Thursday, June 06, 2013

Haiti 2013










My Trip to Haiti, May 2013

Here are a few of the photos from my time in Haiti for the 19th annual Livres en Folie (book festival) in Port-au-Prince.

 
I visited three bookshops in Pétion-Ville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince.

 
While in Haiti, I stayed at the Best Western Premier in Pétion-Ville. The hotel is in a great location.  There's a bank next door and a grocery store, Giant, just a block from the hotel.  The hotel's van will drop you at any location less than five miles from the hotel.  They will also pick you up from the airport (for a fee).  The hotel hosted two Happy Hour parties (with a DJ) during my short five night stay.


I enjoyed having meals on the second floor of my hotel. Here I am with my friend Frantz Duval, Editor-in-Chief (left) and Max Chauvet, Director, of Le Nouvelliste (the French-language daily newspaper printed in Port-au-Prince and distributed throughout the country). 

This is the view from my hotel room.



Over 15,000 people attended the Book Festival.  The festival ran from 10 am until 5pm.


I ran into folks from the Red Cross, UN, and these folks from Healing Haiti.  And yes, I'm in the hotel's van, while these folks left the airport in this. Tuk-Tuks in Haiti are pickup trucks generally very colorfully painted with the bed outfitted for passengers.




Call me crazy ... but I walked to the site of the National Palace in Port-au-Prince.  I knew that the palace was no longer there, as it was destroyed by the earthquake, but I wanted to find the statue "Le Negre Marron" (the first photo) and while I had my camera out, I walked around and took more photos.  GGT out!

Easter in Las Vegas

For the past four or five years, I've gone to Vegas for Easter.  Yes, I go to church!
No, really, I go to Vegas to go to Mass.  It's a long story ...

 
Flying over Hoover Dam


This year, I stayed at Vdara.  It was OK, but I wouldn't stay there again.  Aria, I'm coming home!  lol

 
I caught the CeeLo Green, Loberace, show.  He was really good!


Really?  You need half dressed women dancing on table tops to get people to gamble in Las Vegas?  Really?

 
Of all the crazy, this is one of my favorite things in Vegas.  It's right by the monorail for the Aria/Monte Carlo.

New Years Eve in Vegas, Baby

This year was the year for New Year's Eve in Las Vegas!
 
 

Me and Tate Stevens, the winner of X Factor in 2012

 
Here I am at Brandy's NYE party.

 
Well ... no picture with Brandy (this was my first NYE in Vegas) give me time people!  lol