For those wanting to know what is going on in Barahona,
Ecos del Sur
Barahona is a very friendly, laid back place with a pretty active nightlife, concentrated along the Malec?n and the Parque Central about six blocks from the port. Nightlife consists of merengue and presidente in partially open air places or utterly deafening merengue in some what fancier night clubs, like the Atlante.
There are crumbling, roofless buildings with SE VENDE signs on them three blocks from the Parque Central, and public transportation is almost entirely by motoconcho. The people are very friendly and prices are lower than in most of the rest of the DR. There is an international airport that has no scheduled flights, and an extensive fleet of guaguas to all the surrounding towns leaving from the city market area. Dominican food in restaurants is very good, but there is only one pizzeria that has adequate pizza. the best place to eat is the Cafe Melo, on Anacaona Street. It is the only restaurant that features no music. The food is great and reasonably priced. They even serve passable French toast.
Barahona is built on an incline, swooping down to the sea. There seems to always be a breeze. The most obvious landmark is the towering smokestack of the sugar mill and El Cayo, a peninsula that extends in front of the harbor, The beach facing the city is basic, but the water is warm and a great place for a swim, as is the beach facing it on the mainland. The beach facing the Caribbean is littered with an unimaginable number of bottles and debris, knee deep at least. Ecos del Sur says that a company is going to start recycling these soon.
The very best beach is on the Paraiso road (route 44 to Pedernales) at San Rafael. Several freshwater ponds run down to the ocean. There are retaurants with traditional fare. The beach at Los Patos, a little further west, is similar ans also nice. The road itself has beautiful views of the Caribbean.
Weekends the Malecon is a great place to watch everyone cruise by on their pasolas, motoconchos, jeeptas and all sorts of other vehicles. It is sort of like the Dominican version of American Graffiti.
There are two large buses: Caribetours and Simchomiba. The former has the best buses, with bathrooms and goes straight through. The latter makes a stop at the Chinese-operated truckstop in Cruce de Ocoa, and takes about 45 minutes longer. There are also guaguas, that stop constantly to load and unload passengers. The price is almost the same, give or take 50 pesos.