The trip was a bit short this year because we had to get back for Gabriela's baptism, but we had a blast anyway. This year we did a little more relaxing, exploring, swimming kind of stuff, whereas last year it was some hardcore riding. We stayed 2 nights out at MPP. Mark Hare, a guy a few of us knew already showed us around some of their innovative agriculture work.
On the way back to Desarmes, I had the bright idea, since we were going to get back too early and we hadn't really done too much heavy riding, to drive up one of the Digicel tower roads. It looked so nice, and smooth, and high. Would be a great view once we got to the top. But, we never got to the top. The road was bad. Haiti bad. Worse than Haiti bad. Started out ok, but got progresively worse as we climbed. Big rocks, steep inclines, sharp turns. Maybe 3/4 of the way we decided to take a break, but the break turned into a decision to turn around.
We hopped back on the bikes, only to find that Brian had a flat on his bike. So, we jumped right in to change the tire. Our collective knowledge and experience got us . . . well, didn't get us very far. Every little step took us reeeeeeeeeeeeeeealy long and it ended up taking 2 hours to fix. This was at noon. At the top of a hill. With no trees. In Haiti. And we had only a little bit of water left. It was HOT. But, we managed to get the tire changed with a new tube. But, only minutes later we realized that the tube was not holding air. So, Brian hurried down (as much as we could hurry) to find a Bos Kawochou (a real tire repair man) to get it solved. The hurrying didn't work too well for me. I feel twice. Not badly, but my pride was hurt - and I busted one of my mirrors. But we made it and lived to tell the tale.
After getting the tire fixed, it was a straight shot back to Dezam. One quick stop for Pringles in Cange, then the pavement in Mirebalais and we were cruising. We let it fly on the road between Mirebalais and Dezam - at least until dusk started to settle. It was FUN going fast, not something we get to do so often in Haiti with all the bad roads.
Back in Desarmes, we met up with Esther, Gabriela and Marylynn who had their own two-wheeled adventure. They tap-tapped up to Mirebalais with their bikes, and then biked back. They had a blast too.
I'm starting to work on the guys to get a trip going up to the North West (Gonaives, Anse Rouge, Jean Rabel, Port de Paix). We'll see!
PS. You can see a few pictures of the swimming hole we went to a bunch of times over at Kurt's blog. You'll find it way at the bottom a really long, but interesting, post about his family's visit to Haiti.
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