The difference between the images you find with "Haiti resort" and with "Haiti life" is striking. We all know which of the two countries Conan will show.
The difference between the images you find with "Haiti resort" and with "Haiti life" is striking. We all know which of the two countries Conan will show.
Even the better-run resort islands have striking differences between the tourist side (leeward,sand beaches/services) and the local side (windward,less sand, more debris, no services) or the shore vs interior. There’s also usually a cosmopolitan capitol and rural villages to compare. In the larger capitols, there are neighborhoods where tourists are unwelcome, if they somehow got there.
Years ago, the daughter of a friend visited Jamaica, proudly telling us she intended to avoid the resorts and experience “real life”. Her “real life” experience lasted one afternoon and one uncomfortable and scary night. The second morning, she checked into a reputable resort.
We visited the Caribbean regularly from the mid-’80s to late ‘90s and avoided certain islands. Some of the worst-run places had the priciest exclusive resorts tucked far away from where real people lived.
Same in Papua New Guinea. Not as true, back then, in French Polynesia. In the 70’s, Pacific island villagers seemed much like rural dwellers anywhere: a rougher life, traditional, but lived with pride. By the early 2000’s, a new generation with phones and motorbikes were unionized and surly. Some charming places had indeed turned into ——holes, but it seemed more due to the individuals who trashed what infrastructure had been put in place.Satellite communications and the internet made a difference. People who lived simply in isolated places got to see the rest of the world, who, in turn, swarmed their homes looking for something unspoiled.
Haiti, though, was raped repeatedly.
We’re actually thinking about going to DR for our 35th anniversary next year.