Thinking of a move

It all depends on what sort of environment you like to live in. You can live in the Metro area, mid and small towns, beach areas (270 miles), dry areas, wet areas, and up in the mountain.

As to jobs, they are hard to come by and pay usually sucks. If you speak Spanish, I will be a little easier but not a piece of cake.

There are a lot of people unemployed and the completion is brutal.

Outside of the metro area rent is a lot cheaper but job likelihood is lower.
Are you sure you want to do this?
I would not had asked except for the fact that you are looking for a job in the island. That throws a big monkey range into the situation.
If you were retiring or starting a business I would say come on down, but it is up to you.
Ask away and also see previous posts about cost of living.
Rey

I am thinking of some country living and the job I may be looking for is because it will give me time to see what kind of void I can fill with a business.  I dont believe any amount of research will tell me what type of business I can open better than me living on the island and seeing for myself how things run and being able to meet people and getting their input.  While I would like to live in the country I also realize that it is going to be beneficial for me to be at least within reasonable driving distance to a community so that my business can grow once I decide which way I want to go.  No, I dont have  a big chunk of money to retire off of and never work again, but I will have enough to pay for the house outright and have some money to invest into a business once I decide what that may be.  I would never attempt a move with the thought of getting a job to pay for a living and then try to start a business.  As you said competition is brutal and unemployment is high, but if I could get something to merely live off of so i dont have to touch my nest egg for the business things might have a chance of working out.

You might want to check into the tremendous difficulties of opening a business in PR. Not to mention the length of time it takes as well. Not sure that trying to start a business on the island is a good idea when so many Puerto Rican businesses are going under. Do you even realize how much you have to pay for water and electricity unless you work at home? Just getting permits to do business is a very lengthy and frustrating process.

I've posted on how many hoops PR makes you jump through to start your own business. I won't repeat myself here because there is too much to regurgitate. Just note that you cannot begin operations until you receive your certificate of incorporation, which can take almost a year in some circumstances to receive. (I once waited 8 months to receive one).

As for getting a job, how do you think that will be possible in an environment of over 12% unemployment, a shrinking population, and a contracting economy? What do you have to offer that thousands of people on the island don't already, but yet are still unemployed? 

I hate to sound negative but if your finances depend on either (1) starting a successful business from scratch, or (2) getting a job, then you'll be screwing yourself by moving to PR. There's a reason hundreds of thousands are fleeing the place, after all.

I have to agree with Nomad and Greg, the chances of any job are very slim. Yes we may be being a little harsh but it is because we do not like people ruining their life.

Take an inventory of your skills and hubbies and see if there is an opportunity to monetize them, make sure you understand also that most businesses in the US mainland fail with in the first year and more so in PR with the economy the way it is, people loosing their homes, loosing their job, and moving to the mainland, that is a lot of less potential customers.

You want to still do it, fine, but we warned you.

Not knowing your skills, I can still suggest getting a job in the mainland that you can do remote, if they go for it, you will have an income and be able to live in the island. One warning ... Make sure you will have the job for a long time before you move to PR, you don't want to move and lose the job a few months later. Do the job from the states for a minimum of 6 months and maybe a year and if you and the employers are happy then make the move.

I appreciate the comments, yes I have been following the news and economy of the island. I'm not under the false notion that I'm just going to be there and everything is going to be peachy. I'm just looking to see what the island has to offer as a whole, and to see what I may be able to pick up for a reasonable price in about six months as far as a small house with a few acres. If I find a place and use it as a vacation home for the next ten years while I make multiple trips back and forth that's fine. I'm not quitting my day job to look for a job there to survive, just gathering information at this point. I do thank you for all of your input. What brought you to the island?

Nomad, I see you do jiu jitsu, how long have you been training? Have you done any training on the island at all?

I was born in PR and lived there until I was 20. Then I volunteered for the army and left back in 1973. I stayed in the Army and traveled a lot including Europe until December 1982. I stayed in the U.S. For the job opportunities. Now I am closing on retirement and the island is calling me back, time to settle back and one day be buried in my island.

We (me and my wife) are from Guayanilla, small little town on the southwest part of the island. We left the island 20 years ago to provide out girls a better education and opportunities. We are now in a stage of our life's were we can semi retire and in a couple of years retire full time. We love our island, miss the family and are ready to slow down from the rat race. In order to be able to afford this, we need to move away from mainland back to PR.

@troll. You're approach is a solid one.

Yes, I've trained for about eight years, including in PR. There are about 8 or so black belts on the island and I pretty much know them all.

Let me know if you want to know more.

Best of luck.

Heck yes I would like to know more. I have heard some good things about people training there. When I travel I like to hit a local dojo, I hate deny people the opportunity to tap me out and see my purple face. Lol have promotions tomorrow, I should hit high purple which is an accomplishment for my old ars. Lol when I get ready to visit the island I will give you a heads up and you can tap me out also.

Hi, Troll126. Here's a forum topic I created a while back regarding martial arts in PR. The BJJ info is near to the bottom.

Best of luck!

---

Puerto Rico has an excellent variety and depth of choice when it comes to martial arts, both for kids, women and men. As I practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ("BJJ"), I know most about the BJJ scene in PR so I have dedicated the majority of this post to this martial art.

If you are thinking of trying a martial art or martial arts in general, I recommend calling ahead to ask a few questions about the school and see if you can take a free class. Don't do this with just one school or one martial arts discipline: Do it with many. Each discipline is very different and has a very different social aspect to it. Some are very Japanese in the way their classes are run (bowing, etc.) while others are much more laid back when it comes to formalities (BJJ being probably the most laid back of them all). Some disciplines are very rough while others are not at all. Some are more competitive than others (BJJ can be very competitive). There is also important differences in training quality, socialization and ambience between schools in the same discipline. So try out as many as you can to see which one you like best.

Karate schools are ubiquitous and I cannot speak to their quality.

There is some kind of Bruce Lee martial arts school off of Plazita Roosevelt in Hato Rey that I know has a large amount of children as students. Unfortunately, I do not recall its name but if you visit the Plazita, local people will be able to point you in the right direction.

There is a Japanese Jujitsu school in Guaynabo: https://www.facebook.com/jujitsupuertorico. I know this school is child and woman friendly.

BJJ is a great discipline for women and children to learn in particular, as it teaches you techniques to defeat bigger and stronger attackers even if you have been pinned on your back. Several of the BJJ schools in PR have a sizeable number of woman students to train with if you are a woman and might be turned off by having too much physical contact with male students. One school even has a women-only class. Nonetheless, if you are a woman and are thinking about taking a class with male students, I can say that in my seven years of doing BJJ I have never seen anything disrespectful happen between mixed-sex training partners. The schools that have a fair number of women students also offer kids' classes.

BJJ also has a big sports-competition focus to its training so it's good for fitness and keeps things real by having techniques tried in live action matches. This also increases the sociability surrounding the BJJ schools. If you want to make local friends, joining a BJJ academy is a great way to do it.

San Juan has a good choice of both BJJ and Mixed Martial Arts ("MMA") schools. For BJJ, there are I believe 7 or 8 black belts on the island (all in the San Juan area). Most of the schools have sites on facebook but not independent sites. Here are a few I'd recommend:

For BJJ schools, there's:

http://jiujitsupr.com/ - Run by Luis Santiago, a nice guy and good instructor. Luis was the first BJJ black belt in PR. He has a good school (I believe the biggest in PR by student-count) with the greatest range of belt levels. His school is off of Plazita Roosevelt in Hato Rey.

Luis recently (in the last one or two years) promoted three guys to black belt who teach at his school and two of the three also teach at their own schools. One teaches in Caguas (Pedro Silva: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carlson- … 3048591554 Carlson Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu PR Velociraptor Team) and one is in Guaynabo (a young guy named Gaby Guijarro who is also a black belt in Judo I believe: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cavalo-C … 5305077201 Cavalo Club Brazilian Jiu Jitsu). They're both bilingual. Pedro in particular is a very good instructor. I've never taken a class with Gaby but I've rolled with him when he was a purple belt. You can find all of these guys off of the same main facebook page of Luis's school.

https://www.facebook.com/BehringWolfpack - Run by a black belt named Eduardo Ortiz. He's a very nice guy and good instructor. He's bilingual (he's also a notary and a lawyer). His school is located in a squash court area right next to the Natatorio de San Juan (a very nice pool stadium in a park complex off of Rte 1: https://www.facebook.com/SJNatatorium). Keep in mind you have to pay something like $2 to drive into this park so have cash ready.

http://brazilianjiujitsupr.com/ - Run by a brown belt named Carlos. This is a smaller team. His gym is in Hato Rey right near Rio Piedras center (to the north of UPR). It's air conditioned, unlike the other gyms I've trained in in PR. However, his team is a bit isolated from the others in PR.

For MMA, there's:

The Training Zone run by Vidiver Vasquez. They have gi BJJ classes as well. https://www.facebook.com/trainingzonepr

Sparta MMA Training Center ( https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sparta-M … 9081581014 ). Run by Abraham Galva. Located in Cupey Alto.

https://www.facebook.com/KarateKungFuMMAPuertoRico This school is in Carolina. 

There's a few other places but I haven't been to them so I won't recommend them.