What's it like in Puerto Rico?

Guys,

I'm looking at a pretty cool job in Dorado, Puerto Rico. Anyone have any experience with that part of the world? Thanks for any comments.

I vacationed there for a week two years ago. Lovely women, beautiful weather, very American. No ethnic flavor at all except for Spanish being a main language. Mind you, I was in a more touristy area. When you moved out it got pretty poor pretty quickly. The people and traffic were pretty friendly and the rum flowed like tap water.

Mind you, a vacation impression may not be the best. I think Gbear has more experience and we have one poster who lives there... I can't quite remember who though.

You can stand at the front door of Burger King and see another Burger King in sight all the way across the entire island. Same with KFC. I was in a cab one day and the driver told me that Puerto Rico had the best chicken in the world. They call it KFC. I almost fell out of the cab. It's a really cool place. Get you liver ready. Them people start on Thursday night and don't stop till Sunday night.

My only experience with PR is going from the airport to the Cruise ship.

Jump on tripadvisor.com...they have great message boards and you'll get many good informative responses on there.

Dorado seems to be a big tourist area.

http://welcome.topuertorico.org/city/dorado.shtml

Vacation is different then living there.

Do you speak Spanish?

Will you live in a touristy area or a urban area?

My sister was born there and I've been many times since I was a kid. It's like a nicer Mexican Caribbean that's America. There's some poverty but it's not third world level and I've seen third world level. The island has all kinds of really cool things to do from the rain forest to fishing and beautiful beaches, surfing on the west side of the island. First class dining and it's reasonably cheap for an island. People are friendly for the most part but you will find some attitude in the locals towards main lander/white people. Particularly the south side of the island where I probably wouldn't go (and was told by locals not to). Helps to speak Spanish but at least in San Juan and in most professional settings people speak English. Oh and Aricebo is not too far from Dorado, it's a really cool a counterpart to the Very Large Arrey here. I think I'm lucky to have seen both of them. (They're radio telescopes think Contact)

Thanks for the comments guys. I do speak Spanish, but my wife and kids do not. The area we are looking at is called Dorado and I'm told they speak a lor of English there. There's a very good private school there that is taught in English and Spanish. Dorado is on the Northern coast right in the middle of the island. Maybe 25 miles west of San Juan.

Thanks again for the comments. KAO, seems like you always have some good info for me when I'm looking.

Dorado has a great golf course. I believe Chi-Chi is a member there.

Too many Puerto Rican's there for my taste.

The fishing is outstanding and the Puerto Ricans are good at it. If you charter a boat you won't be let down.

There is a marina all the way on the east side of the island that has 1,500 slips (boats) That's the biggest marina I've ever seen anywhere in the world and first class boat yard. When I ran Sharkey's Revenge that was my home base for maintenance. There is a restaurant there that lets you grab your own lobster out of a tank. Too cool. I grabed a 5 pounder a got my ass whipped by said beast. Splashing water all over the place. On people and everything. They didn't mind though. It was funny. He was good dipped in butter. Fajardo! That's the name of the town. Very snazzy.

Thanks again for the comments. KAO, seems like you always have some good info for me when I'm looking.

Luckily, Santa Fe and Puerto Rico are two places I've actually been! OLS

Glad I could help.

That's pisses me off Capt, I got skunked on a $250 charter there out of Fajardo (the slips were by that kick ass Westin resort, the Coronado I think)?