Sosua Reports

[Tempoecorto]

I have made maybe 50 trips to Sosua and lived there for extended periods and have not encountered any of these kind of situations. Honest! You just have to blend in, be nice to people, make friends, avoid confrontations, avoid any kind of display of wealth, don't carry a lot of money, and you will be fine.

Remember there are also lots of women and babies and school children and old people living in Sosua and going about their daily life without anything happening to them at all.

I felt the same way about visiting the US, having read about muggings in New York and the massive murder rate in the 70's, but when I actually plucked up courage to set foot in the US in the 80's I found it wasn't that bad after all. I have even visited Jacksonville, which is one of the most murderous cities on the planet and have yet to witness a killing. If New Orleans was a country, then it would have the second highest murder rate in the world, yet tourists flock there for Mardi Gras. Miami has the same murder rate as Colombia, and Atlanta is equal to South Africa, which is generally regarded as pretty unsafe.

I have been to all of those cities and lived to tell the tale.

I completely agree. Once, long before GPS was known, I was lost trying to find out the hotel in Philly downtown (for those who are aware of the place) and wound up in the wrong area at 10 at night coming from the airport. May be I was stupid, but I just walked out of my rental car and asked people for directions. Chevy Chase movies would show the tires being ripped off and hauled away during that short period but nothing dramatic happened to me. Kind people just directed me the right way.

Speaking of my first trip to Sosua, I had a rolex on and the Italian guy mentioned it but frankly, with so many fakes going around, a thief can never figure out which is real and in any case, as I knew, nothing ever happened. I cannot speak of Sosua but I rarely even use the safe in hotel (Once I left my passport locked in the safe in an Istanbul hotel as I flew to Ankara or was it Izmir. Fortunately my itinerary back and out of the country was through Istanbul so no real damage) and I have left a woman alone watching TV in the room while I was downstairs chatting with two guys staying at the hotel. My motto is be wary but trusting. The kind of people you deal with has a lot to do with it but it begins with a good attitude as you pointed in your first paragraph. Of course, the more you travel, the better you get at that.

[Tempoecorto]

I don't disagree with your general thesis, but abstention from drinking and smoking are desirable traits in taxi drivers, (and also in chicas). I am sure that approximately 100% of your Haitian chicas are good Christian girls.

Religion is also an extremely useful tool in the raising of children, because Jesus is invariably on the side of the parents when it comes to good manners, leaving a clean plate, not answering back, and so on, and will strike a disobedient child down in a heartbeat, which is more that you can say for Santa Claus who just sticks parents with the bill for his so-called generosity.

So you discovered religion now, eh? LOL.

I agree with Chales Pooter and you both about the God spouting folks though.

[Wrx2005]

It really is asinine to tote around a $700 phone in the DR with your US SIM card and memory card in it. Of course if you don't know that, then you don't know until you find out the hard way.

In fact buying a $700 smart phone makes no sense anyway, unless you have money to burn,

There is nothing asinine about toting ones phone (expensive or not) with a US sim and memory card in it. Just like it isn't asinine for anyone dominican (especially a business person) to tote around their expensive phone with a DR sim and memory card. Especially those with special plans which allows them to roam internationally. Some folks have dual sim phones. Some even use their phones for work and staying in touch with family. So there is nothing asinine about having or using that type of phone in the DR. The cost factor is simply a matter of choice and / or affordability. Some folks can afford that type of phone, and they aint burning their money just to have an expensive phone. They just happen to not be on a DR budget.

You may be aware of this, but many members on this forum own and use their Galaxy Note 2's. 3s', S3 and S4's, Iphone 4s and 5's. And they bring them and use them on vacation. The focus shouldn't be on how others spend their money. The focus here is avoiding theft. The average business person in the DR probably has an expensive phone. You think it's asinine for them to own and walk around with an expensive phone just because somebody else has issues with it? I would think a person in the DR with an expensive phone would be just as concerned about losing their phone with their sim and memory card in it as someone from the states. But it aint gonna happen that they are not going to have the phone of their choice, just because other people have a problem with it. What makes sense in this discussion is how you secure your stuff. Not how much you spend on your stuff. If a person has no use or doesnt see the value in using such devices, then thats their personal preference/concern.

[Oakie]

How do you avoid these types of situations I would like to take my first trip to Sosua but when I hear stories like this it scares me.

Being a little scared when in strange places is not a bad thing, it keeps you alert. Sort of like being in a fun fair when you are a kid.

But, most of the problems related here are avoidable if you use some common sense, and puts you in that 99% that go down there often and have a great time.

Another great way of avoiding trouble is never drive down there. Take the autobus for long distances, moto concho for short, (and this is where having a GF relationship comes in handy) she'll show you the gua gua, the publico, where you can get around unbelievable cheaply. If I need to get across the island, I give some money to my "friend" moto concho driver and he borrows or rents an old car, and for little more than the price of gas, he'll take me anywhere.

Watch the smart puta, and you'll see she has a "network". If you go there often enough, you should have one too. Forgot your charger? A wave of the hand and in 10 minutes and less than 10 bucks later it's in your hand. Having a good time at the bar but getting hungry? A wave and 2 minutes later you will have some of the best tasting calle comida you ever had in front of you.

Go, be smart, and have the greatest time of your life!

(And, oh yeah, leave the credit card at home. Take your ATM card, preferably two. Those machines sometimes get hungry.)

[TomJackin]

My tips to improve the odds in Sosua (cannot speak for other locations) :

1) Avoid "the Strip" by night. That area attracts all the scum of the island, and a lot of scum from abroad.

2) Choose haitianas rather than dominicanas.

3) If you have to drink, do it by daylight.

4) Have as little contact with Dominicans as possible. There are many decent Dominicans in the DR, but not many in Sosua.

Damn you Charles!

You left me with nothing to do!

[Boriman]

It is a good thing that the kindly trusting New York cop did not have his gun with him, otherwise they would have taken that too.

If I had been him I would have waved goodbye to the phone and bought a Nokia 520 AT&T Windows Gophone for $70 to replace it, then made use of the facility to upload photos free to the cloud in case the card went missing or destroyed, and also stored my music in the cloud. For an extra $30 I could get an unlocked version of the phone, or get AT&T to unlock it for free, and then put a DR SIM card in it on arrival.

As a rule of thumb I never bring and use my more expensive phone while I am in the DR. I buy the cheap phone because this alone will deter many from taking it. Second, even if it is stolen the only regret I will have is the loss of my sim card, yet I will be using a DR number and not my regular phone and sim so no great loss. When I walk around I have the phone on me at all times. Having it on the car seat is a bit careless (a lesson learned). The tablet I simply leave at the hotel. Walking down the street in DR you risk theft, or it being damaged or forgotten somewhere.

I usually cheapen myself. Use a $10 dollar watch rather than my more expensive one, arrive to the airport wearing jeans and a simple tshirt. I expect and am not surprised at theft throughout the entire travel (TSA in the states, the DR airports, and DR itself) so I generally do not have any valuables in the suitcase. If they want to steal underwear and socks let them go ahead (an iron gets a little tricky!). The most valuable stuff, in terms of importance and money, I carry with my onto the plane (driver's license, money, credit cards, tablet). The smaller items I carry in a pacsafe fanny bag with a lock. One time I had it go through the airport xray machine. By the time I reached the other end the Dominican woman was desperately trying to open it before I got there. She simply could not figure it out. I took it out of her hand, unlocked it, and opened it myself but would not let her take my wallet.

When I enter the hotel room I place what I can in the safe and use some small cable lock to close the doors of the closet where the safe is. In other words, to get to the safe one needs to know the combination of the small cable lock or needs to cut the cable. If they cut the cable I will know that someone tried to break into the safe. In short, I do not trust even the hotel staff.

Except on my first trip I never used a credit card in the DR to pay for anything. I withdraw from an ATM and use the credit cards to withdraw cash, as a last resort and only in an emergency, but never to purchase anything. I've heard of too many stories of people using their cards in the DR and before you know it someone in Washington Heights or another part of New York City is using their cards. Also, even with legitimate uses many times one is charged on the high end of the exchange rate. Added to this the fee that is charged by the credit card issuer adds to the cost. Also, if someone is not charging you in pesos make sure it is in dollars and not Euros (this happened one time to one of my friends when he was on vacation in Mexico. The vendor claimed dollars but it was instead in Euros!).

[Frannie]

How do you avoid these types of situations I would like to take my first trip to Sosua but when I hear stories like this it scares me.

I have made maybe 50 trips to Sosua and lived there for extended periods and have not encountered any of these kind of situations. Honest! You just have to blend in, be nice to people, make friends, avoid confrontations, avoid any kind of display of wealth, don't carry a lot of money, and you will be fine.

Remember there are also lots of women and babies and school children and old people living in Sosua and going about their daily life without anything happening to them at all.

I felt the same way about visiting the US, having read about muggings in New York and the massive murder rate in the 70's, but when I actually plucked up courage to set foot in the US in the 80's I found it wasn't that bad after all. I have even visited Jacksonville, which is one of the most murderous cities on the planet and have yet to witness a killing. If New Orleans was a country, then it would have the second highest murder rate in the world, yet tourists flock there for Mardi Gras. Miami has the same murder rate as Colombia, and Atlanta is equal to South Africa, which is generally regarded as pretty unsafe.

I have been to all of those cities and lived to tell the tale.

[OldKool]

I am surprised that they did not help a brother Cop. Cops go out of their way to support one another.

[Tempoecorto]

If you get into trouble, drink too much, complain a lot at home, you'll do the same down there but worse.

There is quite a bit of sagacity in your statement. I have not been to Sosua, in any real sense but reasonable number of times in the DR and reading the Sosua stories are always interesting. I am like where are these people from? Trouble just attracts trouble in most cases, it appears to me, that of course does not mean that much when any of us could have boarded MH 370.

[Frannie]

Approaching the end of a long life I can say that I have never noticed any correlation between being genuinely "decent" and being "religious" and those who make a public display of their religiosity usually prove to be assholes sooner or later.

Of course I agree with you about the "other" Dominicans in Sosua.

I don't disagree with your general thesis, but abstention from drinking and smoking are desirable traits in taxi drivers, (and also in chicas). I am sure that approximately 100% of your Haitian chicas are good Christian girls.

Religion is also an extremely useful tool in the raising of children, because Jesus is invariably on the side of the parents when it comes to good manners, leaving a clean plate, not answering back, and so on, and will strike a disobedient child down in a heartbeat, which is more that you can say for Santa Claus who just sticks parents with the bill for his so-called generosity.

[Frannie]

It is a good thing that the kindly trusting New York cop did not have his gun with him, otherwise they would have taken that too.

It really is asinine to tote around a $700 phone in the DR with your US SIM card and memory card in it. Of course if you don't know that, then you don't know until you find out the hard way.

In fact buying a $700 smart phone makes no sense anyway, unless you have money to burn, and even if you do it is probably best to have an insurance policy or have it covered in your household insurance, because if your kid drops it in the commode when you are in the shower, then that is $700 down the crapper, enough to buy a smart phone, a tablet, a touchscreen notebook computer, and a digital camera and three memory cards and still have some change.

If I had been him I would have waved goodbye to the phone and bought a Nokia 520 AT&T Windows Gophone for $70 to replace it, then made use of the facility to upload photos free to the cloud in case the card went missing or destroyed, and also stored my music in the cloud. For an extra $30 I could get an unlocked version of the phone, or get AT&T to unlock it for free, and then put a DR SIM card in it on arrival.

[Balto1]

I read that story about a year ago with the tall cop from NY, sad story. It gets even more crazy when you hear what happened in Cabarette with the phone.

Here is a story that I personally was involved in years ago: I was sitting at 4 Roses at 2am waiting on a waitress to get off work. I saw the police go running into Europa hotel and since I was staying there decided to see what was going on. Earlier in the day I had met these 4 Jacksonville state troopers and we were drinking in the back part of Europa by the jacuzzi. My lady was with me as we drank and her father is a Puerto Plata cop. Anyway when I see the cops run into Europa I go and see the DR cops questioning this Jacksonville cop. They take his passport and said they will investigate and left.

The guy comes and sits down next to me at 4 Roses and tells his story. He was in Classicos and he went to dance with this girl on the floor. The girls lesbian lover came out of nowhere and attacked the cop, leaving a gash under his eye from her finger nail. The cop decides to leave and when he gets to the bottom stairs of Classicos the lesbian jumps from the top stairs like a ninja warrior at the cop. He nailed her with a right and knocked her out then left and they found him at Europa...

How do you avoid these types of situations I would like to take my first trip to Sosua but when I hear stories like this it scares me.

[Wrx2005]

He walked to his rental car which was parked on the street, opened the door and got in. She immediately opened the passenger side door and got in as well.

I am guilty of having items like that in my possession too. But from his example, I will try to remember not to have those items in plain view, especially anywhere in the passenger area of my car. Have to secure all vulnerable stuff before allowing anybody in the vehicle. Speaking of allowing somebody in the vehicle. If you can't open only the drivers side to get in, then I wouldn't get in the car until the riff raff is clearly out of range. In fact it's probably better to deal with the riff raff before even approaching the vehicle. Once inside the vehicle though, make sure you lock your doors.

[Revere]

As ususal, the big boys are on here today giving great advice as always. Keep it going!

After the New York City cop and I hung out for 5 hours at the bar on Saturday, he got up to walk up around a little. Not long after he left, he was followed by a well known working girl that usually hangs out on the east end of Cabarete near the Fuji film store. The waitresses wanted to follow him around as well. Hell, I wanted to get up and follow him. He was damn good looking and strong. He was chick magnet!

Anyone who has lived in Cabarete for any time will instantly recognize her—she has long bleached blond curly hair, walks with a limp, is around 5'3, and is very, very skinny. Many people here in town know here as a drug addict and thief. I've never seen her inside any restaurant or bars here, but I do see her every evening hanging out in the street. She likes to hang out on the street near the new condos called Morning Breeze, right past Scotia bank, near the Fuji film store.

She was following the cop around and explaining to him the 'Happy Hour' special she was running. He wasn't interested. He walked to his rental car which was parked on the street, opened the door and got in. She immediately opened the passenger side door and got in as well. He told her to get out. She said would get out as soon as he gave her some money. He refused. She said, 'Ok, ' and got out of the car and started walking briskly down the street with a limp.

Before he drove off, he reached for his phone. It was not there. Nor was his new 10' Samsung tablet. Both had been on the passenger seat. When she got in, she sat down on them. It was nighttime. He had been drinking a wee bit. He forgot about them on the seat. They both were sitting directly underneath the Happy Hour special of the bleach blond.

He got out of the car and started walking in the direction she headed in. The motoconchoos and some other people saw her take off down an alley. He asked them if they knew where she went and explained what she had just taken from him. They told him to wait right there, and they took off in her direction. Twenty minutes later, they returned and said they found her and that she had already sold his stuff to someone else. They said that the guy who bought the stuff wanted $700 US dollars. He said, 'keep the stuff' and walked away.

They followed him back to his car and said they could probably get it for $500 US dollars (another Happy Hour). Meanwhile, two cops showed up. He explained to the cops what happened. A few minutes later, a guy showed up with his phone. It was his new Samsung Note 3. It's a $700 dollar phone in the USA He told the cops 'that's my phone he has in his hand! ' They told him there was nothing they could do about it, but if he wanted to press charges they could go to the police station and file the paper work. He told them he didn't have the time.

While the Dominican man held his phone in his hands, the New York cop started contemplating how much it was going to cost him to replace the tablet and the phone. It would have been well over $1000 US dollars. Now, here he was standing with two Politur officers, a Dominican with his phone in his hand, and other people listening to the details of the negotiation.

Side note: this is exactly why I cannot ever own a gun in this country. In this situation—with two Politur officers standing there doing nothing while a Dominican held onto my $700 dollar phone, I would have pulled out my gun and told the guy to immediately hand over my phone or I will shoot you in the balls, and then I will shoot the Politur officers in the balls. Not a smart move over a stupid phone.

He negotiated a price of $17, 000 pesos, or roughly $420 dollars. He got his stuff back and I saw him in the bar on Monday night (during the Monday night football game) where he told me, the owner, Big Frank, and a US foreign Officer (Brian Gallo) that works for the US State Department in Washington DC & Afghanistan.

Ps. After he got home on Saturday night and tried to check his phone, he noticed his Us SIM card was gone and so was his Memory card which held all of his photos.

Frank

[Charles Pooter]

Also a significant percentage of taxi drivers are religious types who play gospel music in their cars and display religious insignia in their vehicles.

Approaching the end of a long life I can say that I have never noticed any correlation between being genuinely "decent" and being "religious" and those who make a public display of their religiosity usually prove to be assholes sooner or later.

Of course I agree with you about the "other" Dominicans in Sosua.