Ouanga Bay Beach Hotel

 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.

  

Day 2 – Moulin sur Mer and Musee Ogier-Fombrun

This continues my 3 day road trip around Port au Prince and the Artibonite Valley.  After church on Sunday Day 2 we hit the road around 2pm and drove National Route 1 which follows the southern coast of Haiti’s northern peninsula.  From Tabarre PAP it took us about 2 hours to get to the resort Moulin sur Mer.  There’s a sign right along the highway pointing the way to the resort, just keep driving til you reach the resort gate.  You park inside the gate then a little cart comes and takes you to the check-in booth.  Riding the little cart made me feel like I was at Disney World!  A room for 2 with 2 beds was $156, an affordable splurge to relax at a clean beach.  That price came with a great breakfast of fruit, rolls, omelet, and juice (with real butter!).  There is a higher price that includes dinner.

The room was great – nothing fancy but it did have hot water!  The grounds had a lot to look at - a pond with geese and giant land crabs which entertained people like me and Rhoda.  Miniature golf, a swimming pool, a cage with two monkeys (!), a small playground, racketball court, and a giant chess game.  There is a little gift shop with mainly swimwear, toiletries, and medicines.  But we were there for the beach!

There are several mini-beach areas.  At the edge of the roped off swimming area next to the man-made ‘island’ are rocks with sea urchins and fish, but jet skiers were going back and forth just beyond us, churning up the water and making it difficult not to get sloshed up against the rocks.  Why couldn’t they go farther out?  They have the entire bay!  The hotel offers kayaks and snorkeling gear to rent, and there’s a marina right next to it to rent jet skis, store boats, etc.  We swam, had dinner, then the best part came after dark when we were hanging out on the little ‘island’ where fish were attracted to the lights!  It was so exciting to see all the fish, clear water, no jet skiers.  Next time I’ll try night snorkeling.

Food was Haitian restaurant fare, a bit more upscale I suppose, but since I am a vegetarian I can’t comment on how it compared to other places.  For vegetarians I recommend a cheese sandwich with mushrooms and onions on the side to put on the sandwich which came on a great baguette.  Even better was the dessert, Twa Let, which caused some confusion.  Twalet – a toilet?  Or Twa Let – 3 milk?  Fortunately it was cream-based desserts (see photo).

We got up for a sunrise swim.  No jet skiers!  Clear water!  And then a great breakfast.  We checked out at 10 am and went to the plantation museum right across from the main gate.  This Musee Ogier-Fombrun was closed for renovation, but we were able to walk around the grounds and see some of the exhibits in the entrance way (and oddly there is a small pool and a bar – I suppose for the hotel patrons?).  With my museum studies degree, I was horrified to see letters written by Toussaint Louverture, Haiti’s revolutionary leader – in the entrance way – under glass but still exposed to light and humidity.  Here is a photo to preserve the letters for all eternity (or until the end of computers).

We left the museum around noon and traveled to Petite Riviere via Saint Marc.  Stayed tuned for the next posting about that journey.

The turn from Route 1 to Moulin sur Mer.

The island lights attract fish at night!

A good place to do some light snorkeling - sea urchins and fish.

And you can do some light birding - sandwich terns!

The marina next to Moulin sur Mer.

 

Historic letters.

Letter by Toussaint Louverture!

Gelee Beach Festival

This week I worked an Audubon Center tent at the Gelee Beach Festival.  With American University of the Caribbean students manning the tent I was able to walk around and enjoy the agriculture and art vendors in the Agro-Artisanal section my AUC coworker organized, up the beach away from the main crowded party area.  Here are photos of some of the art that I had never seen before.  The bone art is made from goat bones.  There were necklaces, buckles, ponytail holders, wall art, and pencil holders carved from the bone.  The piece I bought reminds me of Inuit ivory carvings, with a fish and sun.

Next to the Audubon tent women were selling woven baskets, purses and dolls.  Across from the tent was ceramic art, which I had previously seen passing through the streets of Port au Prince and assumed was gaudy plastic resin.  Turns out they are ceramic and beautiful.  The vendor said they were made of lime.  Leave a comment if you know anything about this type of ceramic!  It must be mass produced somewhere in Port.

Gelee Beach was transformed to a packed, party atmosphere with a giant concert stage blaring music, trinket and food vendors, plenty of rum and alcohol booths, and games of chance tables.  The festival lasts all week, but the main day is Aug. 15, Assumption Day on the Catholic calendar.  I was told it gets rowdy and don’t be there after dark.  People in our ag/art section seemed to be there more for the festival atmosphere than shopping or education, but we were still able to talk with many about the importance of Haiti’s environment.  See this post about the Audubon tent.

By the time I left around 6pm the Gelee roads were packed at the intersections with National Highway 2, so beware if you are traveling west out of Les Cayes during festival week!  There were plenty of police directing traffic, and steam rollers blocking intersections to channel traffic.  Made the moto ride home quite nerve racking!

The trans-Caribbean trash exchange program

Ti Malice on a Florida beach (by balloonsblow.org).

Recently, Florida resident Tom emailed me asking about the Ti Malice brand that he saw in the billboards in this post.  Turns out the tubs that hold this yellow margarine-like product are washing up in Florida, and apparently enough of them that caused the Floridian beach comber to inquire ‘What’s up with Ti Malice?’  See the photo taken by Danielle and Chelsea of Balloons Blow, a non-profit that picks up trash from Florida beaches (and visit their facebook page).

Ti Malice is a character in a Haitian children’s story.  He is the mischievous counterpart to his friend (or brother?) Bouki.  And he is causing more trouble by washing up in Florida.  This poses the questions:

• Are there more tubs of Ti Malice than other brands being used then thrown away in Haiti?
• Are the Ti Malice tubs sturdier than the other tubs?

Might make a good Master’s thesis!

And will also make a good classroom lesson about littering and the trash disposal systems in Haiti.  As far as I can tell, people either burn trash or throw it in the streams and on the beaches.  I’ve also seen systems (well, once, on a missionary compound) in which two pits are dug, one for burnables, and one for things that shouldn’t be burned (plastic, glass etc.).  This second pit is buried when full and another pit dug.  I’ve also heard that garbage trucks pick up residential trash in Les Cayes, but I have never seen this nor do I know where the trash is taken.  

I think I will make this a student project this fall: Report on trash disposal practices in Les Cayes.  Then perhaps we will have a campus clean up and brave a beach cleanup.  Once I learn what we should do with all the trash!

The 'dock' in Les Cayes where we were picked up in the little wood boat to go to Ile a Vache.  While waiting we saw a woman dump her garbage here.

The beach in Jacmel.  We saw people come out and dump their garbage here!

Cayes-de-Jacmel

Cayes-de-Jacmel is farther east along the shore, and has a much nicer beach!