(10/23/13) This is the second day of a planned strike in the Northern Section of the Dominican Republic. The strike was originally called for Castillo, Bonao and San Francisco, but this has also sparked violence in Esperanza, Hato del Yaque, and Canca la Reina, in southern Espaillat province. Several people have been shot and four are confirmed dead with two of the deaths happening due to gunfire in Santiago and Navarrete.

With the protests happening in such a widespread area it would appear that people from other cities are deciding to join in on the welgas and protests. As is always the case, when you are out and about whether in service or your daily activities it is a good idea to watch what is going on around you.

For your safety, avoid areas where people are starting to gather rapidly. This is often a sign that something is happening and people are gathering around to watch. These crowds of people can spring up quickly and if you are nearby it is best to stay away.

Places to Avoid

While San Francisco and lately Bonao frequently have protests or as they are called here Welgas, most towns and cities have them at times making it important to pay attention wherever you are. That makes choosing particular cities to avoid difficult. If you are new to the DR (more…)

We just had a moderate earthquake in the Dominican Republic. A 5.1 earthquake shook the area around the Coutui, San Francisco, Fantino area this morning at around 10am with the epicenter in Las Guaranas between Angelina and Pimentel. I’ve felt 3 tremors so far this morning, one of them came with a sharp jolt in the middle of the trembling.

This is the first stronger quake I’ve felt here since the one that hit Port-au-Prince Haiti in 2010. While small quakes in the 3.1 – 3.3 range are very frequent in the Punta Cana, ahd Higuey, we don’t often fell them in the middle of the country.

That I have seen in this area there has been little or no (more…)

A couple things are for certain with foreigners that have moved to the Dominican Republic. First they are going to have computers to use for contacting family and friends back home, work, or doing finances. Second those computers are going to eventually break down! Heat, humidity and dust are a computers greatest enemies (well, we might add viruses to the list), and the D.R. is well stocked with all three (once again add viruses to the list if you ever have to get something printed at one of the local internet cafes).

Now you are stuck with a pretty rough choice, wait until you visit the States to get you computer fixed or try to find someone here. It’s not that you won’t find friendly people willing to help you here; it’s just that too often they are very willing to help even if they don’t have the experience to get the job done right. With computers you have an extra problem, not only do you have to find someone who knows what they are doing, but because you likely have sensitive information on your computer, you also need to find someone you can trust not to go through your computer looking for information (pass codes, banking information etc.) that can be exploited (that’s not easy to find regardless of what country you are in!).

Mercado OnLine

After three years of living in the D.R. two of my families computers gave up on life. My computer was a HP pavilion that was poorly designed for being in a hot humid country. I repeatedly needed to completely disassemble the computer to reach the cooling fan which needed to be cleaned regularly. It would appear I waited too long once or twice and the excessive heat killed several chips on the motherboard. Likewise my son’s cheaper computer finally gave up. With my entire business being online I needed a computer NOW!

Computer Diagnostics

Fortunately I have quite a few friends here and they suggested I try Mercado Online in San Francisco de Macoris. In the past I tried an “Authorized Repair Shop” in the Capital, Santo Domingo to work on my son’s computer. You can read about that experience (more…)

The smallest of the Dominican internet providers Tricom, has concluded a deal with China based Huawei to upgrade their services to the new 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution). LTE is a trademark of ETSI

This announcement follows the announcement on June 6th that Telecom is planning to invest more than $125 million USD in upgrades tho ther fiber optic coverage with about $40 million USD to be invested in the next year. This would move the network up to a bandwith capacity of 1GH (Gigahertz).

So far the major emphisis is in the usual larger markets of the National District, Santo Domingo East and West, San Pedro de Macoris and La Romana. Future services upgrades are planned for Santiago, La Vega, Bonao and the San Francisco area.

The upgrades are part of the new product push called “Internet Max” that takes advantage of internet speed up to 100MB using an infrastructure of hybrid fiber optic network (HFC)

Here is a look at the Current Tricom plans as per www.tricom.net. (more…)

A 5.1 earthquake struck near Barahona Dominican republic today (Saturday, July 7, 2012) at about 4:32 pm. the quake was felt as far away as San Francisco de Macoris. The depth of the quake was about 19 kilometers.

There have been no damage reports at this time. Other cities that were nearby the quake epicenter were Pescaderia (1 mile away), Cabral (3 miles away), Santa Cruz (4 miles away and Vincente Noble (9 miles away).

Wind Telecom is one of the newer providers of telecommunication services in the Dominican Republic. Wind provides some of the fastest high speed internet in the DR at some of the lowest prices. Wind telecom started in Santo Domingo and is at this time limited to only a few of the largest cities, although they are expanding rapidly to cover more area. I have several friends that are fortunate enough to have Wind in their area. Wind provides much faster high speed internet than Claro at a considerably lower price.

Wind 4G coverage is currently available in Santiago, Moca, La Romana, San Cristo, San Francisco de Macoris and in several barrios in Santo Domingo Hato Nuevo, Bayona, Cuidad Agraria, and Los Alcarrizos. Wind is working on moving into La Vega. (more…)