Les Cayes

city in Haiti

Les Cayes (Kréyòl: Okay; English: "The Cays") is a town and seaport in Southern Haiti near the river Ravine du Sud, on the Caribbean coast. It is the capital of the Sud Département. Formerly known as "Aux Cayes".

Les Cayes is at about 196 km southwest of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. It is also the chief town of an arrondissement (a part of a department) with the same name. The arrondissement has six communes (a commune is like a municipality): Les Cayes, Camp-Perrin, Chantal, Île à Vache, Maniche and Torbeck.

History

In 1504, Diego Velázquez founded the town of Salvatierra de la Sabana (or Salvatierra de la Zabana) where is now Les Cayes. From here, he left for Cuba to take control of that island on 7 November 1511.

But people left completely the town in 1540 and the French Monsieur de la Lance founded the modern town of Les Cayes in 1726. The town was destroyed by two hurricanes in 1781 and 1788.

On 24 December 1818, Simón Bolívar came to Les Cayes looking for help to fight against the Spanish government in South America. Bolívar left Haiti on 10 April 1816 for Venezuela, but came back in September of that year to this Haitian town when he lost some battles in South America. He went back to South America in December of the same year.

Get in

Antoine Simon Airport, with the name of a president of Haiti that was born in Les Cayes has flights from the capital. You can also go by bus, tap-tap or in your private car. Some people do also ride their bike, which is not too safe.

By plane, it’s only 20-30 minutes; by public transportation it can take up to 4 hours; and in a private car, it takes around 2 1/2-3 hours.

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