HINCHE

'Hinche' (''Ench'' in Kréyòl) is a city in central Haiti, near the border with the Dominican Republic. It has a population of about 50,000. It is the capital of Centre department. Hometown of Charlemagne Péralte, a nationalist leader who resisted the United States occupation of Haïti (1915-1934).
The city of Hinche (Spanish Hincha) has at different times belonged to either the Dominican Republic or Haiti. The border treaty agreements of 1929 and revisions to the treaty in 1936 left it permanently in Haitian territory.

Contents

Culture

Cuisine

Attractions

Transportation

Media

Radio

Culture

The majority of the population are of African descent with a small minority being French/African. The official languages are Haitian Creole and French. Hatian creole is a combination of French and Native African languages. About 5% of those in Hinche also speak Spanish. The school system retains French as the main language .
The official religion is Roman Catholicism, but the constitution allows the free choice of religion. There are also many non Catholic Christian churches in the city and the surrouding communities. Groups, like the Haiti Endowment Fund (HEF) of Southern California send medical missionaries several times a year to provide medicines and basic healthcare. HEF has also helped build community churches. Some of the people practice also voodoo.

Cuisine

The cuisine is Créole, French, or a mixture of both. Créole cuisine is like other Caribbean cuisines, but more peppery. Specialties include griot (deep-fried pieces of pork), lambi (conch, considered an aphrodisiac), tassot (jerked beef) and rice with djon-djon (tiny, dark mushrooms). As elsewhere in the Caribbean, lobster is well-known here. A wide range of microclimates produces a large assortment of fruits and vegetables. Vegetarians will have a difficult time here, because pig fat is often used in food preparation, so even beans are to be avoided.
The people enjoy a strong, sweet coffee -- Rebo is one brand, considered by some to be the best. Also popular is the excellent Barbancourt rum.
Interesting cuisine-related features of Hinche, include a market and the “Foyer d’Accueil”, an unmarked guesthouse above a school that is behind the blue and white church on the east side of the main square.

Attractions

Hinche can be accessed by road or plane. Hinche has a dirt runway that will allow small cesna and single engine planes to land. Usually, these flights are chartered from Port Au Prince. East of Hinche, Bassin Zim is a 20 m waterfall in a lush setting 30 minutes drive from town (head east on the Thomassique Road, then fork north at Papaye). The cascade fans out over a rounded, sloping, and limestone rockface. At its foot is a 60 m wide natural pool with deep, milky-blue water that is perfect for swimming.
Pandiassou is a tiny village along the main road going west out of Hinche toward Maissade.
Bishop Laroche of the Diocese of Hinche called Kobonal the "darkest corner of the Diocese of Hinche." The villagers lived in isolation in an environment where fear and superstition dominated their lives.
In the city you’ll also find the Sacred Heart Church.

Transportation

Grandly called the Route National 3, the 128-km dirt road northeast from Port-au-Prince to Hinche requires a four-wheel drive and takes at least five hours (much longer by public transport). It starts by crossing the Cul de Sac plain via Croix-des-Bouquets. Here, a newly improved road branches off southeast through a parched, barren region, skirting Lake Saumâtre before reaching the Dominican border at Malpasse. There are regular flights from Port-au-Prince to Hinche.
The RN3 heads north out of Mirebalais on to the Central Plateau, where the military crackdown was especially harsh after the 1991 coup because peasant movements had been pressing for change here for years. After skirting the Peligre hydroelectric dam, now silted up and almost useless, the road passes Thomonde and reaches the region’s capital, Hinche.

Media

Radio

★ Radio Seven Stars

★ Radio Tele Smart

★ Radio Voix du Plateau Central

★ Radio Super Continentale