Enjoying My Traditional ‘Sea Drink’ in Haiti
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: my traditional sea drink.
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.
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