Border Crossing

I crossed into Haiti from the Northern Dominican city of Dajabon. We were told that the border opened at 8 and so we arrived close to that time. I did not even recognize the border crossing as an immigration check point when I first saw it.

By 8:45 people were beginning to gather at the locked gate that leads to Haiti. Mostly people on foot and others with barrels filled with blocks of ice that are covered with grain to keep it from melting. These blocks of ice equal Haitian refrigeration.

Jack and I parked ourselves in front of a closed window which we guessed is where we needed to be. An immigration official passed by and informed us that things opened at 9.

By 9:30 more people had congregated, including immigration officials. The immigration people would ask us what we needed but when we would tell them (we need to talk to someone in transportation re the motorbike, we need exit stamps, etc.) they just nodded and continued to eat their breakfast outside the locked office.

By 10:00 the entrance to Haiti looked like this. As more ice wheelbarrows congregated, I wondered if any of the ice would make it into Haiti since it was melting so rapidly.

By 10:30 immigration officials began to take their places behind windows.

Around 11, two hours after they were supposed to open, the windows opened the process began. People did recognize that we had been their first and allowed us to go first. But after being directed to the transportation office, back to the main window, over to another window, then back to the original window, then back to the other window…….it just became a shoving game. After being given some papers to fill out with no pen or pencil, I forced my way into the office and made the officials give me a pen. How else was I expected to fill them out!

But after lots of stressful Spanish, shoving, yelling, and swatting bugs, we got our exit stamps and crossed over into Haiti.

On that end, it was easy to bypass immigration. Jack and I had to seek it out. We were the only people there and easily received our entry into the country. And it only cost $1 US dollar.