On Friday, Allison, Cady, Kala, and myself woke up early to head to the Citadel. We met our guide Mike in the lobby of our hotel, and our driver Papichou (Poppy-shoe). Now Papichou had a very nice Montero Sport that we were all looking forward to riding in. Until, we get out to the car and Mike is in the passenger seat and we realize one of us is going to be riding in the back. Being the nice person I am, I climb in the back. What was I thinking?? For an hour, I held on while we went over horrible roads, swerved massive potholes, and went straight up a hill. I was flailing around in the back...my legs were going everywhere, and I was even offered a seat in between Papichou and Mike, on the emergency brake. No thanks, I decided to just hold in all my sickness feeling and pray that I didn't puke.
We finally reached the highest we could go...got out (I was finding my legs again) and found a 'horse' to ride to the top. This really wasn't a horse as much as it was something that was short. But, it got us up the mountain! After a 30 minute ride up, we finally arrived at the Citadel. It was absolutely amazing. We walked around, looking at the intricate details they had put in, the systems that they installed while making this fort, and heard the story about King Christophe and why he wanted to build the Citadel. (To the left, this is a view of the Citadel while riding up the mountain on the horse).
It truly was huge, and amazing. There were still cannonballs there, some of the cannons that were stolen from Napoleon's ship, we saw the toilet that never had to be emptied, and saw an amazing view of Haiti from the very top.
After viewing the Citadel, we went down to the palace of Sans-Souici. This place was also very beautiful. It amazes me how ruins stay in tact, so much of them that you can tell what exactly it was going to be inside of the palace...and of course, I think we all did a little dreaming about what we would do if we lived in a palace! Who wouldn't?
The rest of our trip was great. We did some shopping (there are lots of little stores that sell to visitors that come in and people on the cruise boats that stop at Labadee. There was a man who was trying his best to sell me some bowls (i was looking at them of course!) He first told me I could pay 200 American, and I laughed really loud and said no. Then he tried 40 American. And I said no and walked out of the store. He came after me and brought me back...and asked me how much I would pay. So I said 200 Haitian (about 28 American dollars). He accepted, and now I am the owner of a really amazing wooden carved salad bowl and 6 little bowls to keep it happy!
Here's a picture of my other adventurers...and I will let you know of more stories when I think of them!
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