Ex Pat Tour Guide

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Rumble2005

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My wife and I are 37 year old fun loving Canadians . We have been to the North Coast 5 times . We will be returning April 8th for two weeks .

In the past we have hired local hotel employee's etc. to show us around the POP , Sosua , Caberete areas . While this has been awesome , the language and transportation (or lack of) issues are a factor .

We are hoping to find an Ex Pat show us some of the places on the North Coast we have not seen such as Luperon , Rio San Juan , Nagua or Cabrera .
However, we don't have a set agenda . If we spend a few hours seing some of your favorite spots that the average tourist would not see that would be awesome. We don't need to or want to spend a whole day in a car . Just a nice tour and maybe lunch at one of your favorite local resterants etc.

We would like to be Ex Pats on the North Coast some day so it would be great to spend a few hours getting the goods straight from the horses mouth;) . We would love to hear more about life in the DR as a non tourist.

We are targeting April 17th but we are not locked into that date as we are on vacation :squareeye
We will be staying at Sun Village our second week so that would be the meeting place.
We will pay whatever you feel is fair . Of course we will have to provide a few Presidente over and above the tour price :glasses:

Please PM us if this is of interest to you and provide an rough guess of what you consider to be fair compensation . We are thinking of 10 AM until 4 , 5 or
6 PM will likely be about right.

Adios for now :glasses:
 
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Rumble2005

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Hola People.....

We are leaving in two days . This post has resulted in 85 veiws and 2 very generous responses . However, one response was from Samana which is really not practical given that we do not have our own wheels . The other is a very generous response from a 14 year resident of POP that has offered to bring us to their residence to learn more about life in the DR .

I will likely accept this offer as this person is very knowledgable and this person does not live in a gated community. This is the type of setting we choose to learn more about.

Given that we have a limited amount of time I would still like to seek something closer to the origninal post in addition to the offer previously mentioned.

I have been to the DR enough to know that there are Ex Pats reading this that have nothing better to do then to give two Canucks a nice tour ;)

PS - We have not felt temperatures above 0 C in months so don't even think about turning on your A/C or taking us into a A/C bar :glasses:

I am exagerating slightly but the forecast for Easter is snow ..sleet..snow....:squareeye Call me evil but this gives me great pleasure in that we will be in the DR :glasses:
 
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abnor

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Nov 7, 2006
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While at Sun Village wander down the beach to Chis and Mady's there will be some ex pat's there to share a story. Enjoy your trip.
 
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marliejaneca

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I can tell you that the one visit at the home of ______&______'s will be more informative than any side trips could ever be, the wealth of knowledge and experience this couple should be offered as a pre-requisite course before moving to the DR!

It is a shame though that you haven't found anyone to take you on some countryside excursions, just to see the diversity in areas. If you go to Chris & Mady's, ask Chris if he knows anyone available to do this with you. I know Chris used to take his friends on little side trips (including me) back in the good ole' days - but I think he is far too busy now to do this. BTW- Chris is originally from Winnipeg.

Marlie
 
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Malibook

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Rumble2005 said:
In the past we have hired local hotel employee's etc. to show us around the POP , Sosua , Caberete areas . While this has been awesome , the language and transportation (or lack of) issues are a factor.
Click to expand...
Unless you feel like doing someone a favour, I don't see the point in hiring a tour guide and a driver, especially a tour guide who doesn't speak English.
There are plenty of personable English speaking drivers around.
 
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Lambada

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marliejaneca said:
It is a shame though that you haven't found anyone to take you on some countryside excursions, just to see the diversity in areas. Marlie
Click to expand...

I can understand expats not wanting to be tour guides. I'll sit & chat with aspiring expats who sound intelligent but I don't 'do' tours a) because that's a job a Dominican can benefit from & b) there is the potential of a clash in perceptions. The last people I took round Puerto Plata were friends: they found the street where my breadshop is to be a fascinating place and they were taking pics like there was no tomorrow. :) But...........it made me feel marginally uncomfortable because of the goldfish bowl syndrome (as if the people who live in that street were 'exhibits'). I would have preferred that my friends had asked those people if it was ok to take pictures, or at least asked me to ask if they couldn't manage the Spanish.

However, I applaud Rumble2005 for asking because I can see where he's coming from: seeing places tourists don't normally see & seeing it through expat eyes. That's a perceptive way to get a window on a country. He may have felt also that he needed to offer a 'job' and hadn't realised that some of us are happy to share our knowledge as aquaintances and not 'employees' :laugh: If Rumble doesn't get an expat tour guide offer then I think he should visit the places he wants to with an English speaking Dominican tour guide and just make a note of the questions he wanted answered from an expat's perspective and ask those of an expat later.
 
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Rumble2005

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Mar 18, 2006
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Dominican Tour Guides

Thanks Lambada . We have actually used Dominican tour guides that speak english twice. Last year we had an amazing experience in Montayamo (I could have this spelling totally wrong) . It is a town between POP and Sosua.
The problem we have is that any Dominican guides we have used do not tend to have their own wheels and there are still language barriers . Their English tends to be about 75 % and our spanish is about 10 % so it just makes conversation on any level beyond pleasantries a little difficult .
I have met Chris of Chris and Maddy's before so I will talk to him . He seems very nice .
We actually plan to have our anniversary dinner at their establishment.
 
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Lambada

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There's a cultural thing here, too. The assumption that tourists don't want to get into the nitty gritty which many tour guides make, which is why they keep the level at pleasantries. If you want a ding-dong political discussion I could take you to my breadshop (it all happens there, I can tell you :) ) but the problem for you is that it would have to be in Spanish. The town/village is Montellano btw. Our gardener hails from there. There IS a good English speaking lady who lives in Montellano but she works at the airport.
 
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