Up to speed...

So bear with me here...I want to get anyone interested up to date on our process.

Honeymoon in Punta Cana 2014

A few years ago my husband and I discovered that we both had long held a dream of living on a tropical island.  Not unusual, I know very few people who don't harbor a similar dream...though most of them have set their eyes on the Sunbelt of America, whereas my husband and I are fully open to the idea of expatriating. We've both lived in other countries for years at a time...my better half lived on five continents...and we love the idea of learning another language and culture.

In retrospect, all the clues were there...my husband's "life's a beach" sign, our many cruises in the Caribbean and vacation rentals in the Bahamas and visits to Dominican Republic...if we had a choice about where we would like to live full-time, it would be somewhere tropical.

Paradisus Punta Cana

So...where??

There's the South Pacific, Hawaii, Caribbean, Latin America, Bahamas--which I always think of as the Caribbean--Bali, Maldives, etc.  Well, we don't have the money to travel to all of these places before we need to make a decision.  So, we're left with a checklist:

Must haves:

• Hills/mountains
• palm trees! Lots and lots of greenery and tropical plants!
• beaches/ocean 
• relatively cheap housing and labor
• Distance in miles and time! We have kids and extended family that we want to be able to see on a regular basis which leads us to stay in the Western Hemisphere.
• infrastructure;  decent roads, telecommunications, water and electricity --something I can't really say we have here in my suburban neighborhood!
• agriculture --this is really important!  Running around looking for basics that have to be imported and are over-priced is no fun! 
• constant breezes This one has to do with the fact that blood-sucking insects of all kinds will travel many miles to feed on me or my daughter...and that can ruin the fun for us...not to mention, ruins the possibility of an indoor to outdoor living space flow...which is another 'must have'! Breezes not only keep things cooler and may reduce the need for air conditioning, but keep the bugs at bay!

With this list, we made our way to the north coast of the Dominican Republic and fell in love with a little town called Cabrera.  NOW, FULL DISCLOSURE.  After many hours of research and a quirky little website called DRESCAPES, we went there for one of Barry Soloman's mini tours...and there were many other gringos there for the same reason.  We booked our own travel and had already had some real estate contacts lined up...But, we had NEVER been there, so we weren't expecting to fall in love with Cabrera.  But we did! And as with any love-at-first-sight scenario, we will be spending the next decade or more getting to know the town and people and the culture of this area of the Dominican Republic.

I lived, studied and spend many summers in the Black Forest area of Germany and although I feel perfectly 'at home' there, I'm always amazed at something new that I had never seen before.  That's the fun part!  But, always with the knowledge, you know nothing...first step to wisdom, right?