After my first visit to St Marc in 1988 I have returned 5 times, staying with the family
of Charite Guillaume. Her eldest daughter, Telisean, now has a separate
household with her husband and 2 petit fille. The second daughter, Daniella,
passed away in August 2000. I was there for Day
of the Dead in November 2000.
St Marc is in no way a tourist destination. While there I hang out with the poor folks of Avenue Maurepas, go to the Disco at night and go exploring. This year I had a moto haitian with which to explore the countryside. You can read about my motorcyling from Cap Haitian to Plezans by following the link above.
At Zanmi, Moun de St Marc I have put up some pictures from spring 2001 of friends in St Marc.
Inland of St Marc the surfaced road disappears after about 5 kilometers
at the crossing of the river. The river valley is farmed wherever it is
possible. The loveliness of this Vallee de St Marc brought me back to visit
a number of times and take photografs. Electricity does not make it the 10
kilometers up the valley from the power plant, but the road is not too bad,
and the tap-tap serve the area fairly well. Little community centers appear every two kilometers or so. The speed
of the burro is the standard governing much of life here.
One little settlement has the remains of a large water mill, once busily
crushing cane. That time was the late 19th century, as this mill was manufactured
in Port Au Prince in 1866. 
Clicking on the picture to the left will allow you to read the manufacturers
imprint. At that time Hayti was much wealthier than it is today, both relatively
and absolutely. There were not only forests of Mahogany to shelter the coffee
and cacao, but actual manufacturers of modern heavy machinery. 
One thing that impressed me was the way that the farmers collect the stones which rise from the soil everywhere.
Many poor farmers of dry hill sides have these stones as their main crop, with pitimil complementing it.
A poor soup it would be I imagine. In the Vallee de St Marc the lucky and
smart farmers pile their rocks up, not only to expose the growing soil, but
to gather the ever present dust from the air.
reducing the chances of beating starvation in the future. But that is a
sad comparison, while this is about the lovely Vallee de St Marc. Sugar cane
is still crushed for the raw juice. It is all made into clarin, raw rum. 
The sugar in the marketplace is from Mexico. The photo at the left is of piles of sugar cane waste after the crushing.
Around Port au Prince some of this is made into chacoal briquets. That would be a good biznis plan here, and in every cane valley
in the country. The pov of the street do prefer the wild charcoal from the hillsides tho. It burns very fast and hot, and the nakedness
of the mountains around us all is not noticed any more.
name: stmarc2.html
created: 4 November 2001
modified: