Day 9: Sosua

I woke up at 5:45AM!! The bus leaves in 15 minutes!! I crammed everything I had in my backpack and ran to where the bus was to pick me up! I made it in time, luckily!!

The guagua was a little minivan and I got a good seat in the back.  The ride was about 4 hours or so and we stopped along the way for a break where I drank a coffee and a cafeteria.

Lucky for me, the bus stopped really close to hotel Casa Marina where I was staying.  I arrived around 11am and had to wait until around 2pm to get my room.  Check out time was 1pm and check in time was 3pm.  They stored my bags and let me walk around so I got some lunch and took a swim in one of their pools while waiting.

View from my room.

The hotel is relatively nice.  It's an all-inclusive hotel. My first actually.  They have 4 pools, 3 bars and 4 restaurants.  The food is OK and nothing to write home about. Internet is not cheap.  I tried hijacking wirelss access in an neighboring hotel, but no luck.. The people are very pushy when it comes to selling excursions like snorkeling or scuba diving.  I didn't come to Sosua for that.  I came to the Dominican Republic to dance, experience the culture and do nothing.  I was in Sosua for the last part..



The Carrito waiting for passengers.



In the evening, I went to Cabarete, which is about a 10 or 15 minute drive.  I took what's called a Carrito.  it's a "shared" taxi.  It was very very strange to ride in it.  The car I was in was a small Toyota Corolla and by the time we were off to Cabarete, I was squished with 7 other strangers in the car!!! The ride costed 50 pesos.  I could have taken a regular taxi, but that would have costed me 10 times more!!!

Cabareta is famous in the Dominican for their strip of bars and restaurants lining the beach as far as the eye can see.  It was very lively when I arrived and I parked myself in a bar called LAX where they had internet access so I was able to catch up on emails and my blog!

I took the Carrito back home.. this time there was 7 strangers squished in with me :)