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My husband and I will be traveling to Puerto Rico at the end of August to explore the island to discern the best location to relocate our family to in Puerto Rico. We are "mainlanders" but we speak Spanish nearly fluently and our children were adopted from a spanish-speaking country as well.
We desire to live in an area that is NOT touristy and/or over-populated with "mainlanders". We don't want to live in/near San Juan. We would prefer to live in an area that is more traditionally Puerto Rican, but where there would be hope for us to get jobs (my husband has his MBA, I have my BA degree in Education...we both speak English fluently and Spanish nearly fluently) and a place that would be safe and affordable for our family to live.
What suggestions do you have for areas for us to check out while we are there in a few weeks? What type of jobs would be most likely to hire people with our background? I'd be looking for part-time, my husband for part-to-full-time work.
Aibonito immediately comes to mind. While I cannot boast about personally knowing a whole lot about this town, I've heard nothing but great things about it. It's slightly east of the central mountainous region, and is known to have Puerto Rico's coolest weather. See link below.
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed
Click on the "Aibonito Panoramio Photos" link at the above site.
The other place that comes to mind is the north western town of Isabela. I go there each year precisely because it's a non-tourist destination. The locals are genuinely nice and down to earth. The town is clean and safe.
I would honestly recommend Dorado (again). Dorado has English speakers, but not overflowing, although it will be hard to find a place overflowing with Angloparlants, unless it's touristy, which Dorado technically is...
Just go to Dorado My recommendation
There are many areas of PR that have concentrations of bilingual schools (Dorado is one of them) and in these areas you will find Puerto Ricans and the youth speaking English.
I had a Canadian friend who came down here to live though and he learned Spanish perfectly with the same Boricua accent.
You could also try the West coast, other forumers can go more into detail about that region.
And finally, there is Ponce. It is a really beautiful city in the same league as San Juan, but it's like a hidden secret and is not overloaded with tourists.
Cabo Rojo, in the southwestern part of the island. A big town/little city, low crime rate, good infrastructure, only about 10-15 minutes from Mayagüez Mall. Cabo Rojo have good beaches and some areas are touristy but only the areas to the coast. The downtown is far from these areas and its recreation quare (plaza) is a very good place to stay, good environment, some cafes, etc.
Son and family live in Vega Baja. Beautiful coastline, and from what I saw, quite livable. The kids go to school in Dorado, about a half hour east, and it’s not too far from San Juan, or the inland mountains.
Most tourists are in San Juan. The rest are at resorts that you won't be living in. There is no other place in PR that I would consider "touristy" except the tourist attractions - the Rain Forest, the Caves, etc.
On a day to day basis nearly anywhere except San Juan - I rarely see tourists. Not never. But not enough to say, "OH, I can't live here, it's so touristy."
Also, in San Juan the places where tourists are most visible are Condado, Viejo San Juan, and to an extent Isla Verde (and the airport, but that’s a given.) Outside of there tourists go from a few here and there to you wouldn’t know PR receives millions of tourists. In most places you will be surrounded by Puerto Ricans left, right and center. Quite frankly, that’s how it should be in Puerto Rico, IMO.
That’s a common theme when it comes to the bigger islands of the Caribbean. Actual tourist areas are small in comparison to non-tourists areas (just because a place is nice doesn’t mean it’s touristy.)
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