Puerto Rico Fact Finding Mission

I live in Rincon, NW corner of PR. Last year, when it became apparent we'd maintain a place here, we decided to buy a car. Previously, in NJ, we only bought cars new, for cash. In PR we did not want to lay out all that cash so for the first time decided to buy a used car. We'd go out frequently to the used car places on the highway and this got to be pretty depressing. I also did some research (by asking around and looking around) and most cars are Japanese or Korean, on the small side. I narrowed down which car I wanted: a 2007 Toyota Yaris - it had great reviews. Forget about the used car dealers on the highway! The place to look is Classificados Online (on the internet). I quickly found out that good cars go fast after they are listed. So I started looking early in the morning and that worked - I was the first person to call about the car we have now, a 2007 Totota Yaris with 70,000 miles on it, they asked $8,000 I got it for $7,700 and love it!

If you want to ship a car from the States then you can expect to pay something like $4,000 in shipping costs and import taxes (most of it import taxes). Also determine if it will be easy to get your car serviced based on what car you are shipping.

If you will be making PR your permanent residence then you should evaluate your tax situation. Puerto rico has it's own tax codes, separate from the States. If all of your income is generated in PR then you will not have to file US Fed taxes. But you will have to pay Fed Social Security and Medicaid taxes, the same as if you were in the States. If you have some income generated in the States then you might have to file PR, Fed, and US state taxes. If you move to PR during the year then for that year you'll have to do taxes for PR, Fed and US State. You'll need to do some research, see an accountant, and even better, meet and talk to people in PR who have been through this.

Will you assimilate easily into PR? Depends. Your husband will be hanging out in a high end resort teaching golf. If you spend most of your time i n a high end enclave and spend most of your time with affluent expats then should be pretty easy. But I'll make a general statement: if you like hispanic culture then you'll do fine, if you don't then you might not. My wife and I have love living in Rincon, we like the culture, the sun, the ocean and the simple life. We live in a Puerto Rican neighborhood, we are the only North Americans. The culture here includes warmth and friendliness, relaxed environment, but also lots of noise, inefficient government service (got to allocate a at least one day to either register your car or get a driver's license), loss of electricity and water every so often. But then again you'll be living in a high end area.

Let me know if you have any questions. If you visit Rincon (it is a popular vacation place for people from San Juan) look us up, my email is [email protected]

I've only passed through Dorado and have never stopped to eat there but in general, there are few if any Thai places in PR unfortunately. I love Thai and could not find any in the SJ area or the East. I've heard there was one in Condado at one time but I am not sure if they are still open or not. There are some Japanese places but I've found that they are mostly run by Puerto Ricans or Chinese people. There's the Cherry Blossom in Condado that I believe is run by Japanese people and there's at least one other Japanese place in the Condado area but I don't recall where. Try www.sal.pr to find the restaurants you are interested in.

Yes, you should probably ship both of your cars. Keep in mind that you will have to pay import duty. I describe at length the process of importing your car, paying duty, and then registering it in other fora on this site. It's worth looking up.

Best of luck!

If you ever travel to the west coast try "110 Thai" in Aguadilla, it also is connected to a pub that has great local brewed beer.

One Ten Thai in Aguadilla is a great place. I know the owners and they are wonderful people. There is another one in Rincon called Ode to the Elephant. Not sure what the address is.

If you are into that sort of thing, humming birds in PR are supposed to be good luck to the Taino. At One Ten Thai they have (or had) a humming birds nest with two babies on the side of the building. I have two pictures of the babies in the nest. And another of the Mother but can't figure out how to post the pics.

I've eaten at Ode To The Elephant a couple of times and it is very inconsistent. Personally it is been scratched from my restaurant list.

Don't know a whole lot about Dorado except I could never afford to live there.  Since you two seem to have a pretty good income between you, My opinion is that Dorado would be an excellent place to live in that you could insulate yourself a bit from some of the noise and other undesirable aspects of the island that regular people have to deal with on a daily basis. In that respect it can afford you the finer things PR has to offer. Since you are foodies I'd recommend looking up www.foodiespr.com. That site has everything you'd want to know about food and restaurants all over the island. It's on facebook too. It's run by a great guy named Rafael Cotto. If you get in touch with him tell him Gregg from Chef's Edge says hi.

I've never eaten there but I have heard that Ode to the Elephant isn't as good as One ten Thai, where they have a line to get in every night.

Thanks everyone for the great info...and foodiespr.com is AWESOME! Wishing I could be there for restaurant week!