Descending into Haiti

Flying back into Haiti is always a cool experience, particularly if you happen to have a window seat.  The Haitian gentleman sitting next to be was gracious enough to allow me to take some pictures as we descended into Haiti yesterday.  With lots of clouds and the sun getting low in the sky it made for some great shots.  Plus I was on the right side of the aircraft and got to see many familiar locations connected to our work.

This is your first view of Haiti.  The tip of the northern peninsula is called Mole St. Nicolas.  It is quite flat and apparently something of a desert because of the lack of trees and dry climate.

He is the first sight of the island of Lagonav.  This is the northern half of the island which is quite flat.  This time of year it is starting to lose its green colour, though it is hard tell with lighting late in the afternoon.

As we continue to descend we pass by the southern end of the Lagonav where most of the churches are located.  The clouds obscured the town of Ansagale where the guest house is located, but you can begin to see that this area of Lagonav does have some mountains.  Cruising at 37,000 feeet everything looks flat, but as we pass lower through 10,000 feet you begin to see some relief in the terrain.

We are now on final approach, landing to the east.  This is unusual late in the afternoon as the winds generally come from the west.  This is Leogane, the epicenter of the earthquake.  From the air you would never know a devastating earthquake had hit earlier this year.

And now just a 1,000 feet above the runway and home.  This view looks toward downtown Port-au-Prince.  In the center of the picture is a giant tent city.  Hard to say but my guess would be there are several thousand tents here.  This part of the city used to just open fields.  And that is what it looks like, descending into Haiti.