Comment by K0balt

Comment by K0balt a day ago

Come on over to the Dominican Republic. I’ve been here for 15 years, and I’ve had no problems running several projects from here. In the Cibao region you’ll find IMHO the best culture, and Santiago has a little of everything, though it takes some looking to find the gems. I prefer the mountains between Santiago and Puerto Plata, close to everything but not in the middle of anything. Above 1000m elevation the weather is cool nights, warm days.

If you get here HMU if you want to talk about the third industrial revolution and what we’re working on to make it a better ride for humans.

TechDebtDevin a day ago

I spent a month there working for a client at "caso de campo". I really enjoyed the month. What was weird, I stayed at a town outside (I'm not elite enough to stay at caso de campo :P) forget the name but the whole town was just filled with Italian expats. It has been on my list of potential places.

However, the one thing I didn't like though was all Haitian workers, I actually witnessed some pretty awful stuff (like literal bloody fights over water bottles) inside caso de campo where they virtually had Haitian slaves. I'm talking guys standing behind me at dinner waiting to refill my water, and that was their entire existence. Probably better than living Haiti, but it made me feel uncomfortable. Not sure if the rest of the DR is like that though, I didn't really leave that area.

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K0balt 10 hours ago

Ive not seen that kind of mistreatment of people, but I’m sure it happens especially in situations of extreme class disparity.
Where I live it’s extremely laid back- it’s rural, 50 minutes from Santiago and an hour from puerto plata.
We have a coffee plantation that I pretend to run, but I spend most of my time working on tech and improving our micro-grid and water micro-utility systems.
Lots of avocado and fruit trees, cacao, etc. there are several houses and a bunch of cabanas we have built here since 2018, a couple of parks, a lounge, trails etc. we moved a whole project here during Covid, so we built out the campus a little bit to accommodate that. It’s a very campo vibe, but with modern conveniences and systems.
If you come by this way, let me know.
Where is casa del campo located? Was the town Sosua? I’ve always thought of Sosúa as being mostly German expats, but TBH I typically avoid those kinds of places in favor of the Latino culture, so I wouldn’t really know.
There’s island culture and Latino culture here, as well as enclaves and barrios of a lot of nationalities. Santiago has some very euro feeling neighborhoods - but that’s immigrant communities, not expats.
Unfortunately a lot of expats prefer spend their time commiserating with other expats about whatever isn’t the same as it is back in their country lol, so I tend to avoid that scene and mostly associate with more established families and people.
I like the Cibao area, more of a Castilian vibe, Spanish colonial, and not so much island culture. It’s not that island culture is bad, it’s just that it centers around hospitality, entertainment and tourism, so a white guy often isn’t looked at as a person so much as an opportunity.
I think that’s pretty universal across where I’ve been all over the world, port towns and tourist hotspots all have that same vibe.

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