Tuesday Travel: Pirate's Tortuga

 

Last week I wrote about The Cayman Islands for the travel piece because they were originally named Tortuga and my favorite place in the Caribbean.  This week we will go to Pirate's Tortuga.  This island is situated off the northwest coast of Haiti, which is located on the island of Hispaniola.  I have not been to this particular island but have been to Labadee, Haiti.  Don't be scared off because of preconceived notions about Haiti.  It is a beautiful place with many treasures to be found.

The history is fascinating. This was truly the Tortuga referenced in the Pirates movies.  The island was known by the native people but was never used as a permanent settlement until Christopher Columbus landed there in 1493.  (I think Christopher Columbus was the 15th century Travel Channel star.)  The island was named Tortuga because it is shaped like the back of a turtle.

Basically, the Spanish, French, English and Dutch pushed each other around trying to settle the island in the 1600s.  Plantations were set up and African slaves brought in to work them.  The slaves did not cooperate well and chaos reigned.  While they were doing that, pirates or buccaneers began using the island heavily as a home base due to it's location and ease of attacking ships coming into the Caribbean.

The crowd on the island was a bit unruly.  My favorite story was that in 1645, the acting French governor brought in 1,650 prostitutes to try to calm everyone down.  History doesn't elaborate on how that worked out, but needless to say, it became a true pirate island.  The pirates were often hired as "hit men" by the various countries to strengthen their positions in the Caribbean, but they were hard to control.

The island remained a strong pirate hide out until around 1680 when the French put their foot down and signed the Treaty of Ratisbon making piracy illegal.  This put an end to a free buccaneer port on the island.  The commerce then became logging and farming.  Government was transferred to French Haiti where is remains today.

Modern day civilization is a bit sketchy but there are beautiful homes and some development.  The roads have been cut in by locals and power is by generators.  The only hotel, The Princess, is abandoned.  To get there, you go by boat or plane when the two small airfields are functioning.  There are local drivers and guides you can hire.

According to travel articles, the best beach is Pointe Saline on the western tip.  At the Les Palmiste on the eastern coast, visit a pre-Columbian rock carving of a goddess at La Grotte au Bassin.  Basse-Terre on the southeastern coast is home to the remains of Fort de la Roche, once the island's biggest fortress.  My take on tourism there is that if you go to Tortuga, it's because you are a history buff, want something off the beaten path, and don't mind roughing it.

Haiti itself has the lowest standard of living in the Caribbean.  However, in Labadee, Haiti where I went, the people were friendly, the food was good and I didn't get sick from the bottled water.  We rode jet-skis there and had a great time.  There was also a zip-line, diving, and fishing.  It is not for the faint of heart tourist because along with the beauty, you see devastating poverty.  I personally would love to go back on a humanitarian trip to help rebuild from the earthquake.

That's a very brief hopefully enlightening look at Pirate's Tortuga.  So…yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.