The Dominican experience so far

Hello everyone! I originally posted last in 2019. Since then I purchased a house in Las Terrenas in November with plans to retire in February. Then Covid...oh well, best laid plans and all that.
I finally retired, and sprinted madly for the DR as soon as the airports opened. I have been here about a month and I couldn't be happier. 

The Dominican experience so far…in no particular order:

    1. Motorcycles! Flag down a motoconcho and go anywhere. I used to ride, and oh how I missed it!
    2. “Your” motoconcho guy is always at the top of your WhatsApp.
    3. No bears or porcupines on the back porch (I'm from Alaska). One morning a snake and I were mutually alarmed, though.
    4. A hedge of hibiscus. Golden trumpet flowers growing up the side of the house. Lavender and yellow flowers drifting down from the breadfruit tree.
    5. Buy groceries/hardware/building supplies and they are delivered to your house that day.
    6. No jerks in monster trucks with stereos on your street at 2 am. No sirens all night.
    7. Half-naked guy walking down the street with a machete? Admire the view, then ask him how many pesos to take down the dead palm tree in your yard.
    8. Roosters don't crow at dawn. They crow at midnight,1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 am, and shut up only if you've been awake 5 hours.
    9. No freezing in a power outage. And you don't have to cut wood to build a fire to melt snow to get water.
    10. Cacao, breadfruit, avocado, and banana trees in the backyard. Kids trading their mangoes for your breadfruit; splitting bunches of finger bananas with the neighbors.
    11. The smell of laundry dried in the sun. Repeatedly walking into the blasted clothesline.
    12. Plumber comes a couple hours after being called, Plumber has cabinet maker friend; all plumbing fixed and water-ruined cabinets replaced with custom ones by end of week. I may marry him. Either one.
    13. Night frogs sound like demented geese with bullhorns.
    14. A Dominican grocery store owner in Alaska has relatives in Las Terrenas (of course he does!). Was able to ship all my stuff blue-barrel from Alaska to Las Terrenas.
    15. Frozen spiced sweet potato pops made by neighbor.
    16. Most used translated phrase on phone “ayuda, soy un idiota”.

So glad to be here - hope to meet Las Terrenas forum members sometime soon.