Petionville, Ouest, Haiti
Sunday, November 4, 2007
We stayed overnight in Pétion-Ville, a town in the mountains up from Port-au-Prince. Our hotel, El Rancho, was a very nice accommodation, where ex-pats often stay. Just down the road are street vendors selling various metal artwork and Vodon religion icons (where I bought a few!). The trucks used for locals as taxis are called "Tap-Taps" - One was carrying passengers to a dinner, with their goats hanging upside down on the outside of the tap-tap - while alive...So it appears they prefer to eat fresh meat. So although the goats were "ba-ahhhing" in agony, strung upside down, it was a normal event for locals. That was probably the most upsetting thing I saw while in that town... Other than that, I was impressed with the UN presence. Besides the handsome Croatian officer on my flight from NY, who took a suspicious bag off of our plane, in Haiti the officers, be they from Brazil, Montreal Canada, or Croatia were all very handsome...Too bad we couldn't socialize with them!!
