Picture of Haitian woman arranging her luggage on a bus, Cap Haïtien (Haiti)

Haitian woman on the roof of a bus

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Slow, colourful, painful, but also probably one of the best ways to see Haiti: tap-taps come in many sizes, and are invariably overcrowded with Haitians with whom you can easily get into touch.
In Haiti, tap-taps are basically local, public transportation on four wheels; it can be a former US school bus, but also a pick-up truck. While we were still in Port-au-Prince, the tap-taps we saw were quite large vehicles, full of splendidly painted exteriors with religious or erotic scenes, and often with religious slogans on top, and a loud sound system inside. There were some smaller vehicles, less bright, but doing the same job: transporting passengers from one part of Port-au-Prince to the other. Outside the capital, we did not see the brightly coloured tap-taps anymore. Most tap-taps here are pick-up trucks, where the back side is open-air, with some wooden planks that stick out of the back of the car in order to accomodate passengers even more passengers. Even though locals advised us to always travel in the cabin, we decided to sit in the back of the truck. We thought it would give us more fresh air, but it proved to be a great way to get into touch with Haitians. It is amazing how total strangers are haphazardly put together in the back of the truck, and soon develop into a tight group, sharing the pain and the hardships of the long trip to the final destination.
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