[QUOTE=ReadyToGetOnIt;1937880] I took another publico and went to La Sirena and the Malecon in Puerto Plata. [/QUOTE]There are no publicos that go to La Sirena and the malecon.
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[QUOTE=ReadyToGetOnIt;1937880] I took another publico and went to La Sirena and the Malecon in Puerto Plata. [/QUOTE]There are no publicos that go to La Sirena and the malecon.
[QUOTE=Manizales911;1937976]There are no publicos that go to La Sirena and the malecon.[/QUOTE]You are correct. There are no publicos that go directly to La Sirena. I hopped out of the publico on a main street, and followed my phone GPS down a street, through a playground, and around a corner to get there. The publicos don't go on the street in front of the Malecon.
I don't know you my dude, but was that necessary? Nitpicking like this is why my post count stays low.
[QUOTE=Manizales911;1937976]There are no publicos that go to La Sirena and the malecon.[/QUOTE]I always take the publico to La Sirena (they drop you off in town).
I always take the plane to Puerto Plata (they drop you off in La Union).
[QUOTE=ReadyToGetOnIt;1937982]You are correct. There are no publicos that go directly to La Sirena. I hopped out of the publico on a main street, and followed my phone GPS down a street, through a playground, and around a corner to get there. [/QUOTE]And you could have got within 5 minutes walk to La Sirena by staying on the publico on its route through town, but a fit guy would do what you did (10 minutes walk to La Sirena).
Pto Pta will soon have Jumbo, larger than La Sirena and directly on the publico route opposite the baseball stadium.
[QUOTE=ReadyToGetOnIt;1937928]Can you tell me the difference between a barrio and a batey? I don't know the difference, and google translate has never been of any help on batey.[/QUOTE]A barrio is simply an urban area, but not one which has been planned and developed as an entity (which would be an urbanizacion). Barrios in the DR are usually poor areas, but in many Spanish-speaking countries the word is neutral and can be equally used to describe elite residential areas.
A batey is a rural Haitian settlement, originally temporary to shelter extra labor taken on for the sugar harvest. Should be an accent on the "e", but the spell-checker here knows better.
El Batey is now the gringo part of Sosua, originally land given by the Haitian government to Jewish immigrants before WWII. It was poor land from which they cleared Haitian squatters.
[QUOTE=CharlesPooter;1938188]A barrio is simply an urban area, but not one which has been planned and developed as an entity (which would be an urbanizacion). Barrios in the DR are usually poor areas, but in many Spanish-speaking countries the word is neutral and can be equally used to describe elite residential areas.
A batey is a rural Haitian settlement, originally temporary to shelter extra labor taken on for the sugar harvest. Should be an accent on the "e", but the spell-checker here knows better.
El Batey is now the gringo part of Sosua, originally land given by the Haitian government to Jewish immigrants before WWII. It was poor land from which they cleared Haitian squatters.[/QUOTE]Land given by the Haitian government? How come the Haitian government owned this land? Also the 800 or so Jews arrived between 1940 and 1945, so some may have arrived before the US was in the war, but WWII was already underway by the time anyone arrived. I think plans to receive the Jews came from an international conference in 1938, so perhaps the land was designated before the outbreak of WWII, but might not have been occupied.
A batey appears to have been somewhat equivalent to the hop-pickers huts found in Kent, England at least as recently as the 1970's. During the early part of the 20th century many poor people from the East End of London went to the country to pick hops in September as a kind of cheap form of working vacation--no doubt there were plenty of opportunities for sex and booze on late summer nights. I slept in one of those huts many years ago, using scavenged lumber and fallen branches for firewood for evening warmth and for cooking. You had to go to the farmyard for a flush toilet, but buckets of cold water for bathing were freely available both from taps and rainwater butts. Ah, those were the days.
[QUOTE=CharlesPooter;1938188]A barrio is simply an urban area, but not one which has been planned and developed as an entity (which would be an urbanizacion). Barrios in the DR are usually poor areas, but in many Spanish-speaking countries the word is neutral and can be equally used to describe elite residential areas.
[/QUOTE]The best word to translate 'barrio' is probably neigborhood or "hood". It implies not just an urban area, but a residential area within a city. This word is used a lot in this sense the US, but not so much in the UK. In the UK the expression "in the neighborhood" just means "somewhat within walking distance of".
[QUOTE=CharlesPooter;1938185]
Pto Pta will soon have Jumbo, larger than La Sirena and directly on the publico route opposite the baseball stadium.[/QUOTE]Jumbo will no doubt be selling their own brand of condoms. Unfortunately publicos do not usually have enough room for large loads of groceries, but the supermarkets usually have cheap, battered, old taxis available to take people home with their purchases, although with rising affluence the parking lot at La Sirena is full of SUVs these days.
[QUOTE=Frannie;1938317]... the supermarkets usually have cheap, battered, old taxis available to take people home with their purchases[/QUOTE]I use one every Wednesday. 150 pesos well spent. If the driver carries the stuff indoors for me I give him a 50 peso propina.
[QUOTE=Frannie;1938237]Land given by the Haitian government? How come the Haitian government owned this land? [/QUOTE]I meant land designated by the Haitian government. No idea who actually owned it.
The Haitian President at the time was Rafael Trujillo, the US State Department's prize pupil. If he expressed a desire for your house, land, horse, wife or daughter, it was a smart idea to make him a present of them, with a gracious smile.
[QUOTE=CharlesPooter;1938347]I meant land designated by the Haitian government. No idea who actually owned it.
The Haitian President at the time was Rafael Trujillo, the US State Department's prize pupil. If he expressed a desire for your house, land, horse, wife or daughter, it was a smart idea to make him a present of them, with a gracious smile.[/QUOTE]Pooter, old chap, I think if you look in your history books you will find that Trujillo was the Dominican President at the time, not the Haitian President, although he might have had a few Haitian chromosomes about his person. The Haitian head of state at the time was a fellow called Vincent.
Gentlemen, I am contemplating a trip to Sosua, but many reports are comparisons to the old days, which is not helpful. The only comparison of use to me is with other places like Puerto Plata.
Some of the reports imply that there are only a handful of venues and the ladies are either scammers or overcharging.
How about reports on Sosua that describe the scene as it is and not how it was?
[QUOTE=ReadyToGetOnIt;1937982]
I don't know you my dude, but was that necessary? Nitpicking like this is why my post count stays low.[/QUOTE]It's not so much what you post, but how you spell it.
You can take any kind of drug, engage in any act of debauchery.
As long as you spell it right!
We have a zealous Board of Governors here. :)
[QUOTE=Oakie;1938369]We have a zealous Board of Governors here. :)[/QUOTE]The original poster had posted a lot of "important info" and I believe Manizales who is a local resident, was merely pointing out a factual error (that I had wondered about and then ignored), should others be led to believe it because of a chest thumping claim of "eye witness" news, not that the error would impact a whole lot of Sosualites!
[QUOTE=Explorer8939;1938367]Gentlemen, I am contemplating a trip to Sosua, but many reports are comparisons to the old days, which is not helpful. The only comparison of use to me is with other places like Puerto Plata.
[/QUOTE]Puerto Plata and Sosua are completely different. Sosua is small, compact, everything within a few hundred yards on foot. Sosua is very touristy, lots of hotels for you to choose from. Puerto Plata has limited choice of hotels and it is much harder, though not completely impossible, to meet chicas while walking around in the street or sitting outside bars. Puerto Plata has a few bars and clubs where you can meet chicas. Many of the chicas in Sosua live in Puerto Plata, and you can see them in the late evening catching public taxis outside the hospital in all their finery on their way to Sosua.