Let me preface this by informing you I posted same thread at drsol, felt I wanted to share it here too
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Greetings all,
I wanted to share my wife's recent experiences on her trip through the D.R. . I am doing the recounting as she does not spend much time on the web, but all of the info is straight from her.
For those of you not familiar, my wife (born in Cotui) myself (born in NYC),and ourchildren (14,10,4) have been considering relocateing to the D.R. for a number of years now and have recently accelerated the process. My wife, Nelly, just spent 10 days starting in the North down to Santiago and over to Cotui. Her primary investigating was catered towards family living, schools, neighborhoods, etc.
She started off being picked up by GWB. True to his word, he made the trek down and was there waiting for her when her plane arrived late! He drove her up north, along with a good friend of hers, and personally brought them to the accomodations he had been kind enough to investigate in advance (catering to our financial parameters ). She spent the next few days being shuttled around by GWB, checking out neighborhoods in PoP, and Sosua. She felt very comfortable in his company and he introduced her to many friends and aquaintances. She also had the opportunity to speak with a teacher from the ISoS and some local real estate agents. One morning she went on the rounds with Ginnie, money changers, post office, supermarkets etc. This was very helpfull and gave her a good sense of the cost of living in the North. She found it expensive, but not out of line with what we expected. All in all it was a very informative visit to the North coast and she was impressed by much of what she saw, however she didn't feel it was the place for our family.
Off to Santiago she went, and a rendevous with Hillbilly. He was kind enough to take time out and meet with her. He took her to New Horizons school, which was lovely. She spent her next 2 or 3 days in La Torre, just outside of Santiago. She had relatives in that area, including one who has a 4 bedroom house willing to rent to us should we desire. She LOVED La Torre and felt it would be an area that would be very nice for our family. We are nature lover's but also have grown accustomed to the city life. This locale provides a bit of both. She was impressed with Santiago, very modern, but not as congested as other large cities (Sto. Domingo, NYC where we live.) She also had a chance to visit Santiago Christian school which she was very impressed with. The benefit of this school is all 3 of our children would be able to attend the same school. Calculateing cost for the application process, and tuition, fees, for the 3 it would cost us roughly 400K peso's a year. A tidy sum no doubt, but if the quality of education is top notch, money we are willing to invest.
She went home to Cotui for the new years and saw family and friends, enjoyed herself quite a bit.
Close to the end of her stay she was invited by GWB and Ginnie to their house for a big bash! She met many locals and prospective local's there and had an excellent afternoon. Food was delicious and the company as well. She networked a bit and made some good contacts there in many walks of life.
Our next step is a trip with the kids in March where we will further investigate Santiago and La Torre. We also want to have a look around the comercial zones as we have a few ideas for a small business.
In closeing I want to send an extra thanks to GWB and Ginnie. One never knows what they will encounter after only communicateing via e-mail but any trepidations we had were immediately put to rest. Grahame es un tigere with a big heart and Ginnie reminded my wife of my mother (a dynamo no doubt!). Their kindness of spirit and in offering their time, especially in the middle of planning a big event, will not be forgotten.
Ian
P.S. Many thanks to others on this site who offered to help. During her stay it became clear she didn't feel the North coast was for our family so she didn't delve further into offer's made, thank you nonetheless and who lknows what the future brings.
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Info gathering trip North coast/Santiago
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