A day at the beach – Môle-Saint-Nicolas

 

Sunday, 15^th we went to the beach, the exact location where Christopher Columbus landed when he discovered the Americas.

It’s a little place called Môle-Saint-Nicolas and if it was anywhere else in the world I reckon it would be thronged with visitors, day-trippers and tourists on a Sunday, but not in Haiti.

It is a little cove where you can access a wonderful white sandy beach that leads to a most spectacular, turquoise, warm to the touch, tranquil sea.

I’ve never set out for a day at the beach at 8.00 a.m. before but due to heat later on that was the best time to go. It took us about an hour and a half to reach the beach, but it was well worth the journey – it’s a little paradise in the north west of Haiti and could be a gold-mine for entrepreneurs willing to set up shop in this location if access was better. As always in Haiti once you leave the immediate vicinity of a town, you have to navigate the rocky roads, rivers, mountains and pulverised surfaces to get to your destination.

 

Just beside the parking area was a beach bar/restaurant and how it works is that you order what you would like to eat later on once you arrive and then the staff has it ready at a specified time.

You could purchase the national drink, Prestige beer, which is light and refreshing, on demand along with soft and other alcoholic drinks. But a cup of coffee might take a little longer as the assistant has to leave her post at the bar and go to the kitchen to prepare it!

The area around the thatched-roofed bar was nicely sheltered by trees and had seating areas and tables for patrons. From here you could just sit and while away a few hours, looking out on the wonderful sea view, or take a swim and sunbathe, if you were up to it. Even at 10.00 a.m. I was glad of the shady area and the shelter of the trees from the very hot sun.

Our group of eight took it easy, relaxing, reading, swimming, and chilling out in this wonderful Haitian paradise; it even had a flush toilet onsite!

Had we been more energetic we could have gone kayaking or hired kites to fly but for us the lure of rest and relaxation by the peaceful, Atlantic ocean, was all we needed.