Adventure: Bassin Bleu Waterfall
Location: Jacmel, Haiti
Type: Natural Water
Cost: Free to visit, but requires skilled guides and assistance to locate and reach
Haiti is the most beautiful place I have ever seen.
Ever.
And I’d like to toss in a “so far” to be a realist, but I really don’t know when I’ll feel my breath being taken away by another destination in such a manner. Perhaps it’s because it was my first major trip and my first “big” trip in so many years. Perhaps it was because it was with some very special ladies, to a very special place? I’m not too certain, but I won’t forget a single moment of that trip for the rest of my life, I can promise you that. Right now, the citizens of Haiti are going through a difficult time as they are dealing with political stress on the community, which is not unfamiliar to Haiti.
Such a beautiful place, culture, and group of people, I’m so lucky that the rich culture of Haiti has been a part of my life for years, as I’m a South Floridian born and raised among Caribbean culture, even as a Yankee lol. Being part of my college service organization, SISTUHS, Inc., I was blessed to meet some of my best friends and many of them happened to be of Haitian-descent, and I got to experience the beautiful culture first-hand. So when the opportunity to visit Haiti came up, I jumped at the chance to enjoy a girls trip to the beautiful mountains of Jacmel, Haiti last December.
One of the many amazing experiences we had in Haiti, was hiking to Bassin Bleu in Jacmel. I’ll be honest, as mentally prepped as my SISTUHS (Strength-Initiative-Spirituality-Unity-Health-Substance) made me, this adventure was truly more than I expected in the best way possible.
The Journey
We started the journey by hopping on a bunch of bikes that were waiting outside of our hotel with my besties brother, cousins, and friends. Now, I come from a family with a history in motorcycles and anything on 2-wheels so I’m no stranger… but I’m no pro lol. But I love an adventure! So I hopped on with Peterson, my besties cousin, and we were off! We traveled through markets, a freshwater river where the locals were swimming and washing their clothing, a field where pigs & goats roamed free, WOW! I can’t even believe all of the sights I laid my eyes on, simply riding to the waterfall!
(I’ll be honest, I’m bummed because I’m missing a lot of this footage because I wasn’t focused on documenting the journey which I now regret and will never slack on again!)
After about a 45 min scenic journey or so, we arrived in Jacmel! After parking the bikes, we ended up in a very small village where there were about 20 people sitting about. We came across the most adorable baby, he could have only been about 2 years old and as we waited to go hiking, I swooned over him and his little baby hands. As his father came up to tell me that his mother had passed when he was very little, I heard him say to his son, “Sa a manman ou!” As my SISTUH, Natalie whispered to me, “Girl. He just said, ‘That’s your mommy.'”
I’ve never given back a baby to their parent so quickly, I was not up for the hustle!
And then we proceeded onto the hike to Basin Bleu. 🙂
The 20-minute hike wasn’t bad at all, and the sights were absolutely amazing! There are 3 waterfalls in the area: Bassin Bleu, Bassin Clair, and Bassin Palmiste. We hiked past two of them to get to the real gem, the highest swimming point, Bassin Bleu. After hiking for a bit, we each had to go down a 12-ft rope down about 3 meters, which was probably the trickiest part because I just kept imagining slipping as I had to take off my sneakers. No slips occurred, thank God! Next time, I will definitely have on water shoes because sneakers were acceptable but eh.
I will note that I don’t believe this journey could have EVER happened without the help of the great guys who were with us the entire trip and our guides from the city who were focused on our safety and getting great pics of us lol. These gentlemen held our hands every step of the way, carried us if needed (my friend Natalie had a cast on! lol), kept our belongings water-free and gave us a history lesson as we walked.
If you planning on making this trek for the first time, get a guide.
After getting down the rope, we finally set our eyes on our destination, Bassin Bleu.
I have never seen water so clear, so blue! The water was cool to the touch, as I now understand all spring water to be and I felt such a peace wading in the cooling spring. We waded over to the huge rock in the middle to relax and enjoy the surroundings, along with being spectators to our friends who were enjoying jumping from the waterfall. I can swim well, but I wasn’t up for the waterfall jump like I thought I would be! Perhaps I would have still jumped if I hadn’t jumped from the rock first and been humbled. I don’t know what I thought that jump would be like, but man, it was not that. LOL. I prepped to jump from the rock, my friends watched and snapped pics/videos (as you can see), and then I jumped.
Ya’ll.
I didn’t expect to hit that water so fast and have the wind knocked out of me so swiftly!
After finally surfacing, I swear I couldn’t catch my breath and I just KNEW it was my dying moment, LOL. I am so dramatic, yes. But I was definitely struggling. The rock was so high up, my friends couldn’t even see/hear my stress and that was pressing lol. Luckily, there were 2 women swimming below the rock who asked me if I was okay because I looked so winded. I took a moment to float around with them to catch my breath because that water was much deeper than I expected! But refreshinggggg! …once I caught my breath and realized I was still alive. 🙂
After getting my life together, I enjoyed the rest of the time at Bassin Bleu. Between swimming around, watching the others jump from the waterfall and catching up with some of my favorite ladies, it was definitely a relaxing time in one of my *now* favorite places in the world.
We topped off the end of our hike back with some fresh Coconut water and made our way back to Jacmel for the day.
