Hike to Jacmel

This was a fantastic way to finish off my two month trip! Weeks earlier I heard of this
picturesque hike that you could do going from the small town of Furcy (basically where the road is no longer accessible via truck or car) all the way to the southern coast, eventually to city of Jacmel. Nancy and Sven had talked about
doing it for a while, all I needed was to prioritize it and start lighting a fire to get them going. Once the discussion really started to turn into a plan, our group of three then doubled as we added fellow volunteers Ben, Mike and Mari to the mix.

Mari, who just got to Haiti just a couple weeks prior to the hike, had spent a few months in Jacmel working last year, so she was familiar with the hotels and the area itself. The plan was to take Friday and Saturday off, hike both days and to return home late Sunday afternoon. Nancy and Mike planned on staying at a cute 120 year old hotel in Jacmel, Mari with some friends at a fellow NGO house on the beach, and Ben, Sven and I would share the "company" shack not too far away.

The owner of the school we were working on currently under construction in the area, Dignite, also owned the shack where some of the Haitian staff would stay the night if they were to work the following day. We found out the shack would not be occupied Saturday night and since it was free, the three of us jumped at the chance to save a bit.

Thursday night we had the Bati Bien cocktail hour, and by the time that let out and we made

our way home, the office was locked up and we couldn't get into the building to get our bags, etc. So, Friday morning we needed to go to the office, get our bags, go to the market and pick up all the items we needed for the hike (mainly food and water), go back to the house to pack, then hop in the truck and head up to Furcy.

This wound up taking a bit longer than planned, so the hike officially began just after noon. We initially thought we would start by 10am, so we had to pick up the pace a bit to avoid hitting sundown. Eileen, a new Inveneo employee, had done this same hike last year and referred a house to stay at the first night just outside of La Vista National Forest. We knew it was going to be roughly ten miles to get there, but none of us new the exact location of the house, so that was a bit of a mystery. The hike was AMAZING! It took me back to Peru with Nicole and the kids last year.

Beautiful rolling mountains of green vegetation, mystical stretches of fog, the path covered in mist, and a lot more people than I had expected to see. All locals. We were the only "blancs" on the path. Everywhere we went we heard "Blanc...Blanc," over and over. Little kids, adults, that was their favorite thing to say. Really funny, bit got a bit old after a while. I felt like saying "Noir...Noir," right back, but didn't want to upset anyone! We must have seen a few hundred locals, all making this same trek with the greatest of ease, rundown sandals and huge baskets filled with vegetables all balanced on their heads. They were lapping us, being so used to walk, just another day on the job...Our paces were all a bit different. Mari loved to take the lead and disappear a few hundred feet ahead, which at times got a bit annoying. Sven was the slow one, getting a pretty nasty blister on his big toe early on the hike which ailed him throughout both days.

The rest of us fit pretty well in the middle. I was not sure how well I was going to take all the walking since I had not tried to go more than just a couple miles since breaking my ankle, so I made sure to tape it up pretty well and wear two pairs of socks, all while being very careful where I placed each step. Was impressed, getting through it without any problems. So every half hour or so we would have a group pow-wow to make sure we were all doing ok. I packed a dozen small salami sandwiches, some cookies, and about five liters of water, along with swim trunks, a change of clothes, my strapped Tevas (which I intuitively turned into water bottle holders strapped to my bag), and some money. At first it was a bit heavy, but as we walked and I consumed some of my stash, it got a bit lighter.The hours went by rather quickly.

The terrain was continuously changing, passing small groups of wooden structures throughout the afternoon. Wet, dry, steep, flat...this hike had it all. I couldn't help but take a picture every five minutes, we were surrounded by such beauty the entire time. Eventually, we reached the beginning of the pine forest, which was so interesting to see considering I had not seen a single pine tree the entire time I had been in Haiti; and now there was thousands of them. Evidently the local government has a hard time protecting these trees from being cut down.

The whole country has a huge problem in regards to deforestation, and even though it is hard to get there, people still sneak a tree here and there. Once we got there, none of us really knew how much further it was to the house we were staying for the night, and no one got cell service, so it was a little bit of a worry since we only had an hour of light left. But we got our first glimpse of the Caribbean, which was really cool. After hiking through this gorgeous national forest, we FINALLY arrived at the house, with about ten minutes to spare before it was pitch black. It was a great feeling. To make the situation even more amazing, there was hot tea waiting for us, and dinner was one it's way. What a great feeling that was, after walking for almost six hours, getting to our destination, and having a nice cup of hot tea. And the icing on the cake, a hot shower! First one in two months...Dinner was great. The owner of the house is Lebanese, so we had roasted veggies, pot roast and rice...super good!

After dinner we just sat back, reminisced about the past few hours and looked ahead to the next day. Everyone was asleep by 9pm, super quiet and relaxing.

We woke up, had breakfast and started up nice and early. One of the young kids that helped around the house took us on a "off the beaten path" route to save us some time. The scenery was completely different than the day before. We hiked south, so the view of the Caribbean was visible the entire time.

Instead of mist, there were palm trees. At the highest point, we were at 6000 ft in the mountains and we had to get all the way back down to sea level. So throughout the entire hike Saturday, we had to traverse back and forth all the way down, which took SO long. Every time we hiked an additional hour, it seemed we were not at all closer to the water.

I joked that for every 100 feet we hiked, we only got 1 foot closer since we were zig-zagging our whole way down. We continued to hit pockets of people either living or working off the trail. A lot of vertical farming, absolutely green everywhere, beautiful. Dating back to the prior day, we noticed several motos pass us, some available for hire.

Once we got later and later into the day, hiking for over six hours and still not feeling we were even near where we needed to be, we decided as a group to hire three motorcycles (two of us to ride on each) to take us the remaining distance. So we sat and waited for about twenty minutes until we saw the next rider come by, then we got him to gather two others and we were off on our next portion of our journey.

The ride was rather bumpy, to say the least. As we zipped down the later portions of the trail, we came across a small river...and rode across it. Our bike (Sven and I) got stuck at the end and our driver needed to maneuver over the last five tough feet, losing his sandal in the process. Luckily there was another rider behind us that grabbed it and returned it to him. After we got through that we rode another ten minutes until we hit the BIG river. No crossing this one on the bike, so we all had to get off and hike through the thigh high water, which was a bit more rapid than expected, but fun in a way. An adventure needs these little details. The bikes magically were waiting for us on the other side, so we hopped back on and rode on an actual road for the first time since we got dropped after the day before.

We rode for another twenty minutes or so until we reached the spot we all said we would meet, right along the picture perfect shoreline we spent over a full day and 22 miles to get to. After meeting up with some of Mari's acquaintances that held a table at a restaurant right on the beach, we stripped down to our swimwear and jumped in one by one; the water felt amazing. Then add an ice cold beer to the mix, heaven. It was about 4pm when we were all there safe and sound, knowing this would have been impossible without hiring the motos to take us the final leg. Sven and I still had to go by the shack and get the key from the owner, but that was a quick jaunt up the road. The NGO house that Mari was staying with friends was just two houses from the restaurant, so as the sun set, we all ordered dinner and more beer, celebrating the fact that we made it. I had the lobster, of course, amazing!

Rick (our structural engineer at AFH) and his wife Theresa met us there and planned on staying in Jacmel for the night, so after dinner everyone going into town loaded into his SUV, including Sven who wanted to go back to the shack. Ben and I stuck around and hung out at the NGO house, occupied by a handful of Bulgarians working in Haiti. We sat, drank, conversed, listened to music and did some night swimming. The water was the perfect temperature, I was very happy...until my wedding band decided it wanted to go for a swim as well! It slipped off my finger as I sat in the waves, never to be found again. Luckily I have an amazing wife that was accepting of this stupid mistake and a new ring is being made as I type...

Ben and I decided to just crash on the porch at the house, just feet from the water break. I slept in a comfy hammock that went from one palm to another, waking just in time for a wonderful sunrise. I got up to take some pics and a video, then went right back to sleep for another couple hours. As the morning got later, everyone began to get up and start the day. We had fresh coffee and OJ, some fruit, and started to get packed up. I went out for a mid morning swim, subtly looking for my lost ring, to no prevail. Ben, Mari and I organized a time to get picked up by Rick and Theresa, then hopped in the SUV to go to the Dignite site to check out the school.

The school just had the roof installed the prior week and the openings were being prepped for the installation of the windows the next week. We spent about a half an hour there, then went to this cool beach restaurant for lunch, where I got my second lobster meal in less than a day! So nice, grilled on an open flame...only $12 for an entire one. Wow. The only down side was it took about two hours to get it. In the mean time, I played some frisbee on the beach with a couple of new friends. Funny thing happened too; two women approached me commenting about my Free Wheelchair shirt. Turned out they worked for Handicapped International and wanted to be put in contact with them. Be cool if it works out, traded info and will try to put them in touch.

After the awesome lunch, we headed into Jacmel to meet up with our driver, Patrick. He was a bit late getting to the hotel, so I had my last beer of the weekend at the bar. Rick took back half the group, leaving Nancy, Ben and I at the hotel.

The drive back was epic, the sun bursting through the clouds across the mountains. It takes just over two hours to get back to Petionville from Jacmel, and Ben and I sat in the back of the pickup, so it was a nice amount of time to just sit back and take in on the views. We got back to the house just before sunset, in time for dinner and to tell the rest of the house about the amazing time we just had. Back to normal showers again, but that would only last another couple of days before heading back to the U.S.

The hike was perfect, we all got along well and enjoyed the entire trip. Outside of a couple of blisters, I returned in perfect health, ready to work my last two days for AFH.