[This is a second in a series of posts on FHM's blog about my favorite places in Haiti. You can read the first one about Kokoye Beach here.]

If you have ever been to Haiti you have experienced some or all of the following: extreme heat, anpil soley (lots of sunshine!), the exhaust and dust and chaos of the capitol city traffic, and the endless grey monotone of cinder block and concrete edifices. But just 20 miles from the Port au Prince airport is a sleepy town called St. Michael of Furcy and a gorgeous mountain ringed getaway called the Rustik. Here the grey gives way to endless greens and the bleating car horns and screeching tires are replaced by rooster crows and the soft peals of a church bell. The villagers cook on open wood fires instead of charcoal and the hint of evergreen trees (yes evergreens in Haiti!) and wild mountain mint is everywhere. Those same evergreens and the lush surrounding mountains cast lazy shadows across the entire town and the temperature is a cool 75 days and sometimes in the 50s at night. When the August temps pass the century mark in Port au Prince, St. Michael at Furcy feels, looks and smells a little bit magical.

The Rustik "hotel" is aptly named, the structure is comprised completely of recycled materials. Shipping pallets are the deck railings, industrial wire spool are tables and wall and ceilings while empty wine and liquor bottle windows give each sparse room a stain-glassed glow. Car tires become hanging planters and power transformers wood stoves. The building is nestled on a hillside and large pine trees grow right up through the deck. The view is of a pristine mountain range that glows in the mornings and evenings with every nuance of pink and orange any artist has ever imagined. 


Daytime at the Rustik means endless hiking on trails to mountain brooks with miniature waterfalls and icy pools. The air is so clean, so cool, so fresh that you drink it down in great gulps. There is food from the dirt road vendors, akra (fried toro root), marinad (spicy fried bread), smoked chicken, and fire roasted goat. The Rustik has a pretty basic Haitian menu, including banan peze (fried plantains) with extra spicy pikliz, a great akra and mornings, a delicious complimentary omelet for breakfast. Just a half a mile up the road is the area's other restaurant, but besides being pricey, The Lodge offers a first world cuisine coupled with a building and view that transports you to the Rockies and any Colorado ski town. Here you can order a salad with aged Gouda and tree-ripened apples, dine on one of several heavy creamed Crepes, or even get a hand-cut steak flown in from the States. The portions are big which slightly offsets the price, but figure on 15-20 bucks a person and maybe twice that for the steak eaters in your group.

Dinner at The Lodge

The rooms at the Rustik are very bare. The walls are pallet boards and wire spools and whatever other salvaged wood needed to almost fill the gaps. Privacy, and at times warmth, are not luxuries the Rustik affords, and often water is iffy, if not always freezing (although staff is quick to try and pump water to the holding tanks or bring you a bucket if the generator won't start). But at $10-30 a night per person for a room, breakfast included, the bargain is in the experience and the respite from the harsher elements of Haiti. For $100 the more adventurous among you can share the tree house room. It is maybe 50 feet off the ground with no walls and only burlap coffee sacks hanging as semi-private drapes. 



If you have a Haiti bucket list, Rustik, or at least a day trip to St. Michael of Furcy is a must. The endless mountainside gardens, the smell of woodsmoke on cool damp air, and the rich, warm hearts of the mountain people will stay with you forever.




**For the family travelers the Rustik is also a bar and there is very loud reggae, hip hop and kompa playing uncensored late into the night.