Lake Peligre

The Péligre dam was built across the Artibonite in the mid-1950s and the reservoir behind it drowned a valley of farmland in the Central Plateau, displacing the people who worked it. The lake now runs between steep hills, green and deep, with dead trunks still standing in the shallows at the upper end and pirogues working across it. The dam supplies a substantial share of the country's electricity, and the road along the northern shore gives the whole basin at once.

What you actually see

• The reservoir - deep green water between limestone hills in the Central Plateau.
• The drowned trees - trunks standing in the shallows at the upper end.
• The dam - the concrete arch across the Artibonite gorge at the southern end.
• The pirogues - dugouts crossing the lake between shore settlements.

When to go

November to March is dry and the road is at its best. The reservoir is fullest at the end of the wet season around October, when the drowned trees are hardest to see. Mornings are calmest on the water.

Honest expectations

The dam itself is infrastructure and is not open to visitors; the view is from the road. There are no facilities at the lake. The displacement caused by the flooding is still a live memory in the valley and is worth knowing about rather than treating the lake as scenery alone.

Nearby

Mirebalais is southwest, and Hinche and Bassin Zim are north.