Haiti holidays, holidays in Haiti prices. Haiti

Haiti is a small country in the Caribbean region, in which unique nature, poverty, tyranny, hurricanes, earthquakes and outbreaks of epidemics are surprisingly intertwined. The state is not at all like the neighboring Dominican Republic, so your vacation in Haiti will be quite exotic. However, this island nation is worth visiting at least once.

Getting to Haiti is not an easy task. Tours there are rarely organized due to lack of demand. The island country is included as an addition to y or sea cruises. Therefore, it is not necessary to count on burning offers.

There are no direct or transfer flights from Russia. One of the easiest ways to get to Haiti from Moscow is a flight to the Dominican Republic, and from there it's a six-hour bus to Port-au-Prince. For an air ticket you will have to pay from 35,000 rubles, the bus will cost another 1,500. Thus, holidays in Haiti will start with a significant prices tickets, which eat up a large part of the travel budget. But there is good news: Russians do not need a visa to Haiti if the stay does not exceed three months.

Now a little more about what prices await you during your holidays in Haiti:

The average cost of living in hotels without frills starts at $ 40: for this amount they will offer a room in the capital with uninterrupted electricity, hot water and a TV. There are also cheaper options, but they are more suitable for "worn out" tourists and do not inspire confidence. More comfortable hotels Haiti vacation will cost from $ 80 per day.

Haiti is not a tourist country, so prices there are generally higher than in neighboring resorts. Paradoxically, lower, although the level of this very rest is not an example higher. So, renting a car in Haiti will cost about $150-200 per day. Lunch in a restaurant starts from $40-50, but in ordinary cafes the price for the same portion is reduced several times.

The national currency of Haiti is the Haitian gourde, which is divided into 100 centimes. You can find many banks in the capital, but you should immediately prepare for the fact that there is no stable exchange rate and currency exchange conditions often change. In unofficial circulation, there is also the "Haitian dollar" - a kind of conventional unit equal to 5 gourdes. US dollars are also freely circulating, which are often paid in private establishments and markets. Here you can bargain and significantly bring down the price.

In most high-class hotels and restaurants, the bill already includes the cost of the service in the amount of 5-10% of the amount. In bars and street cafes, it is customary to leave a tip - the same 5-10 percent. The service staff expects a reward of 1-5 gourdes.

The magnificent paradise island of Haiti is associated, first of all, with a comfortable stay in a tropical paradise, surrounded by palm trees, exotic flowers and bright representatives of the local fauna. In fairness, it should be noted that Haiti is territorially divided into two parts - the Republic of Haiti itself and the Dominican Republic, and tourists are mainly attracted by the Dominican Republic.

Holidays in Haiti

Holidays in Haiti can be an interesting adventure for those who want to see the life of real Haitians with their own eyes and without embellishment. It should be noted that, despite the developed tourism sector, the Republic of Haiti is a rather poor country, so many vacationers note an unusual contrast between luxury hotels and their rather modest surroundings. After the devastating earthquake that recently shook the republic, the country's authorities still have not fully recovered, and at present many regions of the country are trying to rebuild almost from scratch. How successful - every guest of the country can see for himself.

However, hospitable beaches and modern resorts have not gone away, so you can relax in style in Haiti, especially if you choose the right place. So, for example, a place called petionville will delight vacationers with numerous shops, bars and restaurants where you can safely eat well-cooked meals without fear for your health. old port jacmel rich in architectural delights, ancient religious buildings, as well as the famous Blue Pool - a unique natural attraction located nearby.

One of the most attractive for fans active rest resorts is Cap Haitien located in the northern part of the island. Here, a wide range of sports are presented, from diving and snorkeling to sea hunting and water skiing. There are also many comfortable hotels where you can relax after a busy day.

Culture and traditions of Haitians

Haitian culture is very unusual, especially in the eyes of a European. Representing an amazing cocktail of customs and traditions of many nations, it looks mysterious and attractive to foreign guests. The equal influence of European and African cultures made the life of the Haitians very peculiar - European ideas about the institution of marriage and African male dominance, the celebration of Catholic holidays and elements of the voodoo cult intertwined in it in the most incredible way. The latter often throws the ignorant into a state of confusion, but the Haitians themselves do not see serious contradictions between Catholicism and the mysterious religion of their ancestors.

Almost all important events in the life of a native Haitian are accompanied by unusual rituals, whether it is the end of education, the entry into a certain age phase, the conclusion of an engagement, or any new undertaking. Ritual animal sacrifice is also common, and tourists can often watch this ceremony as well. However, local population very hospitable and friendly towards foreigners, and foreigners, in turn, try to take into account the peculiarities of the local national color.

At the same time, Haitians quite strictly observe the dress code and require the same from their guests. Casual wear is completely unacceptable at official events and celebrations, and beach suits are allowed only within the beaches themselves; going out into the city in shorts or a swimsuit is considered the height of bad taste. However, what Haitians call casual or formal wear is so bright and many-sided that it’s time for foreign travelers to get confused - locals love variety, from simple cropped trousers and T-shirts to bizarre outfits made from flowers and plant leaves.

We have all heard about the disasters in Haiti and how difficult it was for people during the earthquakes in 2010. This was influenced by nature, but the country, five years later, had not yet had time to recover and the local population did not get back on its feet either financially or morally. Total poverty, a huge number of children in families, lack of education cannot make a civilized world out of the once richest country in the Caribbean.

We decided to show you a piece of Haiti and not the worst one. We went to the border town of Dajabon. Once a week (on Friday) there is a market where, according to travelers, you can find souvenirs, crafts and Haitian textiles.

Arriving in Dajabon on Thursday evening, we hardly found a place in the hotel, as everything was packed with visitors, and I understood that a big movement was planned for Friday.

The market is open from early morning until lunch, after lunch everyone folds up and quickly scatters.

The two countries are separated by the Dahabon River of the same name. A bridge was laid across it, which is a checkpoint. Haitians are allowed to visit the market without visas and passports, so everyone who wants to runs across the border as if in his own garden.

The market is surrounded by a high fence to prevent illegal entry of Haitians into the territory of the Dominican Republic. But despite this, Haitians go where they want.

The main focus of the country's army is concentrated along the border with Haiti, because there is a strong flow of people who want to earn extra money to the Dominican Republic. In the Dominican Republic, one in three is Haitian.

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When you get to the border, you feel like an ant in a huge anthill. No, you feel like a victim in a huge anthill. Everyone is running somewhere, driving, in a hurry, as if the gates between the two states will now be closed and they will never again have a chance to get to the Dominican Republic.

The white man is very different from the dark-skinned Africans. It is easy to distinguish a Haitian from a Dominican by skin color and face shape. We learned to do this precisely at the border, by finding differences between people.

Basically, all Haitians wear things on their heads. I have not seen a person who would carry something in a girth or just in his hands. Often they will even carry an empty bucket in this way. It's the culture and that's another feature that sets them apart from the Dominicans.

All streams of hurrying people flock to the market. Can you imagine what's going on there? We decided to check. Pouring into the stream of motorcycles, carts and people with goods on their heads, we floated to the center, where there were more and more people. They hit us with bags on the head, squeezed our legs, carelessly pushed carts under our knees, and no one gave way. Every now and then, from different sides, we heard a skirmish between two, three Haitians who were trying to prove something to each other, and it seemed that now fists would be used. There was aggression in the air, a struggle for a place under the sun. The look of the Haitians is very stern, and in the eyes of some, grief, interest, anger and just emptiness were read. Some of them just followed each other at a practiced pace. It was clear that they were doing it automatically and not for the first day.

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While we were making our way into the thick of things, my pockets were checked several times by petty thieves (about 7-9 years old). In fact, I didn’t even feel it, my husband told me about it, who was walking behind me and saw everything. My pockets were empty, so there was nothing to worry about.

In fact, the market is an aisle that sells inferior second-hand goods and humanitarian aid that comes from abroad to Haitians. We saw Thai sauces, Canadian smoked fish, sausages that were kept in the heat and with flies, medicines lying without refrigeration, spices and other food. There were no souvenirs or Haitian textiles. All this can be found, but already in Haiti.

The entire flow of Haitians was packed full of bags and dragged them to Haiti, back people were in a hurry with empty carts, which created the impression of a lack of food in a poor country. As it turned out later from a conversation with our neighbor Aurora (she is a Haitian and works as a cleaner in the place where we live), there is no famine in Haiti and the country has everything that is needed. Either this is shyness and unwillingness to accept reality, or everything is cheaper in the Dominican Republic and people just buy and make money in their stores.

On the Dominican side, near the border, I saw a long washbasin with bars of soap. Sometimes people came up to him to wash or even wash their feet. This fact surprised no one but us. All those who want to wash are those Haitians who do not have water at home and such a sink helps keep their hands and feet clean. And also, perhaps this shell was put in order to fight cholera.

At the border, I saw that all the transport that comes from Haiti was being processed. More precisely, it was supposed to undergo normal processing, but because of laziness, the workers only managed to sprinkle the wheels with water on one side, as the car left without waiting for it to be washed on the other. Here is such a sterile treatment!

If we talk about holidays in the Caribbean, we should definitely mention Haiti. This republic borders on the Dominican Republic. And, accordingly, it has the same undeniable advantages for tourists as its neighbors.

Holidays in Haiti in 2020 are no less interesting and in demand. Who hasn't dreamed of visiting paradise? Soak up the sandy beach, swim in the azure waters of the ocean, climb a palm tree in the end. The best time to visit is from December to March. Then comes the rainy and hurricane season. As in any resort, there are enough attractions and interesting places, beaches and other entertainment.

Citadel of La Ferriere

An unimaginably huge fortress, a real medieval fortification. Legend has it that this powerful shelter was built because of the paranoia of Henri Christophe. Which was so much afraid of the appearance of the invaders that more than 400 hundred guns were assigned to defend the fortress. True, he did not wait for those who wanted to seize his possessions, since he committed suicide. They speak from La Ferriere's walls good weather with perfect visibility, you can see the coast of Cuba.

Stadiums in Haiti

No matter how strange it may sound, there are two stadiums in Haiti, which can no doubt be considered local attractions. One of them is named after an Olympic medalist. Silvio Catora won the long jump in 1928. Haitians have a lot to be proud of.

Cathedral of Port-au-Prince

Magnificent building in classic Gothic style. Majestic and beautiful. Construction began in 1884 and lasted almost 30 years. It was badly damaged during a large-scale earthquake that occurred in 2010. Fortunately, the walls of the cathedral survived and it was possible to restore it. And now he again pleases with his beauty parishioners and tourists.

Largest lakes

In addition to architectural buildings and ancient monuments, the list of the tourist program necessarily includes corners of wild nature. So in Haiti there are many lakes. Among which stand apart two of the largest: Enriquillo and Somatr.

These lakes are said to increase in size every year. And scientists have not yet figured out the reasons why water is added to them.

Architectural monuments

Definitely worth a visit architectural structures of the past. For example, the dilapidated Sanssouci Palace, which once belonged to the Haitian king. Although the fate of its owners was sad, and the palace was damaged by an earthquake, the interest of tourists does not dry out. The path to the residence lies past the sugar plantations. Sometimes you come across small factories where very tasty rum is brewed.

To many people, Haiti is presented as a disparate set of frightening stereotypes that are hard to put together: zombies, voodoo, tonton macoutes, Papa Doc and his son Baby Doc, poverty, civil war, permanent cyclones - and more zombies. All these terrible words have done their job - until now, Haiti remains one of the least visited countries in the world, although the climate is conducive to tourism. Of course, not least of all, this happens simply because all these stereotypes are not idle fairy tales.

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. But local poverty is peculiar. The absence of tourists provokes an almost complete absence of street beggars. The people are not yet accustomed to seeing rare Europeans as a potential source of easy income. None of the people you meet - not even street children living in the markets, earning their living by cleaning the shopping malls from garbage and the occasional daylight - will beg for anything, and sellers in the same markets will not break the triple price.

In large cities, poverty is generally lost against the background of exotic diversity. It is truly visible outside of them - where there is no asphalt, no bridges, no regular transport. Most country houses in the outback are built from the cheapest materials and almost always have gaping window frames.

Surely, if tourism is developed in Haiti, then the first item in all guidebooks and tourist routes would mean attending a voodoo ceremony. Dressed in colorful costumes, armed with terrible staves and knives, ordinary Haitian unemployed would demonstrate a colorful dance and would frighten the anemic Germans and relaxed French to death with their fake frenzy and pagan cruelty. Naturally, children would not be allowed to such events, entrance would be paid, a double rate would be charged for amateur photography, and for some money it would be possible to watch how a red rooster or some other small animal was slaughtered. Returning home, satisfied Europeans would enthusiastically tell their loved ones about the horrors that they had to endure on the “wild” island. All this would actually mean one thing: the end of voodoo. At least, voodoo in the form in which this cult truly exists in today's Haiti. The best example of this is the same neighboring Dominican Republic, where the entire black population considers it as a kind of cultural tradition, just in case, continuing to bury their dead in traditional crypts and selling amulets. But - no more than that.

And Haitian voodoo, in contrast to what flourishes on the Gold Coast of Africa, from where, in fact, the cult came to the West, is far from being so frighteningly colorful. There is no trade in fetishes - mummified corpses of various animals, each of which (not without the help of a priest) is able to cure a certain ailment, or posubans - ritual statues of ancestors, or colorful temples dedicated to snakes, where hundreds of pythons crawl.

The fact that in these inconspicuous sheds, painted with kind and cheerful motifs, there is a voodoo temple, is evidenced by the flag hung in front of them. There are a great many such "sanctuaries" in the country - after all, according to one Catholic priest, "if 95% of Haitians are Catholics, then 100% are voodooists."

There are really few outward signs of voodoo in Haiti. But it is tightly built into everyday life and, according to the Haitians, does not need any “underlining”. The voodoo temple here looks like the most ordinary residential building. He can stand far from the road, and in his yard carefree children can run and cows graze. Only some ungans (“priests”, whose duties include conjuring loa - spirits) hang drapo - colorful flags embroidered with sequins and multi-colored threads over the religious buildings, which indicate: ceremonies are performed here. And God knows what exactly… Creating their religion three centuries ago, the Haitians did it in complete secrecy. All outward manifestations were of necessity "ciphered" and brief. Perhaps that is why even a simple, well-known vevey - a complex geometric pattern that personifies a deity - is still drawn only during especially important events (usually with chalk on the ground), and after they are over, it is immediately erased.

The term "zombie" came to Haiti through slaves taken out at the beginning of the 18th century from the West African state of Dahomey (modern Benin and Togo). The exact origin of the word is still unknown. According to one version, this is a distorted "nzambi", which in the African Bantu language means "petty deity" or "dead soul". According to another, it is a modified West African dialect "jambi", which means "ghost". There is also a theory according to which the word "zombie" was once called a huge black snake from African beliefs, the eternal enemy of the sun, light and joy. It is worth noting that zombification is especially characteristic of Petro voodoo - a special trend of voodooism that originated directly in Haiti and whose followers make up less than 5% of all voodooists worldwide.

The zombie phenomenon - not cultural, but scientific - was tried to be studied by a variety of people. In 1982, botanist and anthropologist Wade Davis visited Haiti. The purpose of his journey was to uncover the secret of zombie technology. Four years later, Davis published The Serpent and the Rainbow. Until now, it is believed that in it Davis came as close as possible to the solution of zombies for a European. Participating and observing the rituals, he described the recipe for "zombie powder", which, however, he himself considered not very accurate - due to the lack of information and the cover of mystery surrounding the zombie issue.

According to Davis, the composition of this drug is as follows:
- hedgehog fish (lat. Diodon hystrix), containing tetrodotoxin - one of the strongest poisons that makes it difficult to transmit nerve impulses to the brain,
- hallucinogenic toad (lat. Bufo marinus),
- ringed poisonous sea worm (lat. Annelida),
- common dope (lat. Datura stramonium),
- gallbladder of a large mammal
- cranial bones of mambo (voodoo priestesses),
- various herbs, the exact list of which is unknown,
- gunpowder or talc, which serve as the basis of the mixture.

All ingredients are thoroughly mixed for three days until completely homogeneous. The zombie powder is ready.

During voodoo ceremonies, believers in a fit of ecstasy sometimes bathe in mud.

They say that "Death in Haiti is just the beginning."