Sosua

Charamicos

Cabarete

Every morning before you eat or drink anything, take a shot of Pepto Bismol: it works. Drink only the bottled water as well. Avoid eating right on the beach because the sun is so strong that it puts the food off quickly. The strong sun and mixed drinks with a coconut base the first day or so there makes for a bad combination. Why spoil your holiday??

I have never had any problem with malaria but am asked about it all the time. I do recommend that you take OFF with DEET with you and use it at sundown. The tiny mosquitoes bite like crap. Spray under your bed and on the balcony if you sit out at night. Sand fleas are kept away as well by OFF. If you have not taken it with you, it is available in the local Supermarcado for about the same price as in Canada or the USA.

If you do acquire a health problem you can go to almost any Pharmacy and have drugs dispensed by the Pharmacist. Medicines such as antibiotics can be bought over the counter without a problem. Inhalers left at home can also be replaced without a problem. 500 MG of antibiotics [AMOXIDAL] 16 tablets cost $277.60 pesos or about $10.00 CDN. Telephone number for the Charamicos pharmacy is 809-571-2303. Another good pharmacy is the one across from P.J.'s in Sosua. Lots of Pharmacies are in Cabarete.

Driving in the DR is not like driving at home. Drivers in the DR, first of all drink and drive. It is a cultural thing to have a bottle of beer in a paper bag or a small bottle of rum in the car with you. Little attention is paid to passing lanes so that you may have 2 cars bearing down on you at the same time on a solid line. There may be cows on the road as well. There are cars on the road which would make you wonder how they run. There are too many high powered cars on the road with too many over-loaded and totally decrepit cars. Motor bikes are always a hazard as they weave in and out of the traffic. Somebody always wants to pass you so keep a look out in your rear view mirror. Gasoline was 175 pesos for one  gallon, or about $6.00 CDN in March of 2008. There are too many accidents on the road , so be careful.  Driving in Cabarete at night is especially dangerous as parking is permitted on both sides of the main street. Remember that the bigger vehicle always has the right-of-way. At night when the police go home , most Dominicans drive through the red lights in PTE PLA or Sosua or Cabarete, just as if the lights are green so look both ways.

Most all-inclusive hotels try to keep their clients in their hotels, often making suggestions that it is not safe outside the hotels . . . nothing could be further from the truth. Sosua Beach is patrolled regularly by the Tourist Police as is the Town of Sosua. The main police station is right on the main highway should you need the police for any matter. There is a police station in Cabarete as well  out past the new Casino. The Sosua beach closes about 5 PM whereas the Cabarete beach comes alive at night. Don’t go home without a meal on the Cabarete beach at night.

The Holy Week long weekend ended with at least 28 persons reported dead in tragic accidents, according to the Emergency Operations Center (COE). Holy Week is the peak domestic vacation time in the DR. This is a significant decrease in holiday fatalities over previous years. Last year there were 37 reported deaths. According to reports in all of the newspapers, about 80% of the injuries were alcohol-related. There were 13 reported traffic deaths, six drownings and four persons hit by vehicles. Between Thursday and Sunday, 220 traffic accidents were reported, according to Luis Luna Paulino, the director for the National Emergency Commission (CNE). These accidents involved 148 motorcycles and 72 cars and trucks. In only one accident, which occurred in Samana, 23 were injured, although there were no fatalities. Major urban hospitals such as the Dario Contreras in Santo Domingo reported that most of their emergency work was alcohol-related with many cases of young persons being intoxicated. As the hundreds of thousands of persons returned to the deserted streets of the big cities, the Civil Defense and AMET forces imposed strict behavior on the highways. The Duarte, Sanchez and Las Americas highways were heavily patrolled and AMET and Police units enforced strict 80 kilometer per hour speed limits by having two and three patrol cars blocking the highway, forming kilometer long blocks of vehicles and leading the way into the capital at reduced speeds.

Once more the issue of children giving birth to children is in the headlines. Public Health Minister Bautista Rojas Gomez has denounced the situation as "critical". As an indicator of the escalating problem, he mentioned that over the past three months, 325 minors, ages 12 to 17, have given birth in the public hospitals of just two, small, provinces, Barahona and Bonao. According to Rojas Gomez, these underage births are 23% of the total births in the country during that period. On the positive side, in Bonao, Dr. Riru Hodai told the Listin Diario that the program that attends adolescents in the local schools has brought about a 35% decrease in teen pregnancies and no teen deaths during birthing.