UCNH guest house

UCNH has a guest house for visiting professors and other people working with the university. I lived in the house for 5 months and saw many groups come and go with expectations that didn’t match the reality of the accommodations. It’s a great place to stay and your visit will be more enjoyable if you know what to expect. This is about the ranch house near the provost’s and president’s houses.

The house has 2 guest bedrooms with 2-3 single beds per room, 1 shared bathroom with indoor plumbing & flush toilet, kitchen with propane stove and refrigerator/freezer, dining room, and living room. Electricity is provided by a campus generator that runs approximately 7a – 11p most days. Rooms have ceiling fans (which won’t run once the generators turn off for the night). If you need electricity for a CPAP or other necessity, make sure your host knows before your visit to allow time for other arrangements. No internet – ask your host to provide a temporary hotspot.

The campus generator runs the water pump for the entire campus. No generator means no water, so prepare accordingly – take showers when generators are on. Keep bathroom buckets full of water, always! It takes not having water only once to remind you to keep them full. There is usually no hot water in the shower.

Don’t use the tap water for drinking or brushing your teeth. Drinking water comes from a biosand filter that is filled from the taps. It is safe – and avoids using individual plastic water bottles that just add to Haiti’s trash problem. Use the provided water filtration supplies, keep them clean, and make sure the blue jugs are kept full. Running low with no electricity to fill the filter is a quick lesson about being vigilant to keep the jugs full. Don’t use this precious filtered water for anything but drinking. Dishes are cleaned with water straight from the tap, followed by a rinse in bleach water.

The kitchen stove is propane, which is supplied in tanks brought from a larger town. Conserve fuel and don’t use it to heat bathing water. We need to cook food more than we need to have hot water for bathing. If your hosts arrange it, cooks will provide your meals. You can also buy snacks at the snack shop or off the street outside the university gate.

Towels and sheets are provided, and you should be able to find a mosquito net to hang over your bed, bring your own to be certain (leave it behind to make room for souvenirs). Toilet paper is provided sparsely – remind the house manager (not me!) often and early! Bring everything else you will need: toiletries, snacks, sun screen, bug spray, reusable water bottle, coffee if you want it before the cooks arrive in the morning.

The house has a beautiful yard and a front porch to enjoy the flowers and birds. See my other posts for things to see and do on campus and in the community.

 

Casa Cubuy Puerto Rico

I took a week off from Haiti to attend a BirdsCaribbean shorebird workshop in Puerto Rico, and ended up staying an extra 4 days as political protests in Haiti grew and shut down the country. The stay included 2 nights at a really cool lodge called Casa Cubuy on the south side of the El Yunque National Forest. I didn’t have much time to research my extra stay in PR, and am glad I ended up here. The owners were kind enough to email and call me with directions. The narrow windy road up to the lodge is scenic. Follow the directions on the website, and look for the last yellow building on the right. There is parking on the downhill side of the lodge, but no sign with the name. When I arrived a bit frazzled from deciding to head back to the US instead of Haiti, the owner Michael invited me into the kitchen and offered me a glass of wine and sliced up a mango for me.

My room was spacious, with 3 beds, 2 little desks, a ceiling fan, and a bathroom with hot water. The balcony overlooked the forest and cascade that sits below the lodge, and had a little table and chairs. It was very relaxing to hear the coqui frogs and cascade at night. I brought food for my lunch and dinner as the closest place for meals was 20 minutes away (the town of Naguabo off Hwy 53 has gas, grocery store, and restaurants). The kitchen has a large refrigerator for guests to use. They will make lunches for guests for $10, either to take on a hike or eat at the hotel.

Breakfast isn't served until 9am, so I missed it the first morning as I hired a guide for birding. The 2^nd morning I got to see what I missed out on – a family-style breakfast with the other guests, with lots of fruit, juice, and coffee, and wonderful oatmeal, eggs, and hash browns made by the owner.

Casa Cubuy is in the national forest and has a short path to the cascade below that has pools deep enough for swimming. The road past the lodge gave me a chance to do some birding, and I heard that at the end of the road are paths into the forest. Unfortunately my stay wasn’t long enough to explore those.

The only drawback to Casa Cubuy was the 40 minute drive back to the area that had beaches and more parks and tourist attractions (around Fajardo). A longer stay at the casa would have been ideal, with a couple day-trips to other attractions. Also I am an early morning person so waiting until 9am for breakfast was inconvenient, so worth a longer stay to have mornings to enjoy that.

Here are the birds I saw just from the road, with links to eBird. Also, I was told the guesthouse downhill has hummingbirds.

Scaly-naped Pigeon

White-winged Dove

Mangrove Cuckoo

Puerto Rican Screech-Owl

Puerto Rican Woodpecker

Gray Kingbird

Loggerhead Kingbird

Black-whiskered Vireo

Puerto Rican Tanager

Bananaquit

Black-faced Grassquit

Puerto Rican Screech-Owl

Red-legged Thrush

Guest house review – O-Zone in Furcy

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.

The Tree House room

Inside the Tree House

Campers on the balcony. Rooms are in the background.

View from below.

Evening entertainment

Tree House visible above, with lodge below.

Black-throated blue warbler on the balcony.

At the big white church in Furcy turn left to take the road down to the O-Zone gate.

Dinner

The Mustard Seed Auberge Hostel, Les Cayes Haiti

Relaxing on the balcony.

If you are looking for a place to stay in Les Cayes Haiti consider the Mustard Seed Auberge Hostel in the Charpentier neighborhood on the east end of Les Cayes.  I must preface this review with the fact that I lived there for 5 months and got to know the friendly Haitian family that lives on the ground floor and manages the hostel. 

The hostel is located in a residential area close to Les Cayes’ main road, National Route 2, so it is very easy to walk to the highway to find a motorcycle taxi, buy produce, or go to the businesses along the highway.  It takes about 7 minutes to walk to the Capital Coach Bus Line stop, and about 5 minutes to walk to the American University of the Caribbean.  The neighborhood is safe, but as in all of Haiti it would be unwise to walk alone at night. 

The 2nd floor living quarters are very breezy which makes it comfortable in the hot weather.  There is a balcony with hammocks, a great place to hang out and watch the neighborhood. 

Cots and fans in the bedrooms.

As typical with hostels, Auberge is very inexpensive, primarily because the beds are cots and guests are expected to share rooms if necessary.  There are fans to keep you cool and blankets to keep you warm in the cool winter nights, and each cot is under a mosquito net.  There is also a real full-sized bed with an extra charge for those who want this amenity.  There are 3 rooms and 2 bathrooms.  They can accommodate large groups on more cots and air mattresses in the the main quarters.

The prices while I was there for 2 weeks in January 2014 were $18/night, plus $7 for lunch or dinner.  They gave me a special monthly rate for a 5-month stay which did not include meals.  The kitchen is large with a propane stove, refrigerator, and some basic utensils and cookware.  If you want Haitian meals you can pay the family downstairs for meals.  While cooking on my own I missed Haitian cooking so paid for one meal a week from Madam Eli downstairs.  She also washes clothes for $5US a sac.

Looking in on the kitchen.

Internet is provided at no extra cost, and is rather reliable and fast for Haiti.  City electricity is backed up with batteries and an inverter.  Only once in my 5-month stay did we have an evening of no electricity.  Water is from a container on the roof that must be periodically refilled, so guests are advised to conserve water.  There is no hot water, and tap water cannot be used for brushing teeth or drinking.  Potable water is provided.

The Mustard Seed Auberge is a very clean and breezy place to stay!  Contact me and I’ll put you in touch with the proprietor.  Check out the rest of my blog for activities to do in the area.

Wall's Guest House in Port Au Prince

In January 2014 I spent my final night in Haiti at Wall's Guest house on Delmas 19.  It is a beautiful place, set up like a small hotel.  I had a private room with a beautiful bathroom.  My travel companion had a small room with a bathroom shared by other small rooms.  Wall's was initially run by Canadians, destroyed during the 2010 quake, and rebuilt, which may explain why it is so clean and beautiful.  The rooms have AC but no hot water.  There is a pool, and the stay comes with dinner and breakfast. The facilities are completely walled in, so you can't see what is going on in the neighborhood outside, and from the outside you don't know there is a guest house behind the walls.  Internet is provided.  There is a tiny gift shop.  This would be a great place for those who want comfort in their traveling.

I however want to see Haiti and the activities in the neighborhood, and price is more important than the level of comfort that Wall's provides.  For the budget traveler I recommend Matthew 25 House (see this post).  Both places are about the same distance from the airport.  Matthew 25 is much cheaper ($40/night), the meals are better, and they have a great gift shop.  Transportation to and from airport and bus stops is included. 

Unexciting dinner - hotdogs, pickliz, iceberg lettuce, bread.

Wall's cost $55 per room per night.  They get you in the transportation fees, $33 each way to and from the airport (a 7 minute drive if there is no traffic)!  Totaling $121 for the solitary traveler!  For me that is not worth the AC and pretty facilities.  Also, after check in at the office, we received no instructions on the use of the facilities. The manager is pleasant, but just settled payment and that was it.   There are no signs in the bedrooms about meal times, whether you can use the sink water for brushing or drinking, whether you can flush the toilet paper.  I had to ask about meals.

I was holding out hope that the dinner would make up for the cost.  Nope!  It was hotdogs, French fries, pickliz, iceberg lettuce, and bread pudding.  And bread and butter.  As a vegetarian I was disappointed, as I had just had pickliz and french fries for my lunch.  My companion said the hotdog wasn't that great, specifically that the Oscar Myer wiener mobile would be passing this place up!  Pop $1US, Prestige beer $2US, and bottles of wine $20US are available for purchase.  Breakfast Sunday morning consisted of cereal, milk, bread, peanut butter, jelly, cheese, ham(?) slices, grapefruit, and papaya.

We took a long walk around the neighborhood.  Nothing exciting to see.  We did end up finding the Seven Star Hotel and restaurant which had the usual Haitian food.  And a road with some hammocks and a lot of typical paintings.  I'll be sticking with Matthew 25 from now, but am glad to have tried out a different guest house.

They gave the male guest this room which shared a bathroom with other small rooms.

As a female I scored the room with the attached bathroom.