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| Entrance to Bassin Zim |
Feb. 2017 update - they addressed these complaints! There is now a sign with prices and we entered the park in peace.
Bassin Zim
is a waterfall near Hinche in the central plateau. HaitiLibre had an article about the Ministry
of Tourism putting it on their "Water
Route" circuit so it
will “be part of a model of sustainable
development based on community tourism.” The Ministry
met with the locals in Dec. 2015 to discuss “the
need for communities to well welcome visitors to the site.” I write this review to give the Ministry some
feedback from a foreigner’s point of view.
Three times
I have taken my Haitian university students to Bassin Zim to learn about water
quality, and have not felt welcomed upon arrival. The 15 minute haggle over entrance fees makes
for a poor start to the visit. It is
especially sad that the guards want to charge their fellow Haitians twice as
much just because a foreigner is with them.
Negotiations involve telling the guards we were charged 25 gds per
person on our first visit, the guards insisting on 50 gds a person then getting
mad and yelling. One time this deteriorated into
them hitting children with sticks and large rocks, making the kids cry. While the kids had disrespectfully yelled at
the guards to let us in, the violent reproach left a very bad impression.
Last week my freshman ecology class
negotiated a price of 250 gds ($4) for the entire van of 19 people. As we left we thanked the guards and said we’d
return with another class. Yet on
arrival just one week later with my juniors, the same guards again demanded 50 gds a
person. After much haggling and the
guard feigning locking gate and stomping off, my junior ecology students
managed to get us in for 250 gds, this time for a van of 13. Each time my students were respectful, and
even broke up the fight between the guards and the children.
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| Measuring turbidity. |
During last
week’s visit with my freshmen, five “guides” (both children and adults)
followed us around and insisted on “helping” me (but not my students), even
though my students explained we had a plan and knew where we were going. This week the children figured out we had an
agenda and hung out in the background. A
student gave them a little lesson about testing water chemistry and evaluating
the watershed. If the Ministry of
Tourism really wants to promote Bassin Zim, it needs to standardize and post entrance
fees (with reduced rates for locals), and train guards and guides to be
courteous to visitors (both Haitian and foreign).
If they
truly care about the water and sustainability, they need pick up trash, ban
livestock and washing in the river, protect the remaining trees (charcoal was
being made right along the path to the cave), put a buffer of more trees around
the park (crops grow right up to the walkway), and remove the new tilapia pond
that sits next to the cave and dumps directly into the river. Maybe someday one of my students will work for
the Ministry of Tourism or the Environment and enact these changes.
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| The big cave |
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| Small cave |
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| Teaching about water quality next to the tilapia pond. |
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| Measuring temperature. |
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| Measuring forest density. |
