Labadee, Haiti

3/1/2011


Labadee, Haiti is a peninsula on the island that is wholly owned and controlled by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Lots of clean white sand and places to spend money with the cruise card. There are also local artisans selling their wares for cash. Hats and shirts may have come from other places (China?) but there were locally made carvings, ornaments, paintings, wood shot glasses, metal outdoor ornaments and such. First was a large building with two aisles and three rows of goods. The salespeople were pretty calm inside. Outside, there was another area of artisans that were less calm. Lots of calls of ‘see my stuff’, “a hat for you madam?”, “it’s free to look”, “no pressure” blah, blah, blah. We were looking for a for a Christmas ornament that said “Haiti” and had seen a few inside the first building, but decided that we could always return if we didn’t see others.

The only catch was that the second group of vendors was on an elevated boardwalk, shop on one side and a rail and a drop off on the other. Colleen described it as being like a zip line, once on it, you had to go to the end. There was no escape, and the shops were all the same small size and we could see immediately what was inside. So, on to the next stall and the same routine. Finally, on a third section of vendor stalls, we found a paper mache’ globe of Santa’s head. It was unique, but didn’t say Haiti on it. When we mentioned it, the seller offered two for his first original price. That wasn’t the issue but he finally understood and went to have Haiti added. So we got our ornament and it is different from any we have, and we know where we got it.

A side note is that we decided some years ago that we would not dicker price with the folks in poor countries on small ticket items, feeling that they needed the money more than we did. We do bargain on large items, like rugs! Point is, we would have paid the original price for the ornament if he had added the word Haiti right away.

Back to the ship, we had lunch, wandered the ship a bit more, Co ice skated and there is video and photographic proof of it, and then went to dinner. The after dinner show, a show in the Aqua Theater, “OceanAria” was rescheduled for tomorrow due to technical difficulties, so we will see two shows tomorrow. We really enjoy two of our tablemates, Ferrel and Shirley from central Florida. We had two others the first night, but have not seen them the last two dinners. There are many other dinner venues onboard, so we may see them again.

Tomorrow is another ‘sea day’ and then we will be in Costa Maya, Mexico on Thursday.

Colleen & John