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Kin Travel: Haiti

A journey with the sustainable travel company Kin Travel

By Dave Krugman

June 13^th, 2018

TRAVEL WITH AN EYE ON IMPACT

I just returned from a week in Haiti with Kin Travel- and it was an incredible experience. Many travel experiences don't consider the impact on the places they build in- Kin Travel represents the opposite. They focus on positive impacts on the local communities to which they travel. In their own words: @kintravel, "seeks to provide travel experiences that are integrated into the areas they visit in sustainable and impactful ways. That impact is focused on four partners driving solutions specific to artisan entrepreneurship, access to quality education and healthcare in 'last mile' communities, as well as eco-sanitation solutions." For a deeper dive into their mission and other trips, check out www.kin.travel

Arrival at camp

Traditional tourism is a one-size-fits-all compromise, and at it's extreme, you'll find identical rooms stacked in seemingly endless columns. A hotel in one city is too often identical to its counterpart in another, with less than a trace of the local culture in which they conduct their business. Kin's safari style setup is an ocean away from such bland, corporate repetition. Flexible canvas is stretched over bamboo poles, creating organically shaped common areas that blend into the natural landscape. Candles throw soft light against these canopies, and what was a few days ago a deserted beach is now an oasis, tucked into the sandy cove where the almond trees grow. As a storm rumbled and flashed on the horizon, we explored what would be our home for the week, sat down for dinner and learned more about our upcoming experience.

Visiting Port Francais

One of the local partners that Kin Travel works with is Prodev Haiti. They focus on improving the learning environment and leading a teacher training program for two schools. We hiked up forty five minutes to a relatively remote mountain village to visit with the locals and see school spaces that still need improvement. Many people in the village make this hike twice a day- hiking down at sunrise for work, and back up in the evening once more. Here's some of what we saw:

Local ingredients

Part of the ethos of Kin Travel is to have a positive impact on the communities they visit. All of our food was sourced from local villages, farms, and fishermen who would pull into our little beach. Flannery, our incredible resident chef, was a master of working with these ingredients to create dishes that wouldn't be out of place in any award winning restaurant in New York.

family dinners

Connecting with one another at every meal was a highlight of the trip. Decompressing, discussing everything we experienced that day, and hearing from the locals and our hosts about all the ways that we could try to bring positive impacts through our travel experience. Rum punch and bottles of ice-cold Prestige eased us into a dream state. Solar lights guided us back to our private tents, where we drifted off into a deep sleep, with candle light illuminating long trails of incense, and the sounds of the ocean at our doorsteps.

Colors of the community

Haiti was one of the most colorful places I've been. The lettering and signage, the murals and the way people dress, was a mixed palette of pastels and primary colors. Here's a few scenes we passed in Cap-Haïtien.

Citadelle Laferrière

One of the interesting sights we saw was the Citadelle Laferrière. After a long climb up the winding cobblestone path to the top of Bonnet a L’Eveque, we were rewarded with panoramic views of the surrounding countryside. This fort was commissioned in 1805 as a deterrent to a potential French invasion. Invasion never came, and the fortress was eventually abandoned. Although there has been mild restoration, most of the structure is in it's original form. 365 cannons from various countries are distributed throughout the site, and pyramids of cannonballs line it's edges. Watchtowers are grown over, partly reclaimed by nature, but the fort remains standing, a testament to the solidity of its construction.

Sans-Souci Palace

On the walk back down the mountain, we passed through the ruins of The Sans-Souci Palace. Its not difficult to imagine the structure in it's original grandiose form, but much of it was destroyed in the earthquake of 1842, never to be rebuilt.

pulling into the port

Our next stop was the port town of Labadie, where we met local friends of our guides, danced in the town square, and wandered through the narrow streets of the village.

Back to camp

After long and physical days, the oasis that awaited us back at camp was always embraced with gratitude. One of the great things about traveling this way is that our whole camp was staffed and maintained by locals- bringing jobs into the local economy. Every night we would unwind around the campfire, take night swims under the moonlight, and some nights we even turned our little boat into a floating bar.

Illuminated oaisis

Floating, waterproof lights that charged in the heat of the sun during the day made for an incredible visual playground once night took over.

Amiga Island

Our last day was more of a straight relaxation- we took a boat to Amiga island, a tiny circle of land surrounded by reefs and shipwrecks that sit under pristine blue water.

An incredible journey

Haiti is a place I'll definitely be revisiting. There's so much to the country we weren't able to see or experience. My main takeaway from this experience is that we all need to be more conscious of the impact that our travel has on the communities that surround these places. I'll never be on a cruise ship, or give my money to companies that don't have any positive impact on the areas they offer trips to. It's a complex dynamic, and I was impressed with the efforts that the kind folks at Kin are making. Their intention comes through in every moment of the day, each activity designed to push awareness and funding into local communities. They really are actively seeking to shift travel dollars into a more sustainable model, and I throw my support behind them fully. I'm already signed up for my next Kin trip, to Kenya- check back in the fall for my coverage of that experience as well.