jacmel: bassin bleu

i spent this past week in jacmel, on the south coast of haiti. kel and i travelled up on saturday, and kel returned sunday for the school week, while i stayed and hung out with kerry, a very fun chick from georgia.

while kel was still there we went to bassin bleu, along with wesley, hermanie, immanuel, robert & migeline. i sat on the side of the tray with hermanie, migeline and immanuel, and we lurched up the mountain on a rough dirt road, past working donkeys and young children who yelled "blan, blan, blan" ("white, white, white")... it sounds a good deal like "blah, blah, blah", and is a universal experience of the foreigner in haiti (unless, i guess, the foreigner is black). it brings to mind immediately the often discussed question of what place 'foreigners' have in countries like this, which morphs into the wider question of the role of outsiders in poverty alleviation...






the path in to bassin bleu was green and leafy, and we walked under a cacao tree at one stage, with ripe cacao pods.
















there was a series of pools of increasing depth. the first was around 5m deep, the second about 18, and the third 25. to get to the third involved a bit of climbing and scrambling...







the second and third were great for jumping into, although no one else (apart from antoine, our self appointed guide) wanted to, which made me feel a little like they had to wait around while i had fun... to jump near the waterfall, you had to climb up the fall. this involved finding some pretty tiny toeholes, while the water sluices down over you - very fun, very fine.









the chick in orange with the hat is hermanie, with whom i spent the week swapping creole for english...












beyond migeline and immanuel you can see jacmel, nestled in beside the ocean...