We finally crossed the border at about 5 in the afternoon. But it was not without incident. The form filling and checks at the Dominican Border were relatively smooth and things were trundling along ok at the Haitian border until a big row blow up. There was a lot of shouting and gesticulation and the official behind the desk refused to hand over the passports. He decided he wasn’t being given the proper respect and this was the time to take a break. He walked out of the office, sat down in a seat in the yard, plugged his earphones in and stared ahead in protest. There was nothing we could do. There was more raised voices with others now joining in and tension rising by the minute. Then, just as suddenly, everything calmed down, we picked up our passports and moved off to our accommodation in Hotel Ideal.

The hotel was well known to most of the team and I had stayed here once before, so there was a comforting quaintness about it with it’s eccentric services, and intermittent electricity supply and Aircon. There was a hint of wifi but not enough to be of any use to me. Somehow the others seem to be texting and whatsapping. I seem to have technological dark cloud following me. Still we had finally arrived, we could relax and get ourselves settled in for the week ahead. The journey itself is a big part of being here and so it was good to get that over.