The number of Cubans who come to shop in Haiti continues to increase, every week there are hundreds to roam the streets of the capital or to hustle at the market Hippolyte (where Cubans have become the biggest buyers) to the search for articles for their businesses, their business or their personal use.

Haitians and Cubans benefit from the sale of household goods, technologies, clothes and shoes, among others. Cubans travel to Haiti usually for a short time and are limited to visiting a very small area of ​​the Haitian capital. They know that back they have a weight limit for their luggage and they can not buy more than 12 items of the same kind.

However, a Cuban trader explained that when he bought more copies of the same item it was not a problem, because Cuban traders know each other and organize themselves according to their interests distribute the items in order to respect the quotas. "I buy everything, clothes, electronic equipment, shoes, in Cuba it is very expensive and above all, these products do not exist" explains another Cuban.

These Cuban "tourists" of a new kind are easily recognizable at the Port-au-Prince airport because their luggage consists of large packages of clothes, flat-screen TVs, toys and other items.

As in the case of Guyana or Panama, there is already a network in Haiti providing transport, accommodation or food sales to Cuban visitors. Near the airport, a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince is even nicknamed "Ti Havana", it is about three streets where are the hotels most frequented by Cubans.

SL/ HaitiLibre