Transportation strike north coast

Anybody that is living in Puerto Plata please give us an update. Many of us need to travel from Sosua and Cabarete to P.P. and it would be nice to have a heads up. I can delay going there until Friday or Saturday but I am sure that there are many out there that need to go before.
This also sucks as parents are trying to get to P.P. to purchase school supplies, like myself.

pop

right now in pop it is very quiet, no problem getting around. things are supposed to gear up at 3 pm according to the word on the street right now.

This strike was planned at least 2 weeks ago so is not 'sudden'. See the date on this article as 30th. July.
Puerto Plata Digital

It is organised by the same groups who did the march from El Javillar to the Governor's Office and subsequently on to Playa Dorada on 28th. July - transportistas, combined Juntas de Vecinos committees, port workers (the ones still waiting for liquidacion pay 5 years after being laid off :ermm. That march was peaceful (although if you arrived at the main road intersection in a vehicle seconds before the first marchers, they tried to hurry you out of the way. I got surrounded but at NO time felt remotely threatened). The organisers of the strike have called for it to be peaceful also. The only thing I was a bit dubious about on 28th. July was the heavy, heavy police & military presence - almost as many of them as the marchers. The police were behaving ok on that occasion, but the Air Force guys out in front with weapons at the ready looked either like something out of central casting or a recruitment drive for teenagers.......their stance was unnecessarily menacing IMHO.

The original strike call was for 48 hours starting today Wednesday 6am. It will most likely get reduced to 24 hours. The idea was no transport & no commerce. As always with these things, businesses in tourist areas tend to open anyway. Most shops in PP are open but no-one is in them i.e. as said above, things are very quiet. People knew about this & did their shopping yesterday. The shops which are closed are most likely the ones which have closed permanently due to the economic situation - a number were closed yesterday, Tuesday, a non-strike day. There are various reports that public transport has received a 90% support rate for the strike, so there are very few conchos and publicos. I can't believe tourist taxis will come to a grinding halt, because they never do. Caribe & Metro Tours busses are operating normally, gas stations are open. Breadshops are the most likely to be closed because of their union affiliations. I have not heard that any highways or streets are being blocked - journeys should be easier because there is less traffic. tee, if you are not already in PP, the journey should be just fine on Thursday.

There are some extra police on the main roads & in some of the barrios calientes; strike organisers were very clear that this should be a peaceful strike but sometimes these things can get a bit heated later in the day. I just hope they don't send the Air Force lads down there because that could be seen as provocative, unless someone has already had a quiet word about non-menacing stances.............:cheeky:

Think Sunday or public holiday minus the traffic, because that is the nearest parallel, other than a couple of tyre burning incidents on 27 de Febrero last night, which were quickly dealt with, I'm told. There were a number of arrests last night. And check updated reports in these papers & blogs:
sacandomelao.com

Puerto Plata Digital

HUELGA EN PUERTO PLATA SE CUMPLE PARCIALMENTE

Paro 24 horas en PP afecta parcialmente transporte

Gremios dicen que paralizaron transporte p?blico en zona de norte dominicano

Aronis Polanco who writes the Sacandomelao blog took pictures around midday (thank you Aronis ).

Situaci?n de calma en Puerto Plata-----Paro x 24 horas 12/08/09

Never seen fewer conchistas oustside Tienda Jimenez! The parking lot in earlier pics is of La Sirena, quite a few cars there and obviously some conchistas working. You'll note Tropical was open but with the shutters partially down - this is normal on strike days, just in case anyone makes with the stones, they can protect the windows fairly rapidly.

it has been pretty quiet in POP so far but we closed farmacia earlier today, just in case...

We were in POP all afternoon until gone 5pm and nothing seemed out of the ordinary to us.

Also same reports in papers (for once! :cheeky

Puerto Plata Digital

What is with all of these strikes and protests?
Don't these people know how good they have got it?
Perhaps Pichardo and Nals should head on over there and enlighten them as they have enlightened and enriched us. :cheeky: