Sosua Reports

I am pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction to my last post, as I thought I would get hassled for it being too negative. Of course it is a personal experience and opinion, but I tried to be honest about the place, not try to talk it up or down. I was actually there for a week longer than intended, as I had to wait for an available flight home, my fault for not booking it before I travelled! At first I was in Sosua for a week, then took off to Santo Domingo for a week and Santiago for 3 days, before heading back to Sosua. To be honest I was pretty exhausted from my time in Santo Domingo, so just kind of gave up on my adventurous side when I returned to Sosua, for that trip at least. I will also post on Santo Domingo and Santiago in a few days, which were again totally different experiences to Sosua.

As my stay in Sosua wore on on I got slightly bored with eating at the same joints all the time and got more adventurous by eating at the grill place beside Latino's bar. I found the grilled chicken and meat there delicious, however the last night I ate there tried Lambi, whatever that is? Some kind of seafood I think? Anyway, to cut a long story short I think I may have been too adventurous there in my eating out, because from the following day onwards I was pretty ill, lost my appetite in food and yes, sadly pretty much sex too for the last few days of my trip! So I guess that experience put an unfair general downer on my recollections of my last few days there.

The next time I return I would definitely like to experience more of the country, as Jaosousa suggested, just hope this last trip has not put me off too much. Travelling by bus I can see that this is a beautiful country, on my trips from Sosua to Santo Domingo for example I have been through some gorgeous countryside and some nice and clean looking towns. Inland from Punta Cana, around Higuey the country is also lovely looking, and quite different from the north coast. There are also the practical issues to think about when travelling around though; finding a decent place to stay in small towns, the expensive price of car rentals, personal safety, among other issues.

When I first got to Sosua, I thought about renting a motorbike to be able to do my own thing, but when I found out no comprehensive insurance was possible on a bike and they would want a huge deposit or my passport (some chance of that!) I quickly went off the idea. I also started to think like a sensible boring tourist, thinking about what would happen if I crashed and ruined my vacation in the first few days. When I do travel back to the DR though I definitely want to sort out some private transport, either a car or motorbike, to give me some independence there. I am sure that would be a more fun way to get around, see the country and meet girls.

I am a generally friendly and outgoing guy, and grew up in a pretty soft European city. All you New Yorker's out there who visit Sosua, you probably don't notice the hard nature of the town as much as I do, since you come from such a huge, impersonal and tough city like New York. I am not comparing New York to Sosua in any way of course! If you stay in Sosua for a long time, and want to avoid being hassled and any trouble, you also have to walk around looking and acting tough with a look of general disinterest on your face. This works, but like I said above, goes against my nature and is not something I enjoy doing.

Before I travelled on this trip I got loads of phone numbers from chicks from badoo, but I don't know why I bothered, because when I was there didn't bother phoning any! I suppose this is because of a few reasons. If you start your trip in Sosua, where you can get sex easily, you become lazy and then cannot be bothered with all the hassle of arranging meetings, taking a girl out for a meal etc etc, hoping that you might get her into bed. On top of this you develop a general subconscious impression that all chicas in the country are putas, so why bother with all the pretence and bullshit in the first place? I am not saying this is true, I hope not! Some girls on badoo throw their phone numbers at me after a couple of messages, but some seem genuinely looking for proper realtionships.

Having said that, the next time I come to the DR, I will try to keep my hard on in my pants at least for the first few days, and do things the other way around, ie first try to date a few non pro's and girls met on the internet and see where that takes me, and there is always Sosua and other mongering options to fall back on if nothing works out. A problem with meeting internet girls though is that they live all over the country, so you need to be young and full of energy to bother roaming around to meet them. Even if they live in Santo Domingo, it covers a wide area, and I would not like to venture into some parts of that city. Better to have them meet you where you're staying.

There were a couple of gorgeous looking chicas from badoo who wanted me to visit them in La Vega and Bonao for example, but the Metro bus doesn't stop there, and taking care of my tired legs was more important to me than my urge to meet them; I was not about to go looking for local buses from Santiago crawling their way to their towns. Anyway, I know this sounds negative. Next time, I really do want to visit these towns and be more adventurous, just need to work out a safe, and not too tiring or complicated way of doing it.

Lambi is cooked conch usually eaten with vinegar. I am amazed, when you think how much trips cost per day, after amortizing your airfare, hotel and other expenses, that guys risk losing two, three or more days of their expensive trip taking chances on what they eat, when it is perfectly easy and cheap to eat safely in the DR. I know some guys have cast iron guts so they can eat any old shit with confidence, but someone who was brought up in a "civilized" and "hygienic" European city doesn't get the chance to build up his resistance.

The Caribe Tours bus from Sosua and Pto Plata stops at La Vega. I would spend your next trip travelling around on the local buses. It is cheap and fun. When you have seen all you can conveniently see that way, you might thing about renting a car on a subsequent trip, but before doing so read up on all the horror stories about scams and make sure you have the right insurance with Casa del Conductor coverage (most don't include it). Could keep you out of jail where you might be eating a lot worse shit than lambi.

[QUOTE=Charles Pooter;1212426]Lambi is cooked conch usually eaten with vinegar. I am amazed, when you think how much trips cost per day, after amortizing your airfare, hotel and other expenses, that guys risk losing two, three or more days of their expensive trip taking chances on what they eat, when it is perfectly easy and cheap to eat safely in the DR. I know some guys have cast iron guts so they can eat any old shit with confidence, but someone who was brought up in a "civilized" and "hygienic" European city doesn't get the chance to build up his resistance.[/QUOTE]

Like I said in my earlier report, I mainly ate at Baileys, Morua Mai and other places along Pedro Clisante. The food joint where I had this Lambi beside Latino's bar is well frequented by tourists. I think it is owned by the same American guy who owns Latino's (looks like James Belushi on a bad night!). I had eaten there several times before so generally trusted the place. I knew it was seafood, just didn't know the translation for Lambi ! Anyway, I'm not even sure if it was this that made me ill, who knows, and everything else I had there was great!

But if you're saying I shouldn't have tried this, what happens when you start wondering all over the country by car or motorbike, and have to eat at lots of new places all over the place? Considering I stayed in the country for 36 days, I think to eat something bad one time is not bad going and is just par for the course, just like you will have bad luck with some ladies as well, it is just the law of averages in the end. As a comparison, I have had bad cases of food poisoning in Spain several times, eating fairly standard things, requiring me to visit hospital on one occasion, and that in an advanced Western European Country. To cut a long story short, you can get food poisoning anywhere.

Immodium, pepto bismol and others can be bought over the counter (no prescription) before any trip, to help with an upset stomach.

La Vega and Bonao are adjacent to the highway between Santiago and Santo Domingo. La Vega is about a 15-20 minute drive south of Santiago. Some people who live in La Vega study or work in Santiago, there is low cost transportation between La Vega and Santiago. If you are in Santo Domingo, Vegano Express operates buses that go back forth and between La Vega and Santo Domingo.

Bonao is about one hour from Santo Domingo (depending on Santo Domingo traffic). Bonao is about an hour south of Santiago.

This site list 7 hotels in Bonao: [url]http://www.hotel-dominican-republic.net/[/url] And 9 hotels in La Vega.

Good reports, thanks.

[QUOTE=Coupe66; 1212408]I am pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction to my last post, as I thought I would get hassled for it being too negative. Of course it is a personal experience and opinion, but I tried to be honest about the place, not try to talk it up or down. I was actually there for a week longer than intended, as I had to wait...[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Charles Pooter;1211363]You know you got my vote with that one. Add "harder working" and "more honest" to that list too, not that comparing with Dominicans is setting the bar very high on those two criteria. Obviously once a haitiana has been in Sosúa a few months she sinks to the level of the locals so either find them in other towns or look for wet and sandy ankles to show they just waded across the border.[/QUOTE]Some Dominicanas say aye papi, dame duro and other such words in Spanish during sex. Do Haitian chicas have favorite words they like to say during sex (in French or Kreyol)?

[QUOTE=Coupe66; 1212408]I am pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction to my last post, as I thought I would get hassled for it being too negative. Of course it is a personal experience and opinion, but I tried to be honest about the place, not try to talk it up or down.

Next time, I really do want to visit these towns and be more adventurous, just need to work out a safe, and not too tiring or complicated way of doing it.[/QUOTE]Hi,

Personally, I liked your "update" more than the original because I felt the first one was too critical, true albeit they might be. This particular update I found you speaking from your heart and was pleasantly surprised to note an adventurous person, in experimenting with new food, places and transportation plans, for example.

Based on my personal experiences, I was there two times for a week each time. I chose to go to Santiago the second time which I found more stimulating but with disappointments as well. Which of course made it better. I also learned eating local food which I was not interested in my first week and first time. Personally, I find lining up people before going down, to be effective and of course, when you are tired or out of luck, there is always Sosua. There is a down-side to it too, you just might fall in "love" or someone might actually have a heartbreak taking you seriously. I always wonder / worry about that.

By the way, I enjoyed your writing as well. Coming from where I come from, I value a well-constructed sentence, perhaps with deadpan humor thrown in with total nonchalance as some people here do with elan.

[QUOTE=SavePros321;1211989]Are you saying that with generic versions of Tadalafil (my personal favorite) and Sildenafil you don't have to be worried about them being cut with crap like boric acid and dry wall? I don't have a prescription and a long time ago I did buy Cialis from kwikmeds dot com, but I guess those are prime candidates for counterfeiting as well. I like La Pela when I am in the DR and would like to find a generic form of Tadalafil similar to La Pela, but I guess there is no way to tell if what you are getting won't contain any junk inside huh?[/QUOTE]I've had good results with the dr with la pela and kamagra too. Just distinguishing between generic, alternative brand and counterfeit. If I was counterfeiting drugs I wouldn't bother with lower priced generic versions would you? No data, I just don't see any good argument to pay more for us name brands that reason suggests are more likely to be counterfeits in the dr.

[QUOTE=Charles Pooter; 1212426]Lambi is cooked conch usually eaten with vinegar. I am amazed, when you think how much trips cost per day, after amortizing your airfare, hotel and other expenses, that guys risk losing two, three or more days of their expensive trip taking chances on what they eat, when it is perfectly easy and cheap to eat safely in the DR. I know some guys have cast iron guts so they can eat any old shit with confidence, but someone who was brought up in a "civilized" and "hygienic" European city doesn't get the chance to build up his resistance.

The Caribe Tours bus from Sosua and Pto Plata stops at La Vega. I would spend your next trip travelling around on the local buses. It is cheap and fun. When you have seen all you can conveniently see that way, you might thing about renting a car on a subsequent trip, but before doing so read up on all the horror stories about scams and make sure you have the right insurance with Casa del Conductor coverage (most don't include it). Could keep you out of jail where you might be eating a lot worse shit than lambi.[/QUOTE]Charles,

I think you are being a bit hard on the guy. It's not like he was eating off a food wagon or anything. The place he suspects he got the food poisoning is a restaurant known to be a decent place. You live on island and it may be easy for you to know where not to eat but for someone who is a tourist it isn't that easy other than avoiding street carts. I don't get food poisoning very easily but the last time I did was so bad I ended up in the hospital and that was from eating at Blackbeards and we all know that usually isn't a bad place to eat. You can get food poisoning eating anywhere. Personally I avoid seafood altogether when I travel abroad because that is what seems to be the most common denominator from reading reports on here.

[QUOTE=Manizales911;1212579]You can get food poisoning eating anywhere.[/QUOTE]You can be knocked down in the street in most countries but that doesn't make it a good idea to step in front of a bus. By which I mean minimise your risks even if you cannot eliminate them. As you say, avoid seafood unless you know the place well.

[QUOTE=Manizales911;1212579]I think you are being a bit hard on the guy. It's not like he was eating off a food wagon or anything. The place he suspects he got the food poisoning is a restaurant known to be a decent place.[/QUOTE]If it is "known to be a decent place", and I respect your knowledge, then I apologize. It is just that I have never fancied eating there and in seven years none of the hundreds of people I have dined with in Sosua have ever chosen that venue, so I assumed the worst. Apparently unfairly. Apologies, Coupe66.

[QUOTE=Jaosousa;1212436]Some Dominicanas say aye papi, dame duro and other such words in Spanish during sex. Do Haitian chicas have favorite words they like to say during sex (in French or Kreyol)?[/QUOTE]They have been known to murmur "Ban mwen pi lajan" and "Piti mwen malad" in the throes of passion.

[QUOTE=Charles Pooter;1212695]They have been known to murmur "Ban mwen pi lajan" and "Piti mwen malad" in the throes of passion.[/QUOTE]LOL.

Ban mwen pi lajan=Give me the money.

Haitianas no different than many chicas in the world, haha.

[QUOTE=Charles Pooter;1212695]They have been known to murmur "Ban mwen pi lajan" and "Piti mwen malad" in the throes of passion.[/QUOTE]"pran bourik mwen an" or "kom tout lòt peyi sou figi m' " from google translate.

[QUOTE=Charles Pooter;1212695]They have been known to murmur "Ban mwen pi lajan" and "Piti mwen malad" in the throes of passion.[/QUOTE]Charles. They just plain "murmur", eh? . Reminds me of "give us our daily bread", sotto voce! I was hoping for a lusty scream.

[QUOTE=Charles Pooter;1212695]They have been known to murmur "Ban mwen pi lajan" and "Piti mwen malad" in the throes of passion.[/QUOTE]ROTFL. Are you really that good?

The other is "I'm feeling a little sick".

[QUOTE=Jaosousa; 1212434]Immodium, pepto bismol and others can be bought over the counter (no prescription) before any trip, to help with an upset stomach.

La Vega and Bonao are adjacent to the highway between Santiago and Santo Domingo. La Vega is about a 15-20 minute drive south of Santiago. Some people who live in La Vega study or work in Santiago, there is low cost transportation between La Vega and Santiago. If you are in Santo Domingo, Vegano Express operates buses that go back forth and between La Vega and Santo Domingo.

Bonao is about one hour from Santo Domingo (depending on Santo Domingo traffic). Bonao is about an hour south of Santiago.

This site list 7 hotels in Bonao:

[url]http://www.hotel-dominican-republic.net/[/url]

And 9 hotels in La Vega.

Good reports, thanks.[/QUOTE]Yes, I will definitely carry pepto / dulcolax and Immodium my next trip. I was telling Jao about how I got sick at Boca Chica last time most likely from the Sancocho I had early one morning after drinking all night. The damn thing tasted so good, its kind of a seafood combo hot soup served with white rice. Also the previous day I had the fresh caught squid, octopus etc the guys sell on the beach with salsa on the side, dunno what got me. There are no hospitals in Boca Chica except for the welfare one which you have to be at 7am or earlier to pick a number and wait all day. I heard the numbers are all gone by 7am. Or you can head to the Capital for a private hospital.