Tuesday 7 May, Dom Rep day 14: Kiteboarding to my heart’s content, and extend our stay for more kiting.
Great sleep in our hotel suite. Not bad for just $65. Outside the wind is light, but should come up mid-morning. We set off in search for breakfast and end up at a very smart, but slightly funky, coffee shop, Vagamundo, which also does fancy dishes. For instance I had poached eggs on toast with avocado. Interesting combinations like that. But their coffee was devine, so Oana was very happy 🙂 We then visit a small surf shop on Cabarete beach but it doesn’t have much to see.
Back at the hotel by 10am, it’s out with the kiting gear. The wind is perfect for my 12m kite and only a couple of people out on the water so far. Once out there I remember why Cabarete is a world class kiting spot. Predictable wind and a great surf with dead flat water between the breaking waves. This means you can gybe on the crest of a breaking wave then surf all along its face. Wonderful. I even managed to land some jumps on my normally bad tack!
But by 2pm the wind is over 20knts and the kite is getting dangerous, even though I have it fully de-powered. So I come in before any mishaps!
After washing and packing the gear away, we feel sad we have to leave this place. And soon after that we decide to stay for one more night so that I can kite again tomorrow morning.
We spend some time relaxing by the pool and watching the kite surfers performing some spectacular jumps, while we get sand blasted!
And also can’t stop noticing security guards doing rounds patrolling the property. Well, keeping an eye is not a bad thing. But they wear a pistol and a knife. It is bugging us (if not downright worrying) to see them armed like that. This is a very low key hotel, same as most of the other hotels on this beach. Is it really necessary to wear guns? Hm, that gets us thinking. Maybe there is a security services mafia, and all venues need to hire such services whether they want/need it or not. Or maybe they do have some serious security issues which don’t get reported. So far, we only read about petty theft. Lots of it.
Yesterday when we browsed through the supermarket in town, we noticed they have freshly baked bread. As in proper bread, whole-wheat with seeds and crunchy crust, not the usual soft and sweet Caribbean white bread. And naturally grown tomatoes. So when we debate what we should have for lunch, we both think fresh bread, tomatoes and cheese. And omg it was so delicious! The best thing we eat in a long time! I guess the cruising life makes us crave for the little things we miss from home. And on that note, if there was three layers Zeva toilet paper, Oana says she would be in heaven 🙂 Indeed, an unusual list of the things we do miss…
After lunch we continue to sit next to the beach and watch the others kiting while we get sand-blasted. There are some damned good guys out there. One jumped and did 5 x 360 spins before landing perfectly. I guess I’m just too old to learn tricks like that now. (Old dog, new tricks?).
While watching, Oana builds up her suppressed enthusiasm to take some kiting lessons. Especially after seeing some very cool girls out there. She tried once before in Dubai (with me as instructor) but that didn’t go well. So off she trots to the various schools on the beach asking for pricing and details. It would be brilliant if she gets brave enough to try again. She can do anything once she puts her mind to it. Like when she learned to scuba dive even though she could hardly swim and had a fear of water! Hmmm, but what if she learns to kitesurf and gets better than me?!
In the evening we drive to Sosua town, where we were moored off two nights ago, but didn’t go ashore. It’s supposed to be a lively place… and we are about to find out what kind of lively!
As we drive into town, sure enough there are some bars and restaurants, but all seem very local. But then we get onto one street that is very busy. There are lots of local girls dressed in what I would say was the usual for Caribbean locals (tight, short and very cut-out dresses that don’t leave much to the imagination). Oana mutters something about them looking like sluts, but I say no, they are just young girls in their “get noticed” phase of life 🙂
After another round of the one-way system we park and take a walk. We do see some nice bars and some have expat tourists in, but most seem to be guys on their own, no women. Or if they are with a woman, she is a very young local.
As we walk down the lively street I realize Oana was 100% correct: they are all prostitutes, hundreds of them! So that’s why the only tourists here are single men. How very odd. However, very un-Dominican. Why this town? Needless to say, we decide not to stop anywhere and get out of here!
Soon we are on our way back to Cabarete, where we hope tonight is livelier than last night. But it’s not. 10pm and it’s completely dead except a couple of bars on the beach with just one or two people in them. Hardly what we call atmosphere. So it’s back to our hotel for a cheap night in!
But before we head to bed we Google “the scene” in Sosua and sure enough it’s a big prostitution town and has been for years. We also learn that while prostitution is legal here, pimping and running a brothel is not legal. Also, the majority of the girls are from neighbouring Haiti. Clearly the police are not doing anything about it, because there was a lot of police about.
Anyway, that was our interesting discovery for the day. And likely, same as most other tourists, we won’t be visiting Sosua again anytime soon!
