Monday, April 5, 2021

The Casa Marina Beach & Resort in Sosua, Dominican Republic: from the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster series.

 


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 SosĂșa 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.

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    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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