74
JUNE2015
AMERICANWAY
moving through the thick
archways, we emergeonto a large
open terrace overlooking the
19th-century gardens that are
slowlybeing restored. To the left,
Wilfredpoints out the remains of
an iron foundry.He sayswe’ll see
the two-and-a-half-ton cannons
forgedhereupattheCitadelle.Both
historic sites are in the park that
was listedbyUNESCO in1982.
Thatwasnear theendof theera
when Haiti welcomed travelers
asdiverse asMickJagger, English
novelistGrahamGreeneandJackie
Onassis. Soon after that, tourism
collapsedunder theweight of tyr-
annyand instability.Morerecently,
the devastating 2010 earthquake
near Port-au-Prince brought the
likes of SeanPenn, DonnaKaran
andAnthonyBourdaintotheisland.
EventhoughI’veworkedhere inan
orphanage for childrenaffectedby
AIDSandassistedarttherapistsina
post-quakereliefcamp,I’mnotflu-
entinCreole,andthisismyfirstfor-
ayintotheNorth.So,I’musingBelle
VueTours,acultural-heritagetravel
and tour company that specializes
in showcasinghistorical sites. “We
serveasacatalystfornew imagesof
Haiti,”ManagingDirectorGuerline
Emmanuel says.
I’m seeing those new images,
which I’m quite impressed by, at
BoisCaïman, once a secluded for-
est where slaves conceived their
revolt in1791. Itconcludedadozen
years laterataspot inCap-Haïtien
markedbyVertières, amonument
depicting heroes such asGeneral
Jean-Jacques Dessalines, one of
Haiti’s founding fathers. Though
Theview from theCitadelleLaferrière
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