Unfortunately my father (the greatest man on earth) passed away so I wasn't over there for the best of reasons. I had to take care of some business and managed to get a little bit of pleasurable diversion as well. Here are some observations....
Santiago is more beautiful than ever. Urbanizations are everywhere. You have middle class developments like El Dorado to upscale ones like El Copal and Las Carmelitas (towards Licey). There is a misconception that the country is worse, deeper in debt, etc. The Dominicans who say the country goes to hell each day are the unemployed, lazy chopos who have no talent to contribute to society or the workforce and for ridiculous reasons refuse to work for wages consumerate with their skill (or lack of). No matter how poor or broke they claim to be, these chopos always have money for drinks and to party on an almost daily basis. They all have cellphones with a million friends.
With the exceptions of the high food costs (thank you DR-CAFTA!) and petroleum prices, things are great. The b@astards at Isla, Shell, and Texaco have a scheme where they dilute premium gasoline with water. You are not getting watch you paid for. I drive an SUV (8 cylinder) and I noticed it was burning much more than usual. My cousin told me the probable cause and even this surprised me. Can't do anything about it.
Politics and DR. I'm only 22 so I have a lot to learn. But atleast my father taught me that Politics is the opiate of the ridiculous and uneducated. On the streets these fools are fighting and killing themselves over who they want to elect to oversee the misappropriations of state funds and lead the country through four more years of god knows what. Leonel is a master at bullshi!tt, but atleast the Mulatto is investing in the country.
Girls, Girls, Girls, Girls. Everywhere. Even illiterate motoconchos get laid daily. It's incredible. Having a nice home, car and wardrobe and you will need to hire someone to schedule your nights because there are just so many to choose from.
Business wise, DR-CAFTA is no good. The family used to make good money making Jeans for numerous fashion house inserting zippers, buttons, etc. China's ridiculously cheap labor and the ridiculous tariffs has driven everyone from the Zona Franca. Call centers are basically the only option but it's an idiotic business and the only decent money comes from the PC business like HP and they usually outsource to India because they're all computer nerds. Santiago has no agriculture because there are no incentives and families are moving from the campo to the city enmasse. These people need to stay in the campo where they pay no bills and live off the land. They have no business in the city.
Choporeismo is still quite rampant in Santiago. Dumbyorks with their Yankee Caps and dressing like the blacks from the projects. They make me sick. I'm glad the Hijas de Papi y Mami hate them as much as I do. Luckily for us, Ambis is open once again so they don't try to pass themselves off as decent humans at Tribecca and Francifol. You do have to put up with them a bit at Ahi-Bar but whatever.
Spent 3 days in La Capital resolving some things. Went to a restaurant Sophie's and there were something like 10 Ferrari's, maybe 2 Lambo's a bunch of Porsches and the rest were BMW's, and Mercedes. Heard an ignorant expats say "Wow, is every baseball player in there?" Just to show. La Capital has waay to much traffic and sometimes the city has way too many different personalities but sectors like Naco, Bella Vista, La Esperilla and of course La Anacaona are just first rate. People talk about American wealth, well there is plenty of it in La Capital. And I'm talking about liquid wealth. Not the kind tied up into shady stock options and convertible bonds of questionable rates, I'm talking about liquid.
I put some pictures below of Santiago. Love the respect and the people unlike La Capital where even the elites are abrasive and just better dressed and monied version of their Chopo counterparts. The Cibao Hotel will probably never be built because the developers are idiots, and the Iguana park promotion is funny because I ran into that dude like 5 times. It was just random. People where like "WTF....?" Oh yeah, the Monumento is actually really nice now. I would actually go there now. Maybe. Actually no I wouldn't but whatever.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/Santiagoiguanapark.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/1315254838_b7a6b05b85_o.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/2079997299_9a105ff90c_b-2.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/SantiagoDR159-5984_IMG.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/SantiagoDR35956.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/SantiagoDRdscn0724qt4.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/385459834_f039c744a2_o.jpg
Santiago is more beautiful than ever. Urbanizations are everywhere. You have middle class developments like El Dorado to upscale ones like El Copal and Las Carmelitas (towards Licey). There is a misconception that the country is worse, deeper in debt, etc. The Dominicans who say the country goes to hell each day are the unemployed, lazy chopos who have no talent to contribute to society or the workforce and for ridiculous reasons refuse to work for wages consumerate with their skill (or lack of). No matter how poor or broke they claim to be, these chopos always have money for drinks and to party on an almost daily basis. They all have cellphones with a million friends.
With the exceptions of the high food costs (thank you DR-CAFTA!) and petroleum prices, things are great. The b@astards at Isla, Shell, and Texaco have a scheme where they dilute premium gasoline with water. You are not getting watch you paid for. I drive an SUV (8 cylinder) and I noticed it was burning much more than usual. My cousin told me the probable cause and even this surprised me. Can't do anything about it.
Politics and DR. I'm only 22 so I have a lot to learn. But atleast my father taught me that Politics is the opiate of the ridiculous and uneducated. On the streets these fools are fighting and killing themselves over who they want to elect to oversee the misappropriations of state funds and lead the country through four more years of god knows what. Leonel is a master at bullshi!tt, but atleast the Mulatto is investing in the country.
Girls, Girls, Girls, Girls. Everywhere. Even illiterate motoconchos get laid daily. It's incredible. Having a nice home, car and wardrobe and you will need to hire someone to schedule your nights because there are just so many to choose from.
Business wise, DR-CAFTA is no good. The family used to make good money making Jeans for numerous fashion house inserting zippers, buttons, etc. China's ridiculously cheap labor and the ridiculous tariffs has driven everyone from the Zona Franca. Call centers are basically the only option but it's an idiotic business and the only decent money comes from the PC business like HP and they usually outsource to India because they're all computer nerds. Santiago has no agriculture because there are no incentives and families are moving from the campo to the city enmasse. These people need to stay in the campo where they pay no bills and live off the land. They have no business in the city.
Choporeismo is still quite rampant in Santiago. Dumbyorks with their Yankee Caps and dressing like the blacks from the projects. They make me sick. I'm glad the Hijas de Papi y Mami hate them as much as I do. Luckily for us, Ambis is open once again so they don't try to pass themselves off as decent humans at Tribecca and Francifol. You do have to put up with them a bit at Ahi-Bar but whatever.
Spent 3 days in La Capital resolving some things. Went to a restaurant Sophie's and there were something like 10 Ferrari's, maybe 2 Lambo's a bunch of Porsches and the rest were BMW's, and Mercedes. Heard an ignorant expats say "Wow, is every baseball player in there?" Just to show. La Capital has waay to much traffic and sometimes the city has way too many different personalities but sectors like Naco, Bella Vista, La Esperilla and of course La Anacaona are just first rate. People talk about American wealth, well there is plenty of it in La Capital. And I'm talking about liquid wealth. Not the kind tied up into shady stock options and convertible bonds of questionable rates, I'm talking about liquid.
I put some pictures below of Santiago. Love the respect and the people unlike La Capital where even the elites are abrasive and just better dressed and monied version of their Chopo counterparts. The Cibao Hotel will probably never be built because the developers are idiots, and the Iguana park promotion is funny because I ran into that dude like 5 times. It was just random. People where like "WTF....?" Oh yeah, the Monumento is actually really nice now. I would actually go there now. Maybe. Actually no I wouldn't but whatever.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/Santiagoiguanapark.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/1315254838_b7a6b05b85_o.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/2079997299_9a105ff90c_b-2.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/SantiagoDR159-5984_IMG.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/SantiagoDR35956.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/SantiagoDRdscn0724qt4.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d141/Elvin_Pingu/385459834_f039c744a2_o.jpg
