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| Morning coffee |
Recently I stayed a Saturday night in January 2018 at O-Zone
to take my university students to Wynne Farm for the day. The best thing about O-Zone is that it is up at
4500 ft. in the pine trees and running the entire length of the lodge is a balcony with great views of the forest and excellent birding in the
morning. I saw many species while just
sitting and enjoying my morning coffee.
O-Zone is not for the traveler who needs privacy and fancy
accommodations (anything more than a bed and shower, and food). It is more like camping, and there was even a
group who pitched their tents on the balcony.
My group of 12 took 4 rooms, and the other 3 rooms were also occupied
If you come prepared to relax for a day up in the trees, need a staging place for hiking, and come prepared for the accommodations and
atmosphere with adventure, then you will enjoy it. Here is what you’ll get:
The rooms are tiny with bunk beds that have pillows, thin
blankets, and a comforter. There are
rooms that sleep 1 or 2, and 4 or 5. All
open into the balcony. There is one room
called the Tree House that is elevated and has a large bed and attached
bathroom. If you come in January you
must bring a lot of warm clothes for sleeping!
The temperature at night was 55F and with the fog rolling in we were
quite cold. The rooms are airy with open
ceiling and boards for walls, so will not protect you from the cold, or music
or light, so bring earplugs and eye covers if you need quiet and dark. You can hear everything going on in the other
rooms and balcony/lobby/bar area. The
music was loud, a drunk guy came in from the street, and during the night
someone threw rocks on the roof. It
was a Saturday night.
The bathroom, attached to the room withOUT a door, has a toilet,
sink, and shower (super cold water in January!). No towels or toiletries are provided other
than toilet paper. Unfortunately our toilet tank wouldn’t fill so we had to
bucket flush. The floor of the room and
bathroom is dirt with rocks and some boards to stand on, so bring flipflops if
you shower. There is a common bathroom off
of the lobby if you need more privacy.
If you are on a time schedule, order your food and rides an
hour ahead of when you really need them.
O-Zone provided a truck to take us to Wynne Farm. O-Zone has a decent lunch and dinner menu
with salads, chicken, rice etc. but of course not everything on the menu is
available. Tell them if you are
vegetarian – they made a salad for me without chicken. We laughed at the ice in our juice because we
were all really cold by the time dinner was served. They gave us Haitian spaghetti for breakfast,
with chicken sauce to pour over. Coffee
was provided. There is a small bar.
My arrangements were made by Jacqui Lebrom with Voyages
Lumiere, so I wasn’t in charge of negotiating a price, which was quoted at a
discounted rate of $70 per person that supposedly included 4 meals (breakfast,
lunch we weren’t there for, dinner, and hot chocolate that we never saw). Jacqui was wonderful in arranging logistics
for a field trip for my university ecology class (traveling 6 hours from the
Central Plateau to Wynne Farm, with stops in Port au Prince), so any frustration
I had with O-Zone was no reflection on her.
The Bradt Haiti travel guide gives O-Zone one $ for price. It also gives several beach hotels where I’ve
stayed $$ and $$$ and they cost just a little more and had far superior service
and accommodations, so maybe there is room for a lot of negotiation with
O-Zone.
Adjust your expectations, bring warm clothes and ear plugs, and enjoy the birds
and view from O-Zone.
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| The Tree House room |
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| Inside the Tree House |
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| Campers on the balcony. Rooms are in the background. |
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| View from below. |
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| Evening entertainment |
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| Tree House visible above, with lodge below. |
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| Black-throated blue warbler on the balcony. |
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| At the big white church in Furcy turn left to take the road down to the O-Zone gate. |
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| Dinner |
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