"Visiting this impoverished, intriguing Country" Port-au-Prince by RoqueMocan

Haiti is an impoverished and intriguing country. I have done two trips here (1 week each) for work, installing a Customer Relationship Management program. Haiti reminds me of my home country, El Salvador, after the civil war: lots of UNO 4x4s, trucks and armored carriers... (Other parallels: Haiti 8 million inhabitants vs 6 million in El Salvador, Haiti 27,000 square kilometers vs 20,000 in El Salvador, both historically Coffee producers, both with sizable populations living in the USA). I wasn't able to get to know the country, as I was escorted in bulletproof cars from the office to the hotel (Villa Creole in Petion Ville), so the photos I will post are from behind the bullet proof plate glass of a fast moving 4x4... blurred and out of focus... Haiti was once the richest colony of the Americas, and now is the poorest... next door is Republica Dominicana, with a booming tourism industry. I found well educated Haitians, some of them spoke my native spanish far, far better than I could speak their french. So I think the potential is there to get better.

UN armored carrier on our way to the office

You find them everywhere, on 4x4s, trucks and armored carriers... I saw mostly Uruguayan and Chilean (I think, judging from their shoulder patches) even though the primary country is Brasil (I think). My country, El Salvador, will send people here as they have some experience in post-conflict institution buildings (police, etc.).

Tap Tap near the Airport road

Tap Tap are the pick ups with the raised bed covers, painted in bright colours. I wasn't able to photograph some very barroquely decorated tap taps or vans, you had to see them!

• Cons:Most people don't want to come here
• In a nutshell:Unexploited, with untapped potential to be better