April 1999 - American Bonanza Society

Vallery and David Davidson (A36 owners).Ed and Heather Stafford (Baron owners).of the move when we arrived. Suffice itto say that we did arrive, park and leavethe airport intact.The Haitian people are warm, friendlyand poor. The road to Mont Joli (our hotel)was deeply rutted and lined withstructures that were more like hovels.Observing people and animals who were__ obviously striving to just get through theday was heart-rending. There is basicallyno government, no work, no prospects ofwork-and not much hope of it gettingbetter. In fact, at the moment, there is noofficial national government so it is likelythat things will get even worse. It's no wonderthat the Haitians will take all kinds ofrisks to escape. After a buffet dinner, weretired to get a good night's sleep.Tour of the CitadelThe Citadel is a huge fort built on topof a mountain to defend the island in theevent that the French. who had formerlyoccupied the island, should decide to return.It took 20 years and 12,000 livesbefore it was finished-and the Frenchnever returned.We rode horses up the mountain to theCitadel and walked down. By the timewe finished tipping. we had gone througha wad of dollar bills. It seemed like wetipped six Haitians to every horse.We bumped back to the airport andafter much bumbling, paid our fees, filedour papers and left for St. Lucia.Cap-Haitien to St. LuciaWe planned a fuel stop in St. Thomasin the Virgin Islands. In spite of the factthatATC had not received our night planswhich we filed in Haiti and 14 of our aircraftarrived in that very busy airspaceunexpectedly, the controller did a greatjob of air filing everybody's flight plans.We found our way into the airport,where fuel was available in the same areaas Immigration, Customs and Agriculture.It took about an hour and a half toclear all of our paperwork and show ourlicenses and medical certificates. Wewere in transit so I don 't know why allthis was necessary except for them tocollect fees. It was a mess, probably as badas any of our other more primitive stops.Two aircraft had to stay overnight in St.Thomas since they couldn't have made itcomilllled 011 page 5647Siegfrieds and Vickreys "up the river."ABS Apri I 1999Page 5&41