New members of the Dominican Republic forum, introduce yourselves here - 2018

Hello everyone,

My name is Donny and I'm from Alberta, Canada.  I married my wife Yolanda in July of 2017.  She is a teacher in Puerto Plata and still lives in the city near the school.  I will be coming down September 11th for a couple months this trip.  My wife is due the end of September or early October so we are excited to add to our family.  We have a son who will be 3 next month as well.  I am currently looking at making the full time move south to be with my family. 
I've been browsing the forum looking for as much info as possible.  Thanks for all the great info so far and really looking forward to learning more and meeting some of you in my future trips!

Welcome honey and congratulations!!!!  Let us know if we can help.

Hi everyone, planning to move to Las Terrenas in one year, getting retired and look for a lay back life style, after a very busy life in the States, need to buy a property, I am in touch with Luis Perdomo, Century 21 in Puerto Plata, an need help in order to send/buy a car, any sugestions???, thank you in advance, Angie from Argentina

Welcome Angie.  Honey lots of info in the various threads, start reading..... you have lots of time to research!  ask questions as needed!

Angie, welcome. Information on importing vehicles & or buying one here, PM me.  For a one time flat fee, includes:  dealing with customs, insurance, registration, plates etc. You show up, are handed the keys, ALL the required documents, paperwork etc. and drive away totally legal. Perdomo is a good firm, a little pricey , but honest & knowledgable. (they spell better than I).  Keep reading and asking.

Thank you guys in advance for any information

Howdy all,  I’m bob from the smokey mountains in Georgia.  Thinking about moving to the DR either full or part time.  I am retired do not need (or want) to work.   I truly hope I’m not imposing when I try to pick your brains.
I’ve always found the best sources of true info is from those that are living it.   I look forward to meeting you all someday too.

That is what we are here to do - feel free to pick. Read the threads, ask questions, open threads.... Share your experiences too!

Plenty of pickins here & a fair amount of leavens too. Welcome, have some fun with us.

Hi. I'm Carrie and I moved here to DR 2 1/2 years ago. After meeting my man, he wanted me to move here to be together. Yes, I met my husband on vacation. First, we spent time living in Higher (not recommended if you like lights) but it was noisy and too far from the beach. We moved to Punta cana in January and bought a house in a gated community. It's wonderful. I am teacher by trade, but I work online teaching English to kids in China. They pay a lot better than local schools. I love going to the beach and would like to, sometime, find some English speaking friends here. It gets a little old speaking in a foreign tongue all the time. See you all around town.

Welcome to the forums. There are lots of English speakers in the area! I am sure you will find some!

I have been lurking on this site for a little while, but today is my very first time to post.
My wife, Cindy, and I, John, are planning and hoping to relocate to just outside Cabrera before this Christmas.

I, John, am originally from England by way of Australia and Texas, and Cindy is a well-traveled Texan. Retiring a little early over five years ago, we have been living at 9,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies.  It has been an amazing and wonderful experience but not where we choose to live as we become more senior. 

Over the years, we have had many memorable visits to various Caribbean destinations and much of last winter we spent researching where to settle down. After eliminating many other fine locations for various reasons, we voted on the DR.  Last June, we visited, staying both near Sosua and in Las Terrenas. We drove along the north coast from Puerto Plata to Las Galeras, from Santiago over the hills to Gaspar Hernandez, and through the valley from Nagua to Moca.  There was so much more we wanted to see.  We totally fell for the country and the people and verified what we had read about extensively. 

Unexpectedly, although we spent time with three realtors looking at available residences, we also found a wonderful property.  Returning to see the property again, we asked our recently-graduated son, who was traveling with us, if he would be okay with us living in the DR.  His response, "I would be disappointed if you didn't!" sealed our decision to move. In two weeks, we close on the sale of our current property and, soon afterwards, the purchase of our future property outside Cabrera. 

After our arrival, we would enjoy meeting some ex-pats to learn more and share experiences.  From reading other posts, I have learned we should not put our contact information on the forums but, if you know how to contact us from this post, we would enjoy hearing from you.

John and Cindy

Hi, I am a resident of the Dominican Republic and citizen of the UK.

I am a freelance construction professional working throughout the Caribbean islands and have chosen Santo Domingo as my current home in the DR. I have travelled throughout the country and believe it to be one of the most diverse,welcoming and easily accessible countries to be found anywhere on this planet.

I have previously lived in the Cibao and in Samana and plan to establish a base for my future in the rolling green hills of upper Monte Plata province.

I am here to share my experiences of DR with other visitors and expats.

Welcome Lennox to the forums. Your insights are very much appreciated. I am also in SD anytime you want to get together.

Hi Carrie,
My husband and I will be moving to Punta Cana in January.  It would be fun to have some English speaking friends.  I will be in touch. We also purchased a villa in a gated community.

Yaaay!! Can't wait to meet you all!

***

That was pretty mean Tinker.  No one is looking for a separated community.  I am already in frequent communication with my new Dominican Friends. We message each other in Spanish thru WhatsApp. But it will be nice to have English speaking friends as well.  I am all for Diversity in my life.

You are right. Tinker that was both mean and judgemental.

I am removing ot.

And reminding that this forum is for welcoming new members! What works for some doesn't work for all. We need to be welcoming!

I screwed up big time. I meant to generalize, not to direct it at you. Please accept my humble apology. Lately I've tended to take leave of my senses. It is no ones fault but my own. My personal travail should never replace my normal way of conveying my opinions. I am sorry.

Hello,

My wife, our two children, and our dog are planning on moving to the DR specifically the Puerto Plata area after Christmas this year. We've visited the country before and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm able to get around in Spanish and while I'm nowhere near fluent I'm able to understand a great deal. We're hoping to spend six months in the country before making a decision to stay or move on.

If anyone has contacts they could recommend to do some preliminary house hunting as well as any information regarding schools/childcare it would be greatly appreciated.

Lastly, I'm a software developer and I'll be working remotely so any information regarding getting internet and internet reliability is also appreciated.

Thank you and nice to meet everyone!

Welcome to the forums. Much of what you need is coveted in the forums. Lots to read honey. Ask questions within the threads and start your own as needed!

Hi All!!!  New to the board and planning our first vacation to the DR this next year.... Have read some and interested in retirement possibly in the area in a few years so basically just browsing etc...

Welcome to the forums.  Keep us posted of your experiences, we are here to help as needed....

Hello,
I am new to the Dominican Republic forum. I live in Canada and have vacationed in DR many times over the past few years. I am interested in spending the winters in DR when I retire and wondering what communities and accommodations other expat's from Canada would recommend visiting and staying at.
regards,
Cheryl-Anne

Welcome to the forums.  Lots of places here to visit and consider.

Start by reading the forums and ask questions as they come up!

Good morning all,

I'm going to be making my first trip to the DR in a few weeks after many years of scouting for work/retirement elsewhere.

I've been in oil and gas most of my life and developing and adapting affordable, novel technologies to solve problems.

I want to get involved with the expat community and see what I can do to help out with alt power/backup power in the north coast region.

I'm also interested in becoming involved in any local recovery community

Kind regards,

Jay Reynolds

Welcome to the forums Jay!   You will meet a wide variety of expats  on the north coast!  Lots of great info here on the various threads!  Jump in where appropriate and don't be afraid to ask your questions!

Good morning and thank you kindly for the welcome!

I'm working on how to get from POP to Cabrera now

I'm seeing shuttles but not a bus line thus far. 

It's going to be fun.

Jay

There is no "bus line" but  guaguas and carros publico and taxis!

I tae a small (15 passanger) bus w/ac , from Sosua to Cabrera. It is a regularly scheduled  daily bus.  Cost? Less than $5usd. A little over two hour trip.  The other ways, ublicos, guaguas very slow, many stops & over crowded. Have friends in Cabrera, Contact info, PM me.  Alt. energy is the future.

Thank you Tinker,

I've not gained PM privileges yet but if you whatsapp I'm at ***

Of particular interest as I look through all of the information I had begun accumulating on alt energy 20+ years ago (when I was more active and writing in the field) was how much widely available thin film PV has become.

I mention this because many of the houses have concrete roofs which may be flat, or, if a house is just being built the pitch of the roof could coincide with the right angle for maximum insolation.

The PV would be directly adhered to the concrete roof (which would serve as a heat sink, lowering the temp of the PV and thus assisting its efficiency) and best of all would require no roof penetrations, rack mounts or related hardware which can be a significant factor in total system costs.

On this page is a 37 second video which I think you might find interesting showing the speed of installation of thin film.

Kind regards,

Jay

Honey I am having your contact info removed as we don't allow that on open forums. Sorry.

And you don't know this, we try to keep this forum for intro and welcome.  You bring great info and we love the conversation you are having in the solar energy forum.

Please feel free to start any new threads you like or need!

Hola!!

My husband and I are about to move to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic from the USA.  We are so excited to start our new adventure!

We have met a few people down there already, but we still have a lot of questions.

Thank you to all of the folks who are so kind and answer so many questions for us. I've already learned a lot from Planner and BobK.
Let me go ahead and apologize for asking a repeat question.  There are so many posts to read through. I am doing my best.

One of the biggest questions we have right now is about health insurance.  We want to get a policy but don't have any idea where to start.  Someone suggested Humano or Universal?   Do we need to get a broker to handle this for us or do we contact the insurance company directly?  Help!  Lol! I'm starting to get overwhelmed.   

We should be starting our adventure within 6 months.  I am hoping we can get everything in order before we come down.

Looking forward to great conversation and new friends...

-Angela

Angela, Planner has an excellent group plan. Contact her & she will be glad to help you.  Welcome to the island & to your new adventure.

Thank you, Tinker. I will definitely reach out to her.
Of course, I read about her being an insurance agent AFTER I made the post. Haha! Oops.
I did warn everyone that it might happen that way.  There is so much to read an research before
we move.

Welcome to the forums. Yes getting started can be daunting on here.  The pinned threads are important as well as using the search function.

Ask questions in the threads anytime you need.  I will message you as well honey

hi, everybody....i am a new member, posting under the moniker ''cruffman''.  i am one more in a long line of people who have decided to make the Dominican Republic home. i have been here in this country for quite a while, but i am new to this forum, regrettably.

i am a fan of cooking, music, and all things automotive. you are all welcome to pick my brains on subjects like recipes,  music genres, and cars.  i look forward to enjoying my time spent here with this community, and i wish you all the best of health.

Welcome honey and thanks for the intro. Now we know more about you.   Lots of great info on here and you have already offered help and advice to others!  We all appreciate it!

Welcome.
Where did  you settle?
Lots of good folks here and we look forward to your contributions.

Bob K