Getting around in Haiti

In P-A-P, there are some people who own cars.  Cars are very expensive to buy and maintain though, so most don't.  As you travel out from the capital, fewer own cars and more own motorbikes.  Farther out in more remote villages and countryside and few even own motorbikes.  Those people walk - sometimes lots of miles - to get where they're going.  When they travel to market, they walk (carrying stuff they buy/sell on their head) or they ride the family's livestock - mules, horses.  We saw a very few riding old bikes.

Seeing motor vehicles on the road is rare, so people stop to look when they hear one.

A Haitian 'taxi' is called a tap-tap.  These are everywhere and near the city, they are very colorful.  Otherwise, they're converted pickups.  Tap-taps carry as many as they can hold - people just pile up in the back and pack in like sardines.  Some have a topper of sorts that holds goods and belongings which are (sort of) tied down.

Since not everyone can afford a ride and traffic in the city moves slowly, some hangers-on try to jump onto the back bumper of a truck or cling to the sides to hitch a free ride.  Tap-tap drivers have a passenger/helper who acts as security and peels freeloaders off.

How long does it take to get to Haiti?

For as otherworldly as Haiti seems, it really isn't that far away.  Our team of 12 had a ride to O'Hare airport in a chauffered school bus, where we boarded a flight for Miami.  On the way to Haiti, we spent the night in Miami and took a very early flight to Port-Au-Prince the next morning.

The flight from Miami to Port-Au-Prince is about an hour and 40 minutes.

The drive from Port-Au-Prince to anywhere else in Haiti is both long and treacherous.  The streets are paved and mostly in good shape, but they aren't laid out well for travel.  Roads are paved and built as two lanes, but drivers, motorbikes and a constant throng of people who walk everywhere makes for slow going.  P-A-P traffic jams make our U.S. travel stories look like a piece of cake.  Distance-wise, we were traveling about 130 miles or so, but it took us 6 hours by bus.

On the way back, we did all travel in a single day and bus to P-A-P to Miami to Chicago took over 16 hours.

Below, a shot of the P-A-P airport.