I'm in Pòtoprins (Port-au-Prince).

I arrived two days ago from Miami. We went straight to the Wall's Guesthouse in the Delmas district of Pòtoprins. After settling in for a bit, we went downtown and explored a bit around the central palace and the museum areas. The next day, we met another traveler at the same guesthouse from Uganda. So far, he's the only other traveler we've met (all the other foreigners are aid workers or documentarians or missionaries, etc.) We ended up traveling with him throughout the city yesterday, visiting the Marché de Fer (the Iron Market) which is this huge ediface dedicated to open-ended, freewheeling commerce. You can buy turtles there! Today, we're changing hotels as to get to downtown from where we are, we have to either take a long Taptap (which is basically a flamboyantly decorated pickup truck that seats people in benches in the bed) or an expensive taxi.

Prices in PaP are actually quite expensive. It's not easy to find a place for less than $30 per person. Restaurants run around at least $5-6 per meal. It's quite suprising considering the rampant poverty.

A note on Haitian money - officially, it's the Goud (or Gourde, in French), at about 36 to the USD. However, due to the fact that 5 Goud was pegged to 1 USD for such a long time, 5 Goud is often called "1 Haitian Dollar". Which means prices are basically quoted in units of 5 Goud. Which is a pain in the butt, especially when people refer to a bill marked "25" as a "5". Or a coin marked "5" as a "1". And you don't know if they're referring to Haitian dollars or US dollars. Woof.

Anyways, we're probably staying one more night in Pòtoprins, then on to Jakmel (Jacmel).