CASA
MARINA BEACH & RESORT- SOSUA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
The
north shore of the Dominican Republic is beautiful to explore. High hillsides
overlooking pristine, coconut palm-lined beaches below offer breathtaking
vistas. I booked in at the Casa Marina Reef Resort, searching for scenes for
the MISSION OF VENGEANCE spy thriller. It is an all-Inclusive resort
located 10 minutes from the Puerto Plata International Airport and 25 minutes
from Puerto Plata. It’s a family-oriented resort that sets in the town of Sosúa
and has a semi-private beach with 500 meters of beach front.
The rooms are clean and comfortable, the food at the buffet
always offered a wide range of choices, with lots of fresh fruits and desserts.
The pool was great and the oceanside jacuzzies were amazing. They are nestled
into the rocks and you can sit in the warm water with cold ocean spray hitting,
a totally invigorating experience.
I talked
to the bartender and many locals at its Tiki Bar, a neat, thatched roof outside
pub that overlooks the ocean. I leaned much about the local customs and
lifestyle practices to embed in the novel. Their description of the street
vendor culture in Sosua was fascinating.
Make
sure you explore downtown Sosua, and I highly recommend some of the restaurants
that are a short walk away from the Casa Marina Reef Resort, like Baileys
Restaurant (0.2 mi), Bologna Ristorante Pizzeria (0.2 mi), and Margot
Restaurant (0.2 mi). The Waterfront Restaurant is my favorite and a few scenes
in the MISSION OF VENGEANCE take place there. It’s a casual place and I
recommend sitting at a back patio table, to view Mount Isabel de Torres rising
from the gin-colored waters in the distance. Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster met
his contacts there in the novel, and ordered a whole grilled lobster, shrimp,
and Chilean sea bass meal. Well, they do sere it and I devoured it… to die for!
No need to hire a cab to get to the downtown, a local will be more than happy
to pick you up in their scooter and cart you anywhere you like, for a small
fee. Hint: Check out Paradise Island.
Back
at the Case Marina Beach & Resort, I enjoyed their “Banana Mama” cocktail.
Pretty potent, I drank two and felt like I took a couple stomach relaxers. Don’t
drive anywhere after downing them!
I
walked down some stairs to a path leading to the beach. You’ll enjoy it and an
umbrella only costs $5 for all day, in case of rain. A nice, private beach,
very clean and clear water, a very good place to relax and chill. It’s also fun
watching the massive waves hitting the rocks nearby, sending cold spray into
the warm jacuzzies. The sunsets rival those in Key West, Florida. There couldn’t
be a better location for a resort in all of Sosua.
In the
evening, their theatre opens for free shows, which are professionally done and are
absolutely impressive! The animation staff keeps you entertained both during
the day, but their theatre shows every night are not to be missed. You’ll enjoy
Luz, who dances with the kids every night; Jimmy, an amazing dancer who loves
what he does; and Amaury Chihuahua, with his sense of humor.
Don’t let
the MISSION OF VENGEANCE spy thriller scare you away from the Casa Marina Beach
Resort. Yes, an American family was murdered there, and CIA Spymaster Corey
Pearson hunts the killers down. But it only happens in fictional spy thrillers!
Here’s a few snippets from the novel:
Episode
I: Terror in paradise
Sousa,
Dominican Republic
John Celik was in seventh heaven. He just
got back from windsurfing off the shores of Cabarete, known as the windsurfing
capital of the world. Now, he would spend the rest of the day with his wife and
two children where they stayed at the Casa Marina Beach
& Reef Resort in Sosua.
They strolled through manicured grounds
past a thatched-roof beach bar and along a stone path under the shade of
coconut palms. The waves of the Atlantic Ocean pounded the rocky shoreline and
the palm forest ended at the sunny Marina Beach where they planned to spend the
rest of the day swimming. The red flag warning was up on the beach, meaning to
not go in the water. Tourists who disobeyed the warning had drowned.
The couple grabbed two Bahama Mamas off
the beach bar, stepped down the stone steps with the kids and waded into one of
three large jacuzzies nestled in large rocks that overlooked the ocean. The
strong Atlantic waters rose gently offshore before transforming into monstrous
curling breakers that crashed into the boulders below, sending a cold ocean
spray into the warm jacuzzi. It was refreshing.
A half hour later, they drove their rental
car to downtown Sousa to shop among the street vendors.
******************************
A man
peddled an ice cream cart through the traffic, tapping on car windows, holding
up popsicles for the drivers to see. John motioned him over and bought his
family a round of skim ice and popsicles to beat the heat. As they enjoyed the
cold refreshments under the shade of palm trees that lined the back street they
were on, a vendor stopped and showed John a plywood board with fancy men’s
jewelry pinned on it. He was about to wave him off but noticed a most unusual
tie clasp, a large blue and green rhinestone parrot set in silver. He bought
it.
Later that evening, John
lay in bed with his wife in their room at the Casa Marina Beach & Reef
Resort. Their eight-year-old daughter and twelve-year-old son slept
soundly. He picked up the tie clasp off the lamp table and examined it. A
faint, thin line encircled the parrot’s body, which at first glance looked
seamless. He gently pulled, and it came apart. Inside was a computer flash
drive!
John jumped out of bed and inserted it
into his laptop. A slight whirring sound lasted for a full half minute,
indicating there was a large amount of info downloading. His screen lit up in a
pale blue and pages of useless figures and nondescript forms appeared. Someone
had encrypted the data.
He looked over at his wife, for she was an
IT in security at Microsoft HQ in Seattle, Washington where they lived. She was
sound asleep. It had been a fun-filled, but exhausting day. He decided to wait
until morning to show it to her.
It was 11 a.m. the next morning. No “Do Not Disturb!” sign hung on the
door, so the maid gently knocked and entered, then screamed in horror. A man
and woman were gagged and strapped to chairs with duct tape. Two children were
tied together in their bed. All were shot through the head. End of novel snippet.
I hope
I didn’t scare you away from visiting this marvelous place! Check out this video: Casa Marina Beach &
Reef Resort.
Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), enjoys writing about the U.S. Intelligence Community, and relishes traveling to the Florida Keys and Key West, the Bahamas and Caribbean. He combines both passions in his Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster series. Check out his latest spy thriller: MISSION OF VENGEANCE.
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