Living In the Dominican Republic (Las Terrenas 2018)

The Dominicans are very happy, partying, family-orientated people. Every weekend, every holiday you see them partying at the beach, BBQing, swimming, dancing, playing with their children and enjoying life. And they are friendly and receptive to tourists.

What we didn’t like as much—the mosquitos, which were greater in number at Las Terrenas than Bayahibe. The apartment complex we stayed at sprays its garden and lawn to kill mosquitos. But a few still buzzed us in the apartment. We closed the bedroom door and turned on the overhead fan to keep them away.

We didn’t get any mosquito-carrying illnesses, but I am told this is more likely in the wet season, which runs from June through November. Three years ago there were many incidences here of chikungunya, which causes joint pain, headaches, fevers.

Mosquito diseases coincide with hurricane season.In the past 80 years only 11 have hit the Dominican Republic. The island’s mountainous geography, pressure systems and ocean currents help push storms away, and the coral reefs around the island help protect against storm surges.

Noise levels can be high here, because the Dominicans are loud people: they like their music at the beach, parties, motoconchos beeping their horns trying to get paying customers on the back of their motorcycles.

Food prices here are generally good for the Caribbean. You can check out my blog—http://www.travelthoughts.net/2018/03/16/supermarket-prices-dominican-republic—
for a shopping list of food items to see how much things cost.

Accommodation can be reasonable, too If you book for a month you can get a decent place for around $600-$800 per month off-season if you deal directly with the owner. Otherwise, check out airbnb and see what the costs are. Additional costs are electricity. We just paid about 1300 pesos for 5 1/2 weeks. If you need to use ai conditioning constantly this can treble.

After more than 5 weeks in Las Terrenas and a month in Bayahibe, we have to say neither offers good internet. It is OK, with frequent lapses in signal and speeds varying from around 3-0-10 Mbps download and 0.5 to 1 mbps upload. As I was sending only emails and word attachments and Inessa was uploading photos, we could get by. We uploaded 1 gigabyte files to our YouTube channels which took a few hours—not great.

Also, there are frequent power outages throughout the day. They aren’t long but they can be disruptive.

Apparently, fibre optic is promised. As it stands, we cannot recommend either Bayahibe or Las Terrenas to digital nomads who need a strong signal for their work, or a teacher giving English lessons on Skype. Apparently, Cabarete, which is up the coast, has better Internet and is popular with digital nomads. But Cabarete is more windy and suited for kite surfers and the beaches are not as good.

All things considered, we had a great time. Having good accommodation, reasonable prices and being so close to the beach really contributed to a very pleasant stay. The quality of food in the supermarkets is good: fresh eggs, chicken, fish, decent bread and great fruit.

MUSIC
"Daydream Bliss" SYBS
"Soul Brother" Bruno E.

Видео Living In the Dominican Republic (Las Terrenas 2018) канала David Williams