking trip was on Tiger Leaping Gorge.  If you don’t know anything about Tiger Leaping Gorge, it’s the second largest gorge in the world, the first being the Grand Canyon.  Compared to the small mountain in Dali, which was fully equipped with a chairlift to take us halfway up and a gondola to take us the full way down, TLG was hell wrapped in tortured filled with contemplative suicide.  No fences, rocky slopey terrain, bridges made from 4 pieces of timber lying next to each other, waterfalls.  It was the real deal.  It was the mother of all hikes.  I came, I saw, I conquered.  Then I died. 

I went to bathroom on the most gorgeous bathroom in the world.  It was at a guest house/hostel deep within the mountain summit.  The bathroom is made up of 3 walls, two of them are on the side and one of them is the door.  The last side is an open air expansion facing the heart of TGL.  I took a pee while beholding the most beautiful sight I have ever beheld.  It was kind of cool.  Oh yeah, and I tagged this as a “global citizenship” thing because… well, I guess the travels made me more cosmopolitan and thus a citizen of the global variety.  Mehh.

Next up, pics and Yunnan: Part 2


Location: Kunming, China

Cities and Landscapes

Traveling over the mountains toward Cusco, I thought the landscape existed on a larger scale than anything I�d seen before. I�d post pictures to demonstrate, but the image upload on the blog is currently malfunctioning.

I�d heard references to landscapes before, describing them as nature�s works of art. I finally understand what that means; it seemed like God himself reached down and carved the hills and mountains, splashed some grass to add texture and plopped trees into the scene for good measure. Like a canvas.

Now I�m in Cusco, and the atmosphere of this city couldn�t be more different than the atmosphere of Buenos Aires. Cobblestone streets, colonial buildings, churches. It�s interesting to see the contrast, which I�ll describe in more depth later.

The people are different here, too. I hate to generalize, but there�s something in the affective manner Peruvians speak that makes them seem nicer. I bought a roadside snack, meat speared by a wooden stick. A little girl, hungry, looked at me while we were in the crowd and asked me if she could have some. Small, soft black eyes. I gave her everything I had left. It�s hard to not let that look penetrate you.


Location: Cusco, Peru