PORT-AU-PRINCE ? Small glimmers of normal life returned Monday to the least badly affected areas of the Haitian capital with street vendors plying their wares and taxis honking their horns in traffic.

Six days after a 7.0 earthquake killed tens of thousands "it's the first real day of activity for people... they are going out to refuel and stock up on supplies," said a resident in Petionville.

The upscale district and others like it sustained less damage in the quake than the lower-lying, poorer neighborhoods of the Haitian capital.

Gasoline stations in Petionville have reopened, attracting long lines of vehicles and people on foot holding containers. Under the hot sun, everybody is calm and uncomplaining as the fuel was in plentiful supply.

Taxis were back in business, clogging the streets with sounds of horns and Bob Marley music.

Street vendors sold anything from corn flakes to batteries, toys, fruit and dollar bags of spaghetti, although locals said the price of basic foodstuffs had gone up sharply, as high as twice pre-quake levels.

Top selling items included propane gas canisters to cook with and charcoal, despite government warnings pre-quake that it's sale was denuding Haiti of its forests.

At a crossroads, young people congregated at a makeshift camp to hear a guitar playing. They were friendly to foreigners because, as one of them said, "we need help."

Street barbers attended clients and preachers trained megaphones on passersby urging them to repent.

But outside a collapsed supermarket, 50-year-old Armel Deyi provided a grim reminder of the catastrophe to have befallen the city, holding up a photo of her daughter: "Have you seen her?"