Yes, 6 months ago, just upon half way settling in my first rental apartment, few hours after landing at POP, I wrote the thread below, just wondering if that Internet connection would do what it was hoped to: Just arrived.
So, yesterday, while the Swiss celebrated their 716th year of independence, probably eating funny smelling melted cheese dishes and watching the fireworks flashing against a the mountainous skyline, I quietly celebrated with a "fria vien flia" on a bench at the Malecon of "my" Puerto Plata, watching my 182nd Dominican sundown.
Well, the 6 months test was a true winner and Puerto Plata has indeed become my home for now. Maybe my location may eventually shift a little out of the city. But for now, I not only enjoy seeing this little town being growing along with the new renovation efforts finally showing nice results, the Malecon becoming a whole new place but also the small town flair yet giving me access to most services and goods I seem to need for a satisfied life.
In many ways, and probably partly because this is not my first ex-pat experience, there have not been to many negative surprises... actually many less than the positive ones. Still, my way to look at the island, the country and it's many different places, cultures and issues have not quite changed totally but perhaps matured into a different perception of things which slowly becomes natural.
And I am still learning and discovering, actually I hope this will never change, I get so easily bored.
I have made a few friends, but quite good ones actually it seems, out of different social back grounds and in various corners of the country and slowly get back into business. Speaking the base language is of course not just helpful but of essence, in my opinion.
I just want to thank all of you here on this forum, who constantly recommend everybody voicing their interest to come live here, to just rent for a 6 months or so. Not that I thought about buying anything immediately, but still, I now learned so much about locations I was interested in after my first trip here and also from surfing the net once my interest for the country definitely got sparked.
I can only urge anybody wanting to come here to consider a similar approach:
Come here only once you have the money to live without working (if you don't have a reasonable source of income secured) for at least half a year. Just looking for the right location where you want to still rent for a longer time will take you a good while and setting things up, like Internet, phone lines, getting acquainted with the various offices and their locations and so forth, will keep you busy enough, you won't miss working so fast! Rent, rent, rent and don't "invest" in anything (nor anybody) before you really made up you mind based on knowledge and not "intuition" or the recommendation of a "friend" you have never known.
And face it, the language here is Spanish.
DR-Lite... that's probably the word.
Thanks! ... J-D.
So, yesterday, while the Swiss celebrated their 716th year of independence, probably eating funny smelling melted cheese dishes and watching the fireworks flashing against a the mountainous skyline, I quietly celebrated with a "fria vien flia" on a bench at the Malecon of "my" Puerto Plata, watching my 182nd Dominican sundown.
Well, the 6 months test was a true winner and Puerto Plata has indeed become my home for now. Maybe my location may eventually shift a little out of the city. But for now, I not only enjoy seeing this little town being growing along with the new renovation efforts finally showing nice results, the Malecon becoming a whole new place but also the small town flair yet giving me access to most services and goods I seem to need for a satisfied life.
In many ways, and probably partly because this is not my first ex-pat experience, there have not been to many negative surprises... actually many less than the positive ones. Still, my way to look at the island, the country and it's many different places, cultures and issues have not quite changed totally but perhaps matured into a different perception of things which slowly becomes natural.
And I am still learning and discovering, actually I hope this will never change, I get so easily bored.
I have made a few friends, but quite good ones actually it seems, out of different social back grounds and in various corners of the country and slowly get back into business. Speaking the base language is of course not just helpful but of essence, in my opinion.
I just want to thank all of you here on this forum, who constantly recommend everybody voicing their interest to come live here, to just rent for a 6 months or so. Not that I thought about buying anything immediately, but still, I now learned so much about locations I was interested in after my first trip here and also from surfing the net once my interest for the country definitely got sparked.
I can only urge anybody wanting to come here to consider a similar approach:
Come here only once you have the money to live without working (if you don't have a reasonable source of income secured) for at least half a year. Just looking for the right location where you want to still rent for a longer time will take you a good while and setting things up, like Internet, phone lines, getting acquainted with the various offices and their locations and so forth, will keep you busy enough, you won't miss working so fast! Rent, rent, rent and don't "invest" in anything (nor anybody) before you really made up you mind based on knowledge and not "intuition" or the recommendation of a "friend" you have never known.
And face it, the language here is Spanish.
DR-Lite... that's probably the word.
Thanks! ... J-D.