DR v. other places

franklin00

New member
Mar 14, 2002
4
0
0
Greetings. Very soon I may be finding myself in the Dominican for an extended period ie work. I have spent the past 6 years working between the St. Thomas, USVI and Isla Margarita, Venezuela. I would imagine it would be more similiar to VE, but would anybody be kind enough as to tell me what to expect.
Also, I have travelled fairly extensively through the Carib sans DR, so if you have any other comparisions it would be appreciated.
suerte
 

Criss Colon

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
21,843
191
0
38
yahoomail.com
Please tell us!

Franklin,we have here a "Golden Opportunity"! Please,o please,promise to post after you have been here for a while,and tell us how you compare the DR to the other places you have lived. I have a "feeling" that you will be "impressed" by life in the DR! Criss
 

franklin00

New member
Mar 14, 2002
4
0
0
criss

done...let's just hope I get the job first...knock wood...does anybody speak english there? not a problem, just curious...
 

Ken

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
13,884
495
83
I have spent quite a bit of time on Margarita, and the DR is very different. Margarita is more like the US than the DR. I have also spent quite a bit of time in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela. I would say that is a better match.

I have also visited nearly all of the islands of the Caribbean. I find the people friendlier in the DR than in the other islands.

Where will you be based in the DR. I may be able to add to above if I know what part of the DR you will be comparing your previous locations with.

Ken
 

franklin00

New member
Mar 14, 2002
4
0
0
thanx Ken

i've only been to puerta la cruz twice for short 2-3 day trips and thought it was ok...went to a baseball game, some weak diving, and good shopping.
i am not sure the exact locale, but am under the impression it would be santo domingo...
ken-were you in margarita for work? i worked in porlamar-avenida bolivar ccab
 

Escott

Gold
Jan 14, 2002
7,716
6
0
www.escottinsosua.blogspot.com
Ken said:
I have spent quite a bit of time on Margarita, and the DR is very different. Margarita is more like the US than the DR. I have also spent quite a bit of time in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela. I would say that is a better match.

I have also visited nearly all of the islands of the Caribbean. I find the people friendlier in the DR than in the other islands.

Where will you be based in the DR. I may be able to add to above if I know what part of the DR you will be comparing your previous locations with.

Ken

I think that Puerto la Cruz is a close enough match for Sosua for government work. Cant compare it to Santo Domingo. Margarita Island is NOTHING like the US. If anything I would compare it to a dressed up Isla de Mujeres.
 

MommC

On Vacation!
Mar 2, 2002
4,056
7
0
dr1.com
Noow we know why Jazz's byline says Fat,loud, ugly,American........:rolleyes:


Yes some people do speak English....quite a few actually especially in Santo Domingo.

I can't give you any comparisons but it definitely is different here!!
Great places to scuba dive if you're into that.....
 

Ken

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
13,884
495
83
Franklin,

No, I wasn't on Margarita to work. My home was a cruising sailboat (which was how I got to the other islands).

My comparison of Margarita to the US was based largely on Porlamar. There is nothing that compares with this in the DR; you'd have to go to the US to find anything similar.

One important point is that in the DR you never feel as though you are on an island, unlike Margarita and the other Caribbean islands. It is so much larger. Maybe if we had a car I would feel differently, but as it is, we forget we are on an island. From Sosua to Santo Domingo, for example, takes about 4.5 hours (including enroute stops). Travel the same distance on the other islands and you've made at least a couple circumnavigations.

I never got to Caracas, so can't compare it to SD. But SD is much, much larger than Puerto La Cruz. Santiago is also larger. My comments about similarity had more to do with the types of local businesses, nature of the people, etc.

When we were in Venezuela, we had the feeling that the average person might be a little more sophisticated than his counterpart in the DR. Venezuela is going through a very difficult period, but they have had some golden periods as well. It is possible that they have come out of those periods with a little more sophistication than you'll find among the "common men" in the DR. (I'm not talking about the campesinos, the country people. I've had no experience with them in Venezuela so can't make a comparison.)

In the American Virgin Islands (much more so than the BVIs) and many of the other islands, we felt that the "common men" were more defensive than in the DR, more likely to have a chip on their shoulders. Perhaps you had a different impression, although, at least in the American Virgins I think youl'll know what I am talking about.

The Spanish influence is, as is to be expected, very much in evidence in the DR. For this reason it is almost impossible to make a good comparison with the French and British islands. Very different cultural heritages.

I'll be very interested in hearing from you after you have been here for a little way. I'd be interested to knowing what conclusions you come to, and how you compare what you find here with what you experienced in the other islands.

Ken