Thanks for the replies. It will be just my wife and I. We're not really beach people. Once in awhile is fun but not every other Tuesday. :classic:
We're Canadian, and I speak a fair amount of French, a little German but even less Spanish - we'll work on that Spanish out of necessity.
We're quiet people. All we need is a nice place to live, a few English speaking neighbors to bump into occasionally to take a break from our struggles in Spanish. I plan to lose some weight so we'll be eating simply, lots of fruit, veggies, chicken & fish. No fast food restaurants would definitely be a bonus! We won't have a vehicle when we arrive and our bicycles will arrive 6 - 8 weeks after we do. So transportation will be a bit of a challenge initially. I will probably buy a little scooter before I buy a car or a pickup.
I'd like to find a dock where I can toss a line in the water as an excuse to drink a few cervezas. A few decent restaurants for the occasional evening out would be great. I'm an internet junky so hopefully I can find a plan that doesn't necessitate me having to get a job to pay for my affinity for downloading my North American TV shows.
I think that Sosua with all the daily activity and tourists would be a bit much. Someone mentioned Playero; I assume that's a store in Sosua? How long is the drive from Cabrera to Sosua?
So all in all, we are looking for a nice, quiet, safe place to acclimate to our new environment that isn't in the campo. When I need a 2
1/2 inch nail, I don't want to have it shipped in from somewhere. When I smash my thumb pounding in that nail, I'd prefer if decent medical facilities are relatively close by (we have good insurance coverage) and when I'm recuperating from my injury, I must have access to copious amounts of carbonated hydration fluids while engaging in physical therapy with a deck of cards or a backgammon board.
We are quite flexible with our location. I thought Rio San Juan is about as far east as I would want to live, but Cabrera sounds like it is worth considering. Having access to some friendly expats would certainly come in handy as I have already started a list of questions:
1) I'm at the end of my driveway, the grocery store is left or right?
2) Who do I call to get water delivered?
3) Before I can get water delivered where do I go to get a sim card for my phone so I can call for water?
4) Screw it, I need to hire a personal assistant to help me out, Know anyone?