Burn So Good

With the survey coming to an end and Evan, one of the interns for the survey, leaving on Tuesday of this week a group of friends decided to celebrate by taking a day trip to Jacmel. For those of you that don't know, Jacmel is only 40 kilometers away from Leogane but you have to cross some of the highest mountains in Haiti. The road is quite curvy and reminds me of that piece of spaghetti that gets tangled around your fork!! On top of that, because of Haiti's enormous deforestation problem landslides are a constant problem, and the roads in the mountains are usually the first to go. Fortunately, rain has been absent this past week and there wasn't a whole lot of eroding road obstacles, but the back of a landcruiser is not the most desired place to be while traveling this highway!! 

Thankfully the anticipation of a day at the beach kept every one's bad attitudes aside while Jean Claude, our driver, gracefully maneuvered the landcruiser twisting and turning sometimes snapping our necks side to side like a rag doll. We knew that once we were on the beach and sipping a cold glass of Haitian punch "every little thing was gonna be alright", you know, like Bob Marley!! And it was...

The day was great!! We enjoyed a leisurely Haitian lunch, and I mean leisurely. The Haitians don't move at the speed of light let me tell you, but fortunately the rhum was a little quicker than the food. We ate a little of everything from conch (lambi in creole) to polenta and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!! But rushed from lunch quickly to the beach...

We drove a little further east to find a cozy little beach that Kara had visited once and before Jean Claude had a chance to park the car everyone had plunged into the cool Caribbean sea tackling the waves like kids, well at least I did!! It was awesome. We threw the football, laid around a little bit, had a round of prestige and did it all over again for the rest of the afternoon. I am not going to lie, I had been dreaming about my body being submerged in water from the moment I stepped off the plane and the heat smacked me upside my head. Once again, it was awesome!!

Of course, the sun took it out of everyone and as the day came to an end the realization of the ride back home was looming. Thankfully the sun wore me out so much that I slept the second half of the hour and a half ride home! You would think that a day like this would end there from exhaustion, but Saturday night is salsa night!! 

So we showered and headed out...