Undecided about bringing money
Greetings:
I'm undecided about how to plan for money needs in BC. Should I bring plenty of US $$ and keep it in a safe place and exchange as needed, or should I bring less cash and make more frequent ATM withdrawals. I'm staying for 1 week, and plan to spend 100US per day not including hotel). Any help will be appreciated. Thanks Sailor02.
P.S. Willie: I haven't forgotten about you. I've been busy planning my trip. Airline schedules are causing a certain amount of grief. I'll be in touch
Politur rounding up girls
Just another bit of info I just thought about:
The two times that I've been to BC, it happened quite frequently that girls would ask me to walk with them from La Cueva to, say, Cosmos or Zanzibar past the "no-man's land" referred to by RearWindow. Naturally, I was curious as to the reason's for that, and so I asked.
What I was told by several girls was the following:
Politur routinely rounds up girls on a whim for questioning to extort bribes and/or sexual favors. Considering that prostitution in and by itself is not illegal in the DR, officially, the legal basis for doing so is loitering and/or public nuisance and/or harassment of tourists. Not that the Politur officers really need to or actually care too much about any legal basis. But even just being detained by the police for some time for whatever reason is enough of a nuisance for the girls to keep a low profile and stay out of their radar. So for the girls, the best way to stay out of trouble with the police, other than actually maintaining a cordial relationship with them, is to have a foreigner walk with them, preferably holding their hand, who is willing to claim that she is in fact his GF whenever questioned by the police.
This greatly reduces the chances of a girl ever being questioned by Politur. On my two trips there, I've spent a month in BC overall, and I never ever was stopped with a girl - not once.
Also, keep in mind that Politur means Tourist Police - they are there to protect tourists mainly, not the locals. They're there to maintain a minimum level of public safety for tourists and - as a somewhat distant second - girls. They're there to protect the DR's investment in tourism and make sure that tourists come back. If that means to protect girl's advances on disinterested tourists (like most all-inclusive dwellers and couples), so be it.
And while they are at it and considering how underpaid they are like anyone else in the DR, they are certainly more than happy to skim off some of the money generated through prostitution in the open-air brothel that BC is. Politur is not there to eradicate street prostitution, and isn't interested in it, either. And they sure aren't interested in pissing off mongers: no mongers, no girls, no money for anyone. Simple as that.
Welcome to the machinations of the Third World.