Frank Cabrera, the assistant secretary for tourism in Puerto Plata, has announced that over the next few days several groups of toilets will be installed between the beach shops/restaurants/bars along the town's coast road.

Caseta at the Malecón

According to 'El Nueva Norte' various counterfeit 200 and 500-peso notes have been found in colmados (small neighbourhood supermarkets), book stores, petrol stations and at taxi companies. The reporter for El Nueva Norte, Milton Camacho, asked the companies where these counterfeit notes came from, and was told that they originated from the driver of a black jeepeta car. The man uses these bills to purchase food, drink, cigarettes or petrol. Shop owners are having a difficult time lately as it is, with food and petrol prices rising constantly, and now they also have to suffer further losses from counterfeit money. The local police, as well as shopkeepers and taxi drivers, are on the lookout for a dark-coloured jeepeta.

On Friday evening, 17 October, the entirely renovated disco Club X, reopened its door in Sosúa. The disco is located opposite the Merengue Club. The opening night was turned into a spectacular affair by a sensational performance by the well-known merengue group Omega. A lorry was parked in front of the doors and was used as a basis for a light show. Huge lamps sent the light high into the sky like laser canons. But this also highlighted the fact that this was a very different evening. Entrance charge at the cash desk was 700 pesos.

Omega

According to the Spanish-language webblog 'Sosúa online' the committee of the beach-vendors association (la Asociación de Vendedores de Figuras Artesanales en la playa Sosúa), via spokesperson Andrés Batista, has announced that the beach will now be open during the evenings. The chairman, who also owns a restaurant near the entrance from Charamicos, says that the beach now has sufficient lighting and that the tourist police agents (Politur) will guarantee the safety of tourists.
Your Sosúa-News journalist spoke to various owners of beach bars, and many were not enthusiastic about the plan. The power is often cut off between 7-10pm, which means that the beach seems darker, which might make tourists feel less safe. There is often no water for flushing the toilets and the washing up cannot be done.

Columbus 'discovered' America on 12 October 1492. People now think that these were the Bahamas, or San Salvador, or Samana, or... but that's not so important. They are certain that the Indian population of the Caribbean islands almost completely disappeared in 100 years due to battles, infections and diseases brought to the islands by the Spanish, such as yellow fever, influenza, mumps and measles. The Indians were not very suitable as slave labour for the sugar cane plantations, so black slaves were imported from Africa to do this kind of work. The Spanish soon mixed with the Indian populations and with their black slaves. This led to as new type of race in the Dominican Republic. They now say: 'We are not Spanish, not Indian or African, but we are Dominican (Dominicano Soy)!'

The National Police corps in Sosúa now has a new commander - Major Mario Guzmán, who has taken over from the (now transferred) Colonel López.

Majoor Mario Guzmán

Pedro Clisante to become boulevard

Two months a new bar/colmado (small supermarket) opened its door in Sosúa's main street (Pedro Clisante). The bar is located directly next door to Fat Herman's bar and cigar store. Now it's nothing new for a bar to open in the Pedro Clisante or, more often, to close down. But the interesting thing about this bar is that the Presidente beer only costs 50 pesos (for a small bottle) and 80 pesos (large bottle).

El Flow