Enjoying My Traditional ‘Sea Drink’ in Haiti: Photo of the Day
Quirks, foibles, peculiar habits…
Whether we like to admit it or not, we all have them: our own special little idiosyncrasies that, in many ways, inform our true selves; our loves, leanings, fears, and follies.
One quirk that’s been a constant of mine throughout my travels – sipping seawater.
Somewhere, long ago, I developed the habit of taking a small sip of seawater the very first time I happen to step on a beach everywhere I go. I have no real reason for doing this, of course. The salty sips do nothing to quench my thirst, and yeah, I’m well-aware of the health risks. (Mine are very small sips.)
Somehow, though, the practice seems to set my mind and soul more in tune with the sunny shores I consider myself lucky to be exploring, few places more so than the spot pictured above: Bananier Beach, Haiti.
Now, as regular UC readers well know, I travel to Haiti on business quite a lot. Naturally, the majority of those visits keep me within the city limits of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Staying at The Marriott Port-au-Prince, the country’s newest and nicest hotel affords me some nice R&R time at one of the city’s finest pools. As for a beach, well, you won’t find one within the city, leaving me precious little opportunity to practice my particularly quirky travel tradition.
That’s why I truly savored the salty sip pictured above so much. Accessible solely by boat, Bananier sits secluded along the northern coast of Haiti’s Ouest Department, just 42 miles from Port-au-Prince.
City traffic ensured we spent a good two hours trekking here, but it was well worth it to get a fresh taste of Haiti in Bananier’s sublime seas.