newspapers

which english language newspapers can one have delivered in Santo Domingo, and how reliable is the service?

None, unless one has been introduced in the six months since I left the DR. There used to be a weekly in English known as the Santo Domingo News, done by none other than Dolores of DR1. But the DR1 Daily News on the internet or by e-mail has replaced that. If you plan to have e-mail in SD, just subscribe to that. Far simpler, and quite reliable.
Regards,
Keith

Waitaminute, I may have misinterpretted your question.

Are you asking which FOREIGN English-language papers you can have delivered in the DR? If so, the answer varies.

If you plan on using a mail forwarding service such as EPS or Business Mail, then you can subscribe to any newspaper you choose and have your Miami box listed as your subscription address. [I did this with my magazines for 4 yrs.] You'll receive the papers 1-2 days late and have to pay a small fee to get it at your forwarding service, but if you're really enamored of the Globe and Mail or some such, then it'd be worth it, I guess.

There reportedly are some English-language papers that deliver directly, such as the FT or WSJ, but cost is astronomical. Probably easier to find a large hotel near where you live and pick up a copy every morning, since the gift shop of many carry at least the FT and New York Times.

Hope this has been helpful.
Regards,
Keith

hi keith--
thanks for your response. One more question--you say you subscribed to magazines through a miami po box, and then had an eps service send it over to you in SD. Is that massively expensive? thanks, alyssa

Alyssa,

I actually used Business Mail. They charge a nominal annual "membership fee" (only DR$200-300/yr) and charge per item received by weight (since that's how they are charged when they freight the mail in from Miami every day). Not sure what the present charges are. I remember paying about RD$5 per business size envelope, about RD$11 per heavy magazine or catalogue. Packages also come with the customs charges, but then, you'd have to pay that no matter what delivery service you chose.

I have no idea what EPS costs, although I heard it is a bit lower (but not by much).

You might balk at the cost, but frankly, for sensitive documents (financial, bills, etc.), and time-sensitive documents, the security you get using one of these services is worth it. The Dominican postal service (INPOSDOM) has improved immeasurably since I first moved to the DR in 1995, but there still are many things I would not entrust to them -- gift packages, popular magazines in English, checks and credit card bills. There are simply too many stories in the Dominican press about Postal employees being found having diverted such items. It happens in the US too, but I feel that USPS is overall safer and the US culprits get caught more often. Hopefully there'll be a day in the near future when I can trust INPOSDOM as much.

Hope this helps.
Regards,
Keith