Hi everyone,
I too have been reading through many of the posts here for the last month or so and have found many of them to be extremely helpful, so thanks to all of you for your contributions.
My reason for being here is that I spent 7 weeks in DR early last year. I divided my time between Santo Domingo (Colonial Zone), Puerto Plata (Lifestyle Resorts) and Sosua (I rented a bungalow in the town centre for a month). During my time in Santo Domingo, I met a great Dominican man who I have since decided to pursue a relationship with. We speak everyday via Whatsapp and Skype and I have been back to DR twice since my trip last year to spend time getting to know him and am back again next month for three weeks. I'm contemplating making a permanent move to Santo Domingo in January 2016.
Although I've been reading through the site and have obtained some great tips and information about the country, I'm not going to lie...I do have my reservations about living in the DR, particularly about living in Santo Domingo, my main concern being safety and all the corruption i've been reading about. My partner lives in Santo Domingo Norte which I have heard is not the best location, although he lives in a house in what appears to be a relatively decent neighbourhood (though some of the surrounding areas are a little questionable). Though I haven't experienced anything negative during any of my visits to DR, the online research (independent of this site) that I have done over the last 6 months does not depict the country in a positive light at all. If I had read this stuff prior to my initial trip I probably would have never have step foot into DR at all. However I know that everywhere has its good and its bad side, so in the name of 'love' I plan to be open-minded, remain positive and give it a shot. I will therefore be continuing to snoop around the blog for a while, looking for pointers and bothering you guys with questions as and when I have them in the hope that I can make my transition into Dominican culture as smooth as possible and hopefully make some new friends on here along the way.
I look forward to speaking with you all more over the coming months.
Thanks again
Candy