During one of our beach vacations we stumbled upon a rather interesting sight. I bet you didn’t know there is a Wal-Mart in the DR! Well, it’s true (sort of), and we have pictures for proof. Now don’t expect the usual array of household items, electronic, automotive, garden and other items we’ve all come to know and expect while shopping at this retail giant. And the prices here were not exactly what I would call “mark down”. The DR Wal-Mart is a little more … well let’s say “Local”.

Ok, it’s probably not an official retail store but we did find it rather entertaining. And if you squint your eyes well enough so you block out the rest of the surroundings and only see the sign, you can almost get that nostalgic feeling with this little taste of back home (well, almost).

Have you ever felt like a T.V. program or a radio station turns up the volume of their commercials? Sound cars are exactly what they sound like cars that make sound. You will hear one here even if you are here for only a week or two. These cars are exactly like the T.V. commercials except that they take it to a whole new level.

The sound cars are usually advertizing anything that you can imagine. You’ll hear them talking about a new type of deodorant or a promotion that they have in one of the different cell phone companies. You can often hear them belting out Claro promotions.

Sound cars are one of the more important forms of advertisement here. This is because many of the people here are too poor to have a TV where you would see your normal forms of ads trying to get you to buy their product. This is the same problem for radios which can end up costing about twice the amount that you would pay for them in the United States. (more…)

What could be better than free minutes for your cell phone? OK, well I can think of a few things, however it’s still nice to get something that you use a lot of for free! Something that it is good to know is Claro gives “bonus” minutes when you purchase refills of a higher dollar (or peso) amount. often it seems tempting to just buy the minutes you think you’ll need and pick up more when you need them. Seems reasonable when here in the DR you can buy your Claro, Viva, and Orange minutes at almost any comado. Usually in increments of 50, 100, or 150 pesos. But there are advantages of buying higher amounts. Bonus Minutes! (more…)

If you’re in the DR and you need to have some warrantee work done on your computer (at least Toshiba), I have both good and bad news. Good news? Well, yes there are Toshiba warrantee repair centers in the DR. Bad news? Nothing happens quickly here!

Allow me to tell a tale of getting an under warrantee computer repaired in the DR. First, no I’m not planning on bashing the repair center. If fact, through the entire process everyone we talked to was very pleasant to work with and in the end we ended up with a computer that seems have been completely repaired which included completing a Toshiba recall problem which involved replacing the keyboard.

The two points that did require a certain amount of patience on our part involved the time necessary to complete the repair and the organizational ability of the repair company. But first let’s digress: (more…)

While the Dominican Republic may seem a little behind in many aspects (water and power quickly come to mind), communication is not one of them. The DR sports an up-to-date 3g network for it’s phone and computer data. And although many people struggle to make enough for their daily needs one thing I’ve found that they don’t skimp on is their phones.

While you do see a lot of cheap cell phones, Blackberries, Iphones and other high end texting phones abound in this country. Probably one reason is the ease they do text messaging. Most Dominicans use a prepaid phones although there are monthly phone plans available. Sending a sms text message costs about 2-3 pesos here, which is a lot cheaper than using up your minutes on a voice call, so texting is extremely popular here.

If you looking for a gift for a Dominican friend or family member, a cell phone designed for texting is a great gift. These phone make texting easier in one of two methods either a touch screen that allows you to touch the letter you want added or a phone with a small alpha keyboard that has keys for each individual letter. While standard numeric keypad phones work fine, they are a lot more work to send a message. (more…)

If you only want to stay in the Dominican Republic for several months to a year, it’s possible you don’t want to buy everything new. Likewise when it’s time to go, you probably would like to sell your furniture, stove, fridge, inversor (invertir) and other larger items. There are several large online classifieds in the DR where you can buy and sell.

Most notably, yes craigslist does have a site for the Dominican Republic; you use the Santo Domingo Craigslist (Santo Domingo Craigslist). And yes, it is in English, although many of the ads will be in Spanish.

Some of the other sites you might want to try are: (more…)

I’ve had a lot of people ask me about the cost of living in the Dominican Republic recently, and beings as I recently remodeled and furnished an apartment, I’ve decided to blog it all out for those of you who may find it useful.

Setting Up Shop
Since there are few already furnished houses and apartments, most people have to buy everything to set-up their place as they want it. For a one bedroom, one bath, dwelling it will cost around $61,050 pesos ($1,695.83 US) to equip it with the basics.
Here’s an expense breakdown based on what I spent:

• Fridge $15,000
• Oven/Stove $10,000
• Cutlery $2,000
• Dishes $850 (four place set)
• Glass Set $250
• Bathroom Items $1,000
• Double Bed $3,500
• Desk $1,500
• Bookshelf $1,000
• Sheets $1,500
• Blankets $700 each
• Pillows $250 each
• Living Room Set $10,000
• Dining Table Set $8,000
• Washing Machine $7,000

Since it is an island, everything that is imported is more expensive, so anything that you can bring as far as electro-domestics would be recommended. Radios, computers, and other such items are much more expensive here than they would be anywhere else, and are generally of lesser quality since developing nations generally get sent irregular or imperfect items.

This may sound a bit odd, but buy your bed sheets before you come. (more…)

The Traveling Market
All across the Dominican Republic there are Haitian Markets that travel from place to place, selling items that are donated to the Haitian Government as foreign aid. These wares consist of excess clothing, shoes, toiletries, and other articles that are sold in massive bundles to individuals.

When to Go
The Haitian Open Market, or the Pulga (Flea Market) as it is known in Spanish, in Santiago is a great place to go and shop for retro clothing and other items. I love it for the clothes myself, since I always find something unique as I dig through the piles of colorful fabric that line the streets every Thursday.

The market starts at about 7:00am. If you are going to get nicer items or clothing, early is the best time to go, since no one has picked through everything yet. Dominican shop owners get there early too in order to buy “American brand clothing” in their little boutiques. So, if you wait too long there isn’t much left to choose from.

If you don’t care about the clothes or are just looking for random items, then going around 11am is good because they start to lower prices to sell off as much as they can before they have to pack back up and go to the next town. You’ll hear, “Diez pesos, todo a diez! (Ten pesos, everything for ten pesos!). I always go about then for household items because they are much less expensive.
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If you’re thinking of either moving to the Dominican Republic or staying long term, you are probably interested in what you might find in the way of larger chain stores. The DR is not all comados (small family owned stores). When you get into some of the larger cities you will find a large selection of Stores we are more familiar with in the United States.
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Here in the Dominican Republic there are many things that you aren’t always used to. One of these things that we are not always used to is the fruit stands.

Now, there are some fruit stands in the U.S. and probably in other places too, but I doubt that they are like the fruit stands in the Dominican Republic. To start off, a quick description of the stands here, they are made of anything that you could think of, a lot of them being on the side of a house or in a house. But to make it even more different, (more…)