ONLY THE GOOD STUFF

I've been thinking along those lines myself.   People who have lived here for a long time have so many complaints about life here, that I sometimes wonder what keeps them here.   It has to be more than the high taxes, the cost of vehicles, courier service, poor workmanship, customer service, government corruption, bad drivers, poor roads, the bugs, the weather, too hot or too much rain, crime,security, roosters in the night  and on and on and on.   Tell us, you good folks,  what does keep you here?    I know what kept me there for 8 years and what is bringing me back.   Great idea Planner,let's see how many responses you get.  It'll sure be an eye-opener.  thank you for this.   You have my everlasting respect  and devotion....

I agree Gypsy!!
We are moving, over time, to Lomas Mironas, alittle longer there every year over the next 4 years or so, renting out our place when we are not there.
I read ALOT of negative everywhere and have wondered the same thing.
Well on our last visit in January(only 2 weeks, waaaa, ) we had to find and deal with many people as this was our first visit to our villa since we purchased it and we wanted to spruce up the place a bit!
First, Thanks to this blog for much helpful reading, and especially to Bob K for answering alot of my questions.
Needed a rental car and Bob put me in touch with Luis at L and I rent a car. Luis is a great guy and treated me very fair, great rates (150 $ less than the "big" guys) and a good little crv. We had a great and productive trip! Cant wait tilthe next one!!
Will think of more and post from time to time

Ken and Donna

With all the bad the good so far tips the  scales  that it makes us smile.  It does take a certain personality to "make" it here.

As to good customer service I am just floored by CPS for shipping packages.

Bob K

See people.......  it ain't so hard to find the good stuff,  just as easy to find the bad stuff.    Maybe it makes some people feel superior to denigrate those around them.   I don't pity them, I  just try to avoid them as I usually piss them off with being too candid.   Come on,   let's bury the naysayers with the joys of living here.    It also will benefit the newbies  with a more rounded view  of the island.    Again, thank you planner,  you have put a smile in my heart !!!

Hello everyone!

When one is thankful for everything, and appreciate what life has given to us, there is no time or place for complains

Cheers

Good approach and great idea Planner and to all of you conscientious folks involved. Appreciate your situation. The colmadoes, the smiles, the blessings, the ambiance, the dancing to the music and the beat of our hearts knowing we all matter under the sun is Boss. We are here to help. As they say turn that frown upside down. Communicate kindly. Pon vida en tus anos no anos en tu vida. Basically, put life in your years not years in your life. Great song. Listen to the romance radio-stations here in D.R. sometimes. They are a treasure.

I remember an actual event guys.......   It was pouring rain and I was driving along a main road.  Of course I got a flat tire and had to pull over.  So I sat there for a few minutes wondering what I was going to do............tap tap tap on my window ............it was a motoconcho driver (motorcycle taxi driver)  asking if I needed help.   Hell yes.............

Got out my umbrella and we proceeded to change the tire.  Meaning I held the umbrella he did all the work.   In 10 minutes I was good to go.

He would not take any money from me!   He said this is what he would want to happen to someone he knew and cared about, so he did it for me. 

I left feeling a whole lot better about that rainy day! And grateful for the kindness of a stranger.

Planner I hear you. When I was wheel chair bound after a serious accident (happened in the US) and recovering here in the DR I was going stir crazy so would have our  gardener put the wheel chair in the car and my wife and I would head to town for lunch or shopping.  When we got to town she would open the hatch of the car to get the wheel chair out. Withing seconds two or three guys would be there to help her get the chair out and one of the would offer to push me around for her.  All the time with a smile on thier faces and NEVER  would one of them accempt money  from us.

Made us smile as well

Bob K

Ok another good service  here in Sosua.  My computer crashed 10 days ago or so.  Took it to the computer store behind Bailey's restaurant and the guy looked at it and in 15 seconds said I needed a new screen.

They were out but had on order 6 that should be here in a day or so as they were ordered 2 weeks before (air shipment).  Well they were shipped by encargo pac.  Needless to say it was more like 10 days more days till they arrived.  They got here last night.  However only 3 arrived and two were damaged in shipment.  So I brought the computer in this morning at nine, got the last undamaged screen and have a new functioning computer 90 minutes later.  Great Job Done.

Encargo pac....is another story.

Bob K

When I first went to the North Coast, I was flying into POP by myself, just got a divorce, about 8 years ago, and I had a reservation at an all inclusive spot.  I met this gentleman on the plane that had an Apartment at Las Canas with some of his New York buddies.  We hit it off and he was like, "JD, don't stay there, there are better local spots and I will help you".  Sooo, I went with the flow, spent a great first night with him and a few of his friends, including some ex-pats and locals, got a small room in Sosua.  For the next week, he and his buddies invited me over to their place and they basically adopted an ole country boy from Texas and it was the best week ever.  Other than the Cowboys losing to the Giants on that messed up extra point during that week, it was a great week and it convinced me, that the Sousa area is special and has some really good folks there, despite all the challenges.

JD sounds like a great first introduction to the DR

Bob K

During our first few days at the Villa, we met our gardener/maintenance guy, Raphael. A charming and fun fellow with a great attitude.
Thru sign language, and a lot of pointing, he showed me how to turn on and use our pool filtration etc,also where the switch for the hot water tank was...never would have found it lol.
Most importantly, he showed me that the most important tool in the universe is a machete! We removed a stump with his, buried an electrical cable and used it to excavate and install a flat rock to level an area of the patio, and cover the stump hole, and mask the cable burial!
I went and bought myown and used it to edge the garden, dig up weeds in the lawn and mash a large cockroach in the cassita. What an awesome tool!
I think with my trusty machete, and a roll of duct tape, I could solve the worlds problems.

Yes it is the universal tool here. It is a weapon, screw driver, shovel, grass cutter, can opener, tree trimmer, hedge trimmer, hammer, pry bar, coco nut opener, tree chopper (cut down monster trees), tile remover, hose trimmer, and so on. Almost as many uses as duct tape.  Yes with the two you can accomplish almost all house  hold chores.

Bob K

Bob -  WD40,  duct tape and a machete...........!!!!

Yep and add vicks vapor rub for what ever illness you may have.

Bob K

HAHAHAHA   so true.

Yes when gripe is in the air all you smell is vick's

Bob K

Only 1 stupid question, why is it labeled "Vick" here?
Other than that 1 thing, NOTHING else is
wrong with the Dominican Republic!
My new home.

Hahahaha  only that.............

I had something amazing happen -  a friend brought me 35 pounds of good quality beef in his carry on luggage (frozen of course) . WOOOOO HOOOOO and I have a BBQ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yes............ tonight  tbone steaks!!!!!

There can be amazing frozen carry-on's!.  In mid-May my recommendation is for Copper River Salmon from Alaska - it will carried in  Seattle's fishmarkets.

There was time when I worked out of Seattle and used to fly home each Friday afternoon.  I was able to bring it fresh, mmmm.

What time should we be over for the BBQ 

Bob K

Last time in we carried two racks of lamb in our carry on.  Boy were they good

Bob K

Dinner at 7:30 LOL

OK trying to get out of the house....Or right you are 4 hours away... ok next time.

Enjoy the steak

Bob K

Now I am 6 hours or so from you.............. and yup not sharing my tbone steak darn it........... and some good red wine.....  yummmm yummmmm

Ok so we were a neighbor's house for dinner and had imported (smuggled in a suitcase) rack of lamb and a great French wine.  So not too jealous.

Bob K

A real good rum:

This is better than Anejo, we had some Brugal XV  <- 15 years old?.    To my taste it rivaled Diplomat.

Hey, we have over 1 million members here!

Tomas you do realize that it is well over that number now as this was originally announced a year ago???

Bob K

duhhh, I guess I missed that.
Oh well, it's all good Bob!
You have a great day chum!

  Havent seen any new post pop up here for awhile!! Well some good news. We didnt think we would be back til maybe January to our villa, but with a bit of wangling, we will arrive July24 for an added 2 weeks!!
Cant wait! We have had a great first rental season on the place and thought...what the heck!!

Yayyyyyy  good to hear!!!!

I recently spent  4 days on the north coast -  hats off to Centro Medico Bournigal - great service to a friend of mine.

Hats off to El Carey -  great music, dancing, drinks and food on a Sunday afternoon!!!

Tomas Cabrera wrote:

Only 1 stupid question, why is it labeled "Vick" here?
Other than that 1 thing, NOTHING else is
wrong with the Dominican Republic!
My new home.

Gosh, I'm going to have to keep my eyes open a bit better! Don't know how I missed this one.

So for my Lat-Am Trivia response...

It's also called Vick (no 's) here in Brazil and in all of Latin-America as far as I know. The reason being that neither in Portuguese or in Spanish do the make anything possessive by adding 's to the name,  (Port. - do / da  and Span.  - del). Not wanting to create brand confusion by adding anything else to the name P&G simply dropped the 's and here it's just VICK.

Cheers,
James  Expat-blog Experts Team (and triva / useless information master  )

HEY JAMES!! useless information guy! Ive been known as Ken, " a virtual smorgasboard of useless information"....guess that makes us bro's! haha

Donna&Ken,  good news on the up coming trip

Bob K

Hey James!
The thing is, "VICKS" is the brand name,
no apostrophe.
I then thought it might be an counterfeit
of the real thing. Who knows here?
The Vick here does work on headaches &
a lot of other stuff as well, just like in my old home,
Northern Ontario, Canada!

Donna & Ken....good news!

Actually Vicks is great for a lot of things we don't know about. Like toenail fungus (real problem in tropical countries) which cases the nail to discolor and thinken. Vicks works better to clear that up, and works faster than many other products on the market costing 20 times the price.

Some other interesting uses for Vicks Vapo Rub:

http://www.divinecaroline.com/self/well … ks-vaporub