#1406: Jacmel: Chamberlain adds (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

Perhaps the even greater adventure was getting to Jacmel before the road
over the mountains was built (not too carefully) by the French in 1974. 
This involved going by the old (and of course unpaved) road which went a
quite different route following rivers most of the way, crossing them
(without any bridges), I think, a total of 59 times.  The trip took eight
hours by big public camion.  So when it rained and the rivers became more
than a trickle (or rather, suddenly appeared in the dry river-bed), you
couldn't get there in a vehicle..

The hotel that burned down on the main square of the town was Pension Craft
and the patronne of ample girth was the late Mme Adeline Danies, whose son
Eric built the Jacmellienne down by the beach.  She owned a small bakery at
the back of the hotel, where people toiled in the gloom for a pittance and
with the standard little sympathy, it must be said, from Mme Danies (at
least when she showed me around it).  It was said the Pension Craft was
burned down for the insurance.  Indeed it was one of the great old
hotels/guesthouses in Haiti.  Other similar ones are the Manoir Alexandre
(Jacmel) and the Brise de Mer guesthouse in the Cap.


Greg Chamberlain