Christmas in Sosúa: Lovely Beaches and Great Restaurants

When my parents told me they had chosen Sosúa as their destination in the Dominican Republic, I wasn’t sure they had made the best decision. For me, Sosúa was most famous for its dubious fame as a sex tourism hot spot. I soon, however, learned that Sosúa is actually a great place for a family vacation.

First of all, unless you go out to bars at night, you barely notice the prostitution. For me, with three kids sure to wake up at the crack of dawn, hanging out until late at the bars was not a viable option. So, I never went. As I did not engage in the night time revelry, I did not experience any of the problems that one might think are associated with a Caribbean sex tourism destination.

Instead, we spent our days on Sosúa’s lovely beaches and our nights at its great restaurants. We stayed at an apartment hotel near the center of town called Perla de Sosúa. This was a great option for us, as the apartment hotel had two bedrooms, a dining room, and a kitchen. That way, we could prepare food and relax as if we were at home when we were not inclined to leave the hotel. It also had a small swimming pool, which the girls used to cool off in when we weren’t at the beach.

There are two beaches in Sosúa – Playa Alicia and Playa Sosúa. Playa Alicia is smaller, with a lovely rock cliff at one end. It does not have much natural shade, but has the advantage of having less people and fewer vendors asking you to purchase things than Playa Sosúa. Playa Alicia is a gorgeous yellow-sand beach with a quite strong surf. The kids had a ball getting knocked over by the waves.

Playa Sosúa is at least twice as long as Playa Alicia, and is very well-shaded. There is natural vegetation all along the beach. Nearly all of the sand is taken up by lawn chairs which you can rent. Or, you can park yourself between them for free on the few pieces of open sand. There are over 150 stalls along the beach. When we were there, that meant there were more vendors than beachgoers. Despite that, the vendors were not particularly aggressive, and allowed us to chill on the beach once it became apparent that we did not plan to purchase anything.

After a day relaxing on the beach, there are plenty of good dining options in Sosúa. The two best restaurants we went to were Bailey’s and Orchidee. We had Christmas dinner at Bailey’s. I had a fabulous steak dish. I was impressed with the quality of the meat and the richness of the sauces. Everyone enjoyed their meals, and the girls’ pizza was unusually good. Also, for a nice restaurant, it is remarkably kid-friendly. There is a metal playground right next to the dining room. Orchidee is a bit less expensive, and the food is also good. It is much smaller than Bailey’s and has a nice homey feel to it. There, I had a gyro, which was reasonably tasty, although I definitely was disappointed that it didn’t come with pita bread. My mother said her breaded fish platter was excellent.

Aside from eating and going to the beach, we didn’t do much else in Sosúa; it was a beach vacation, after all. We did walk around town a bit, and the vendors can be somewhat insistent. It is hard to blame then when there are so many shops and so few tourists. I did notice that nearly all of the vendors are Haitian. That made negotiating with them a bit complicated, as they tended to speak English better than Spanish, and my first reaction is always to speak in the local language. However, they soon came to recognize me, and stopped asking me to buy trinkets or to braid my hair when they realized that I kept saying “no.”

In sum, we had a lovely winter holiday in Sosúa, and I am glad we went there instead of one of the expensive all-inclusive resorts, which are the only option in many parts of the island.

A lovely day at the beach in Boca Chica

After nearly three weeks in the Dominican Republic, we finally made it to the beach! The beach at Boca Chica is just a 45 minute bus ride from Duarte, in central Santo Domingo. Once we were ready to go, we hailed a cab in front of our house that took us to the bus station. The cab driver offered to take us all the way to Boca Chica for 1,000 pesos (US$28), but we declined the offer. Instead, we boarded an air-conditioned gua-gua (bus) that charges 60 pesos (US$2) a person, and had a nice, cool, fast ride to Boca Chica.

The bus let us off at a small plaza, and we walked about two short blocks to get to the beach. The beach at Boca Chica is reasonably nice. We went on a Monday, so it was not crowded. It is a white sand beach dotted with palm trees. The transparent water is warm and sufficiently clean. There are no waves, and the water is shallow, making it a great beach for children or for swimming. On one side of the beach, an industrial port or factory is in sight, making the beach less idyllic than it could be. In all though, it is a nice beach – much better than many.

There are quite a few vendors on the beach, selling coconuts, sunglasses, necklaces, water toys, boat rides, and sno-cones, or offering corn-rows or massages. However, the vendors are not persistent or aggressive, so I didn’t mind. There seemed to be a fairly even split between Haitian and Dominican vendors on the beach. At one point, two Dominican vendors stood near me and complained about a Haitian vendor. I am not sure what was the basis of the complaint, but the Dominican vendor pointed out that he was in his country.

Being in Boca Chica reminded me of Steven Gregory’s compelling ethnography of the town – Devil in the Mirror. I read the book a couple of years ago, so I don’t remember many of the details, but I did recall him mentioning the vendors and the prostitutes. Of course, I could not tell which of the women or men on the beach were prostitutes. However, I can say that there was a preponderance of older European men on the beach and a few of them had much younger, non-European women with them. Most of the men seemed to be Italian or French.

We had a delicious, cheap lunch in Boca Chica. We left the beach, as it had begun to drizzle around 2pm. We ordered fresh, deep-fried fish and green plantains from a roadside stand for Nando and I. For the kids, we got chicken, rice, and beans. It was a great deal – US$5.00 for the fish, and US$2.50 for the chicken plates. When I ordered the chicken, the owner of the small restaurant looked at me and said “Dominican food?” as if she were surprised we would eat at her place. She was probably even more surprised when the girls cleaned their plates. My babies love rice, beans, and chicken – it’s what they get at home most days anyway.

The kids had a great time bathing in the warm water and playing in the sand. I spent most of my time in the water as well. At some points, when the sun hid behind the clouds, the sea was warmer than the air outside. The day we went was not particularly hot, and it even rained twice – brief showers. That was actually quite pleasant, as it was not so hot. However, around 4:30pm, I rinsed off in one of the public showers and got out of my wet bathing suit. Once dry, it was nice to sit on the breezy beach and admire the view of the palm trees, white sand, and Caribbean Sea.

The girls got out of the water not too long after, as it began to drizzle again. We boarded our bus back to Santo Domingo. On the road back, it began to downpour heavily. That made the ride take longer than usual. And, once back in the city, we found the streets inundated because of the heavy rains. Some streets were impassable – people looked at the water and strategized how to get across.

The bus let us off at Parque del Independencia, and we took a collective taxi back home. That was probably not the best idea, as the collective taxis are only marginally cheaper, and they never have air conditioning. With the streets flooded, the traffic was horrible, and it took about an hour to get home. Of course, it was hot inside the car as it was not moving, and there was no A/C.

Nevertheless, we made it home eventually, everyone tired and hungry from a long day at the beach. We definitely will be going again!