Local Capoise hangout under palm trees on the shore of the Bay of Cap‑Haïtien with the overlook of the city proper in the background.

A dark and deserted corridor filled with cannons inside the Citadelle Laferrière.

The spectacular sunrise from the back porch of Ikondo in Grand-Goâve, Haiti. Only an hour or two from Port-au-Prince, the contrast between it and the capital city is night and day. Green mountains, white-sand beaches, and rural tranquility make this place a gem!

Makeshift scarecrows guard lush fields in northeast Haiti near Ouanaminthe.

Blue agave with purple variation, a countless example of the endless floral/plant beauty in Haiti.

View of the Citadelle Laferrière from the trail at its base. The iconic mountaintop fortress is located on top of the Bonnet a L’Eveque mountain at 3,000 feet (910 m), approximately 17 miles (27 km) south of Cap-Haïtien.

The Citadelle Laferrière’s construction was led by Henri Christophe, a key leader during the Haitian slave rebellion (1791–1804), and 20,000 workers between 1805 and 1820 as part of a defense system designed to keep the newly independent nation of Haiti safe from French incursions on the north coast.

During and after Haiti’s war of independence versus France, Henri Christophe served as a general in the Haitian army and chief administrator of the country's northern regions. In 1806, Alexandre Pétion launched a successful coup against Haiti's emperor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Dessalines's death led to a power struggle between Christophe and Pétion, which ended with Haiti divided into northern and southern states, with the north under Christophe's presidency by 1807. He declared himself king in 1811 and remained as such until he suffered a severe stroke that led him to take his own life in 1820. Shortly after, general Jean-Pierre Boyer came to power and reunited the two parts of Haiti. The Citadelle Laferrière remains as a relic of these times.

Piles of rusting cannonballs sit at the Citadelle Laferrière. Relics of Haiti’s turbulent post-colonial period, left to the dustbin of history.

The view of the mountainous countryside to the south of Citadelle Laferrière.

Brilliant colors and surface textures on the aging stone structures at the Citadelle Laferrière.

Black and white view of the mountainous countryside and Caribbean coast to the north of Citadelle Laferrière.

Brilliant colors and surface textures on the aging stone structures at the Citadelle Laferrière.

Beautiful round top wooden doors line an exterior corridor near the main courtyard inside the Citadelle Laferrière.

Piles of rusting cannonballs sit at the Citadelle Laferrière. Relics of Haiti’s turbulent post-colonial period, left to the dustbin of history.

Brilliant colors and surface textures on the aging stone structures at the Citadelle Laferrière.

Brilliant colors and surface textures on the aging stone and wood at the Citadelle Laferrière.

A dark triangular common area inside the Citadelle Laferrière that serves as a connection point for three different corridors. Likely a future horror film shoot site.

Front-facing view of the beautiful round top wooden doors and windows that line the exterior corridors near the main courtyard inside the Citadelle Laferrière.

Brilliant colors and surface textures on the aging stone structures at the Citadelle Laferrière.

A beautiful rose and iron arrow engraving on a cannon barrel at the Citadelle Laferrière. An amazing work of art that was most certainly hand engraved.

And so it goes, from white to orange. Brilliantly-colored moss continues to grow and cover an entire section of stone wall at the Citadelle Laferrière.

A tropical scene in Grand-Goâve, Haiti. Palm trees stand tall in the hot Haitian summer sun.

An aerial shot of the south side of Cap-Haïtien from less than a thousand feet.

The spectacular golden sunrise over the Haitian countryside at Ikondo near Grand-Goâve, Haiti. Only an hour or two from Port-au-Prince, the contrast between it and the capital city is night and day. Green mountains, white-sand beaches, and rural tranquility make this place a gem!

Paradise at Taino Beach near Grand-Goâve, Haiti.

A black and white night shot of a popular fried chicken restaurant in Ouanaminthe, Haiti. Situated near the Haiti-Dominican Republic border the influence of Spanish on the Haitian side is visible in many places, including the restaurant’s name “Pica (short for Picante) Pollo”, which means “spicy chicken” in Spanish.

A game of pickup soccer being played on a worn-out local pitch near the town of Milot, Haiti.

Endless floral and plant beauty in Haiti.

A relaxing hangout spot at Ikondo with an excellent view of the ocean near Grand-Goâve, Haiti.

A lotto stall sits alongside Route Nationale 6 in Haiti. Lotto stalls are a familiar sight in Haiti where formal financial institutions such as banks are generally scarce.

With few formal financial institutions available, accumulating cash to invest in an enterprise, home, or education becomes a difficult task in Haiti. To address the need for cash, many Haitians turn to the lotto stalls for the chance to win a transformational lump sum. Lotto stalls present the poor with the possibility of earning 10, 20 or 50 times their wager to convert insignificant amounts of money into meaningful capital. Many Haitians overlook steady losses of playing the lotto since that same system does generate some cash.

An estimated 35,000+ lottery stalls exist across Haiti.

Handmade wooden chairs lined-up inside a workshop in Grand-Goâve, Haiti.

A shot of a semi-vacant housing project near the Caracol Industrial Park, an economic growth project that was established in 2012 just 25 km east of ­Cap-Haïtien, Haiti with help from organizations like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and private entities such as the Clinton Foundation.

This housing project, and numerous others like it near Caracol, were constructed to house Caracol workers and their families. The $300 million project was expected to create more than 60,000 jobs and transform the sparsely populated northern coast of Haiti.

To date, the factory has created less than 10,000 jobs and produces clothing mostly for Sae-A Trading Co, the South Korean textile corporation and Clinton Foundation donor. Additionally, labor standards at the industrial park have been criticized as factory bosses as recently as 2014 refused to abide by the Haitian government’s raising of the minimum wage.

Due to Caracol’s relative geographic isolation and its failure to reach its own lofty economic growth goals, the housing projects like this one remain largely empty.

A front view of the ruined Sans-Souci Palace near the town of Milot, Haiti, located approximately 5 km northeast of the Citadelle Laferrière. A UNESCO World Heritage Site today, the palace was constructed from 1810 to 1813. The palace’s name “Sans-Souci” translated from French means "carefree".

The Sans-Souci Palace was the royal residence of Henri Christophe (King Henri I), a key leader during the Haitian slave rebellion (1791–1804), and his wife Marie-Louise and their two daughters. It was the most important of nine palaces built by Henri Christophe.

The palace was completely destroyed by the massive 1842 Cap-Haïtien Earthquake and was never rebuilt. Before its destruction, the Sans-Souci Palace was acknowledged by many to be the Caribbean equivalent of the Palace of Versailles in France.