My journey to the Citadel started with a young lady in 1979. I had barely heard of Haiti and we had only enough money for a one-way ticket from St. Maarten to Port au Prince. What a fine adventure! A bus ride to Cap Haiten where she knew of a delightful hotel of windows with no glass. Riding on top of Tap Taps we eventually got to the donkeys for the trip up to the Citadel. Children appeared out of the woods to serande us up with long-tubed wooden horns (much longer than they were tall) that bellowed like fog horns. We were "welcomed" to the fort by what was once a dog now being washed for dinner as it hung outside a tower window. The forts' chamber were ghostly beautiful; ornate cannons ready to fire mounds of cannon balls at French phantoms. We were told that syphilis-mad Henri Christophe once ordered an entire regiment to march off the fort's wall to their death. Thanks to Kippi Dupont and his plane, we were able to leave Haiti but I'll never forget those three days or the magnificent Citadel!