Punta Cana shopping
Choco Museum: With locations in Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Nicaragua and Guatemala, the Choco Chocolate Museum also chose Punta Cana because of the Dominican Republic's premium quality cacao. The country's tropical climate lends itself to the cultivation of the prized cacao tree brought by Spanish conquistadors, from Central America, some 500 years ago. See and taste how this tropical fruit is transformed from a bitter bean into the sinful chocolaty treats we love to enjoy.
El Cibao Coffee: The Dominican Republic's Cibao Region is the country's most fertile province; and the area's Central Mountain Range (the highest in the Caribbean) creates perfect micro-climates for a plethora of natural produce, namely, Coffee. Rich and robust, coffee from the Dominican highlands is esteemed world-round for its taste and aroma. Learn about the Coffee production process from planting the seeds, to harvesting the beans, to the final product in your Coffee mug.
Don Lucas Cigar Factory: Punta Cana's only true cigar factory is Mundo Autentico's flagship cigar brand. Don Lucas was founded in Punta Cana in 1992 and has quickly become one of the country's most sought after tobaccos. You'll see the entire cigar rolling process and the high standards utilized for each and every hand rolled cigar they produce. Under the Don Lucas brand there are several cigar labels depending on your taste for a light, medium or strong smoke.
La Puntilla and Piergiorgio Hotel, Sosua, Puerto Plata Province, Dominican Republic
La Puntilla and Piergiorgio Palace Hotel, Sosua, Puerto Plata Province, Dominican Republic
Sosua is a beach tourist town on the north coast (aka. Silver Coast or Amber Coast) of the Dominican Republic. Sosua is located in the province of Puerto Plata. It is about 15 to 20 minutes' drive east of the Gregorio Luperon International Airport (aka. Puerto Plata Airport). Cabarete, which has been called the windsurfing capital of the world, is another tourist enclave. East of Cabarete is Rio San Juan, a small town in Maria Trinidad Sanchez Province. The big all-inclusive hotel complex of Playa Dorada is west of the airport. The medium-sized city of Puerto Plata is west of Playa Dorada. It's the biggest city and the major port on the north coast of the Dominican Republic.
Sosua has 2 main beaches (there may be a 3rd, I'm not sure)- Playa Sosua (Sosua Beach) and Playa Alicia (Alicia Beach). Sosua Beach is the main beach, and has lots of people, vendors, and shacks selling food and tourist goods. The water is calm because it's located in the sheltered, horseshoe-shaped Sosua Bay. The bay is also protected by an offshore coral reefs, which attract fish and divers. Playa Alicia is quieter with fewer people..
Sosua is divided between 2 neighbourhoods, El Batey in the east and Los Charamicos in the west. The 2 areas are divided by Sosua Beach. El Batey is dominated by tourists and expats, with lots of small hotels, international restaurants and bars, while Los Charamicos is dominated by local Dominicans, with small grocery stores and other businesses.
What's now Sosua used to be non-descript rural land. There was a military base nearby at some time in the 19th or early 20th century. The United Fruit Company bought up the land in the early 20th century to establish a banana plantation. But they found the soil to be too rocky and the water supply unreliable (Sosua seems to suffer from water shortages at some times and floods at other times). So the Fruit Company soon abandoned its attempts to set up a banana plantation there, but held on to the land. For a while the land was mostly unused, except for some cattle grazing there. Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo (1891-1961) bought land there.
In the 1938 Evian Conference in France, world powers met to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees trying to escape prosecution by Nazi Germany. Before settling on mass killing, Hitler and the Nazis considered the idea of expelling all the Jews. But most powers didn't want to accept large numbers of Jewish refugees. Trujillo, however, agreed to accept some of the refugees. The European Jewish refugees who came to the Dominican Republic settled in El Batey, Sosua. The town's synagogue has a small museum commemorating the Jewish immigrants.
In the late 1970s, the Dominican Republic began to develop its tourist industy, emulating the success of other Caribbean countries. The north coast of the country, around Puerto Plata, was the 1st major centre of tourist development in the country. Sosua, with its sheltered beach, was developed into a tourist centre in the 1980s, attracting European, Canadian, and, later, American, visitors. Punta Cana and Bavaro, on the formerly isolated east coast of the Dominican Republic, was developed into a major tourist area later on.
La Puntilla in Sosua is a quiet street, lined with luxurious-looking homes, villas, buildings, and hotels, and lots of tropical vegetation and flowers. The Piergiorgio Palace Hotel, which is in a white building that looks like a very big old colonial villa, is located at the end of La Puntilla. I thought this road would take me to the beach. But La Puntilla ends in a cliff overlooking the sea. To get to the beach you need to take a different road.
Tags: Sosua, Puerto Plata Province, Dominican Republic, El Batey, Los Charamicos, Piergiorgio Palace Hotel, La Puntilla, Caribbean, West Indies, North Coast, Amber Coast, Silver Coast, Puerto Plata, Cabarete, Gregorio Luperon International Airport, Carretera 5, Highway 5, DR, Dominican, tourist, tourism, vacation, tropics, tropical