We made it! We are sitting in our air-conditioned room in Port au Prince!!! This hotel that seemed barely adequate last Sunday now seems five star resort!
But it's a very different picture from our day of travel. Our first vehicle left St Paul's at 7:45 this morning and we fnally arrived in PauP at 6:45 tonight. Is that a record?!?! Actually we finished crossing the river at 1:30 so it was only 5 and 3/4 hours to get the first fifteen miles. After that, it was slow but steady.
We had to take two trips to get to the river with our one vehicle from our Petit Trou hero. At the river, Dr Mo negogiated a great team of boatmen at a great price. Then Mike crossed with a load of duffels followed by Jenn and another load of duffels. At that point, Mo stayed on the Petit Trou side waiting for us which took another hour or two. Finally we arrived with Jean Well and Roosevelt to see us off. Yvonne and I were immediately hussled onto the boat. It was a dugout canoe with another very nervous Haitian who kept shouting that he couldn't swim. Yvonne and I were shuffled around in the canoe much to our distress and finally we began. The boatmen pulled us up river about 100 yards and then set us free. We zoomed down river and with their swimming help aimed for the other side. It all worked out fine except we landing in ankle deep mud and had to carry our bags out. Little did we know that everyone else including the guys were offered a piggy-back ride. Beverly's ride was even more special but more about that when we have photos to explain!
After the crossing, we made our way to Petit Reviere where we had a nice break an Manilou's Hotel. Lovely cold drinks and our tuna and crackers on the patio. Manilou's place looks just this side of decrepit but what a lovely man and what a lovely spot.
The rest of the day seemed fairly straight forward compared to the river crossing but more about that tomorrow. Right now, I need a bit of sleep! T Sorry no pictures tonight. Check this post again soon for some great river crossing shots!
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