www.hotelcasavaleria.com

The Hotel Valeria is another option that is better then the New Garden. It is nestled in between the New Garden and the Terra Linda. The Valeria is better then the New Garden, but lesser then the Terra Linda in terms of room quality.

Some mongers view this hotel as unfriendly to chicas. The policy at the Valeria is that no female guest is to be unescorted meaning that the chicas cannot enter or leave alone...they cant hang down at the pool alone. You have to be with her at all times. They do this to protect you. In this town, it is fairly common for the ladies to sneak out the door with your stuff. They want to make sure no trouble happens at the Valeria during your stay.

I hate to break this news to you, but it is rather common in ANY town for a hooker to want to walk out with your stuff!

LM.

I could be completely wrong here, but Sosua sounds like it has mostly the types of rough-looking faveladas that frequented Help towards its demise. If those girls are used to the NYC Snoop-Dog wannabees with their bling-bling then all they have to do is lay low for a few days and they will never see the guy again.

My experience in Rio is that girls from termas, agencies and what I call "semi-pros"(really going to school and/or have a real job) have never ripped me off in the countless trips visited. I don't wear any jewelry, but I do usually have an iPod laying around, headphones, a few bill notes, and my 2 phones and their chargers. I never had any personal belongings stolen from me in Rio from girls who came to my place.


In fact, the last time I was ripped off by a whore was some Cuban chic in Havana who stole my cologne many years ago. The girl was fairly low-class that I picked off the Malecon, but I would have given it to her had she just asked me.

I hear stories from Rio apartment owners who tell me that guys bring back putas that steal "AA" batteries out of the remote, or the entire remote itself, earbuds from headphones, gilette razors, etc. Think about how ridiculously petty that is -- but then I see some of riff-raff some of those guys walk down the street with and can understand.

Sosua is really not a rougher place, nor are there just Favela types. Since termas, and such - to my knowledge, do not exist, you are dealing mostly with freelancer. The same as at Help, or now at the Balcony Bar. In Rio you simply have more varied options outside Freelancers. Freelancer's generally will have a higher tendancy for light fingers....Now, I personally never had a problem in either DR or Rio for stuff being stolen either...but then, I always lock away anything that I am not willing to lose (If they want to steal the batteries from my TV remote, they can go ahead, my iphone is another story :-)

I just want to put another light on Sosua...and I have had experience within many different locations. Sosua is not any more dangerous then any other place - I actually felt much safer and relaxed there then in some other places.

Now, if you are wearing lots of bling and want to show off that you have money then you are asking for it anywhere....that is just not using common sense. I have seen plenty of stuff being stolen in Rio (i.e. a handbag being grabbed on Ipanema beach, camera's being stolen in Lapa, guys running by and stealing someone cell phone while he/she is talking on it, etc, etc)....Sosua is a tiny city compared to Rio, and as such much less happens there.

As far as the girls being rough-looking faveladas types, that is not true either...just keep in mind that the island of Hispaniola is predominately black. DR is close to Haiti - which as you know has some huge poverty problems, and there really is no other delicate way to put this - there are simply more poor black people then white people in Sosua. Unlike Rio, where you have a mix of almost all colors - from Asian, white, black, and indigenous (i.e from the North of Brazil), and then a mix of all of the above in the Pay for Play scene in Rio, in Sosua it is more blacks & white/black mixes. It is poor...in general, hence probably the appearance of favela types. I have heard that the girls are a little different in Santo Domingo, but I have never been there so can't share that for sure.

Safety wise it is just fine.....Like I have described it in other posts - It has the feeling of a super laid back Caribbean island with a latin flavor. I'll be back for a 3rd time soon.....