The market is a must see in the DR. I was there in July of 2010 and again in 2011. Stay at El Brisol. The owner (Tomas) used to live and run a bodega in Brooklyn and he and his wife are very nice people and run a clean, safe hotel. The prices are ridiculously cheap something like $15 a night w/o AC and $20 with it. The food is good in there little restaurant. The best thing is the room I was in looked right at the river and you are only a couple blocks from the old crossing. You can't get any closer. I got up around 4:30 am an went for a walk/run and hung around the two crossing watching some very strange behavior. I posted about it before. Went back and took a shower, ate breakfast and went back to complete chaos which is completely organized. It is very difficult to figure out who is doing what for what reason. You can go hang out in Quanamenthe for a while and check out the Haitian side. Very interesting to see the difference between the two countries. It you learn a dozen or so creyol or French phrases like sak pase you tend to get by. I was called blanc or gason while I was there. I usually found someone in the group who spoke Spanish due to being close to the border and they became the translator for the moment. The problem was a similar type hotel room on the Haitian side was around $80 due to missionaries and UN troops. I am not sure if is that way still. If you spend the night, you will have to deal with getting back over without getting a visa (because of market day) which may or may not be a problem depending on who happens to be there. Cap Haitian is something I need to do on my next trip.