The Parc National La Visite was set up as a national park in 1983 and contains one of the few (protected) forests of pines. The park, southeast of Port-au-Prince and close to the border with the Dominican Republic, provides beautiful views of the Massif de la Selle range. The trail between Furcy and Seguin is very steep and, given the altitude, provides a good workout. Only some 22 km from the capital, the park is one of the few ecotourism sites mentioned in the guidebooks, but I met not a single traveller during my ascent or in my explorations of the area. It was only as I hiked back down that I met another solitary foreign hiker. A highlight of the hike is that the trail is used by locals bringing food to market, predominantly women, or offering jolting, careening motorbike taxis, predominantly young men. I was greeted warmly and with some amusement (it was clearly illogical of me to walk when there were motorbikes on offer and when I was sweating enough for ten).
The trail is hard and uneven, unforgiving on footwear: and this led me to this project...
