New members of the Puerto Rico forum, introduce yourself here – 3rd quarter of 2016

Well just remember that most business fail in the first 18 months, having sufficient capital to survive the worst of it is KING!

Welcome to the island.
Rey

Hello! It's true that Palmas has it all but, in my opinion, living there is like living in paradise, not in Puerto Rico as well. If you really want to experience our way of life, I think you should move to another place. Don't take me wrong when I said that living in Palmas is like being living out of our real world. Palmas has everything you can imagine and really is a great place to live. One of my best friends and cousin lives at Palmas and I try to go there to enjoy its beauty as much as I can. I went yesterday to share with them @ the beach club. If your work is going to be near this area, It would be awesome if you decide to move in there. But if you are going to work @ San Juan and, you really love to live near the beach, I recommend you to consider Condado or Isla Verde. I am a puertorrican and I live at Guaynabo city. I decided to join this forum because I want to improve my English. I hope not to have lots of grammatical errors. Wishing you the best during this journey! Frances

I agree 100% with Frances, you can live in a paradise that provides a lot of the same things you find in some areas of the states, but it is going to cost you and you will be living differently than most Puerto Ricans and miss on some of what the island has to offer. It is not a good area if you need to work in the Metro Area or if most of your friends live in the metro area.

But each person is different, I like to live country side with my own pool for our use and the friends and family, where it is quiet since I do not like to deal with the noice and crowds, I also like to plant my own vegetables and fruits and live a humble life. Metro is not an attractive place for me and if I decide to work as a consultant, it will be from home. I like the greenery and peaceful life of the country side, but then again I am a native of the island.

Frances so far your English is coming across perfect!

Thank for your input, Frances. You and Rey have offered some valuable insights on Palmas vs. San Juan vs. the countryside.

Your English es perfecto!

By the way CDixon, back in 2013-2014 on one of my visits to the island I visited Palmas for the first time (been there several other times at the hotel and visiting with Frogrock and other friends). Back then I went so far as to consider purchasing there, it was mostly for my wife which is a mainlander. But yes I was tempted, I changed my mind due to cost and the fact that the wife does not mind a country setting like what I had in mind (so long as I build her a pool).

It is a great place, but as a native, I am used to live in the economy and a Spanish speaking environment close to the rest of my PR family.

If your partner lives in Palmas then it sounds like it will likely work for you and allow you, your partner and potential customers to meet in a very nice and impressive area.

If you are going to do just a few trips a month to the airport or the metro area, likely it will not be a major hassle. Traveling to the metro area multiple times a week will get old rather quickly as you are looking at about 1 1/2 - 2 hour each way during heavy traffic.

So a lot depends on your budget and how often you will travel outside of the East Coast and Palmas Area.
Good luck
Rey

Hello Everyone!  So happy to have found this expat forum on PR.  Much needed and useful information thus far.  My husband has been traveling to PR since 2006 and absolutely loves the island.  We are traveling to PR next week with a friend who has property there. Our plan is to circle the island and explore more areas and get to know more PR culture and what the island has to offer.  Our timeline on relocating to PR is 2 years.  This will give us plenty of time to prepare, research and save for the move. 

We have a 3 year old son that we currently homeschool, but are open to the private sector. I'm curious to the homeschool support and population.  Anyone here involved in the homeschooling community?

Areas thus far we are interested in are Aguadilla, Borinquen and Isabella on the North West, Ponce on the South and maybe the areas around Humacoa on the East.   We would like a laid back feel, country living, with some land to grow fruit trees and a garden.

My husband and I know enough Spanish to get in trouble, so an area with a great bilingual support system would be ideal.   Any other areas we should check out?

I look forward to learning more from those of you with experience and the willingness to share your experiences.

Welcome to the forum and soon to Puerto Rico.
About 4 of our members do home schooling and there are support organizations for it, so you will not be alone.
All those areas you mentioned have what you want, however english speakers can be spotty in some areas.
Rey

Thanks ReyP!  Any direction as to where to find the support groups for the homeschooling so that I may start to do my research and ask questions?

Some members mentioned suport groups, here are some links that may help.
http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/PR/default.asphttps://www.home-school.com/groups/PR.html
Hope the links help

Rey

Thank you Rey!

two more http://www.hslda.org/hs101/PR.aspxhttp://www.hslda.org/orgs/?State=PR

Hi there and welcomed i would suggest a laid back town like Aguada close to the beach restaurants stores shopping and minutes from a big city Mayaguez and Aguadillia Aguada is a historical small town on the western side of Puerto Rico also there is Rincon Puerto Rico and Isabella Puerto Rico

Recently moved to PR from the US looking for more freedom. Interested in buying land to develop, agriculturally. Got some contacts in that field, wife's family is from here(more contacts), know Spanish fluently, and I'm fairly young, so I'm very optimistic about this process. If you're looking at moving to PR to live freer please contact me. If you need any help, or have questions, shoot me a message and I'll see what I can do.

Well welcome to Puerto Rico and the forum, we can use more active members to help new comers.
Thanks
Rey

Where are all the expats in Fajardo? We live there and hardly see any.. but I guess it helps if you do more than just go to the grocery, rainforest, and beach... LOL... I just realized we really need to be more active and social...

Unfortunately it will be more than a year before I move to Ceiba, when I do I will try to get all the expats in the east area out of their hiding hole and see if I can get them involved in the communities.

I love that as you wrote you were like...maybe it's me! Lol 

Well thank you... unfortunately we do need a push...we've been here over a year now and we have found some pretty cool places to go swim, hike, and snorkel... but we usually do it just us two... we do have friends that have moved to the westside that we see about twice a month but it would be nice to do more on the east and find those hidden places that only the locals know...

I spent the entire summer in PR and wondered the same, as long as I was in Palmas I found many, but outside "the bubble" the only ones I met, lived in Palmas!

BearNVa wrote:

Well thank you... unfortunately we do need a push...we've been here over a year now and we have found some pretty cool places to go swim, hike, and snorkel... but we usually do it just us two... we do have friends that have moved to the westside that we see about twice a month but it would be nice to do more on the east and find those hidden places that only the locals know...

Melendezki (Hector and Kim) are having fun going all over the island, Hector is native so that helps. Maybe you should PM them about taking you two along. You meet them when we all got together in Luquillo.