If you are looking for some easy snorkeling right outside your hotel
room, try the Ouanga Bay Beach Hotel in Cote des Arcadins along Rt. Natl #1. It is about a 2 hour drive from Port au
Prince on the paved highway. Look for
the sign with the hummingbird, and the entrance has a metal seahorse on the
gate post. Ouanga occupies a long narrow
strip of beach, with parking behind the hotel on the highway side. There are two choices for rooms – regular
rooms for $110 each room or bungalows with TV for $135 (Oct. 2014). The bungalows are stand alone, while the
regular rooms are in a row like regular hotel rooms. We stayed in the regular rooms.
The room had A/C, hot water, and two beds. There was no door on the bathroom, which
might make for an awkward situation if you don’t know the people you travel
with very well. All the rooms have an
ocean view. The water is very
clear! The best snorkeling was right
outside the regular rooms. You have to
go down a short flight of steps, walk to the far end of the beach and climb
over come rocks to get on the beach.
This isn’t the main laying-out beach.
Wear water shoes since there are sea urchins. We saw puffer fish, a sea snake, little
colorful fish, and gobies that like to swim around your fingers. There are also some chunks of coral to swim
around. Watch out for jelly fish the
further out you go! They were dispersed
enough that you can avoid them, and looked beautiful swimming, but still gave
us the willies and we went back closer to shore. There is also a swimming pool at one end of the property.
The lounging/swimming beach is in front of the bungalows and
next to the bar/restaurant that sits over the water. It is a very relaxing place to hang out. Except when the jetskiers decide to come to
shore at the swimming beach! We left a
note of complaint about that. Our dinner
was very good, and relatively inexpensive for a beach hotel. My friend had bbq chicken with fries
($12). I asked for a vegetable plate of
carrots, melotin (chayote squash) and avocado, with fries ($10). We had cake for dessert ($5). A great breakfast comes with the room price:
omelet, fruit, juice, bread, and coffee.
They set the coffee out early so you can sit and enjoy the sunrise over
the hills behind the hotel.
The people in the lobby were very friendly. There is no store, but they do have little
toothbrush kits if you forget yours.
There are steps to go down then up to get to the rooms. There weren’t a lot of people there the
Saturday night we stayed. A three or
four families, a couple foreigners. More
people showed up Sunday morning, perhaps to spend the day at the beach.
Over all Ouanga Bay is very enjoyable and relaxing. See the next post about the wharf tour and ecotourism
school that are within walking distance of the hotel.
I have completed my first week of teaching ecology at Université Chrétienne de la Communauté de Caïman (UCCC). I teach 3 classes a week to the
same class of first year agronomy students so that we can get in an entire 3
credit course in the 6 weeks that I am here.
Already the students have asked me if bats come from old mice, and the
topic of zombies came up. I lecture in
English with my friend Diranot translating into Creole (though maybe the
students want French?). Handouts and
tests are in French thanks to a French graduate student at the Univ. of Kansas
and google translate. There’s no power
at the university so I hold up my computer so the class can see pictures – can’t
teach about biomes without showing what a tundra or taiga looks like! Next week is their first quiz, and an outdoor lab
to learn forestry measurements. 
