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02:00 AM Jul, 07, 2001
PUERTO PLATA, Dominican Republic -- A slow tourist season has hurt the T-shirt
and coconut milk vendors in this scenic beach town, but it hasn't put a dent in the body business.
Evidence of the sex trade is everywhere as men in shorts and sandals duck into
rent-by-the-hour "love motels" with Dominican women in bright dresses.
"There is always a demand for sex," said one Dominican prostitute as she lounged at one of the town's waterfront bars. "Men will always pay for it, especially in here ... where they can get anything they want at a discount."
Indeed, the Dominican Republic is one of the biggest sex tourism destinations in the world, thanks in part to Internet sites that extol the country as a "single man's paradise."
When Christopher Columbus sailed into the bay here in 1493, the sun's reflection on the ocean made the water dazzle like silver coins, so he called it Port Silver. Nowadays, Puerto Plata still dazzles millions of vacationers looking for turquoise reefs and palm-strewn white sand beaches.
But this sunny vacation mecca has a dark side: The area's thriving commercial
sex industry has given it one of the highest HIV rates of any region in the
country, according to the World Bank.
The tourism boom didn't hit this island nation until the 1990s, when resorts
gobbled up miles of virgin beachfront property. Today, men looking for local
action can choose from customized love vacations that include room, board, 20
alcohol drinks a day and the company of one or more local women.
That's hardly specific to the Dominican Republic. Plug "adult travel" into a
search engine and you'll find dozens of membership-based sites where men around the world swap information on prostitutes, brothels and the price of oral sex in Brazil or Cuba.
The pricing schemes vary, but the content is the same. It's a war of
sex-oriented bragging: Members send in their R-rated travel reports in which
they boast about the number of women they've "nailed," including naked
photographs of their conquests. They share tips and warnings, such as this post from a tourist who visited Boca Chica, a beachside town in southern Dominican Republic:
"If you go there, beware of a girl named Caroline. Bad, bad news: underage,
pregnant and on drugs...."
At TSM, one of the busier destinations, a man describing himself as a retired
Canadian steel worker now living in Puerto Plata wrote: "(I) love the Latin
lifestyle: one wife and as many girlfriends as you can handle.... I would like
to pass on my report on these bars in the Puerto Plata area with photos of my
favorite girls that work in them."
Another popular site, the World Sex Archives, advertises discussion boards where
"newbies learn from the experienced pros as to where they too can get
18-year-old girls for less than the price of a good steak."
Story continued on Page 2 »
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