Walk around the Boutilliers Observatory

A nice circular hike from the Boutilliers Observatory around the mountain. When you live in Port-au-Prince, you may not know the name of the place, but you've seen it many times. It's the mountain top with at least 10 different radio towers.

Drive to the observatory (see way points) and park there. From there, the hike starts from the paved road, but soon turns into unpaved road and eventually will turn into a hiking trail. For the first 4 kilometre, the hike will go downhill. The next 4 km are uphill and can be quite steep from time to time. During the first half of the walk, you will have a view over Port-au-Prince while you walk through a quiet and green mountain. You'll hear the buzz from town, but it will be surprisingly different then in town.

Once you get back to civilization, you will see a mix of the big houses and small sheds. It seems that the rich of Haiti live around here.

The second part of the hike is over the top of the mountain, largely on paved road. There is still some uphill hiking, but it's not too hard on this road. Part of the time there will be large walls along the road, but there is still plenty of places where you have a view to the north and the south valleys.

Near the end of the walk, you will see the communication towers and follow the road towards them. At the end, you walk around them and get back to the observatory where you have earned a nice refreshment and maybe dinner?

This walk is obviously best enjoyed during a clear day and I recommend to do this walk in the afternoon. If you start around 2 pm, you should be well back before sunset, which you can enjoy from the observatory.

Remember to bring plenty of water and your camera. If you have one with a good zoom, you may snap a few nice pictures of town from the hills.