I visited Puerto Rico and this is what I saw.
People - very helpful, always willing to help. They are so friendly that most of your neighbors visit daily and/or know where your where abouts are.
- you can go to a small city and where someone lives and somehow the person you asked who lives either on the other side of the mountain or
who lives several miles away knows exactly who you are talking about.
- Many families live in the same location - I guess land distribution or something.
Yes, Puerto Ricans are very friendly in general.
Traffic- Confusing with the Sometimes you drive in the middle lane sometimes you don't based on the light being green on which side.
Crazy drivers. Feel they own the road and expect 2 cars to fit in one lane, even on the mountain side.
Traffic very conjested in most areas. Oh, there is some grafitti on the highways that I think is suppose to be art but not very appealing.
Yes, traffic is like any other Latin country that is overpopulated. They have almost as many cars as people in Puerto Rico.
Scenery - very mountainous. Lots of trees.
Yes, most islands in the Caribbean are beautiful!
neighborhoods - some areas are very appealing but some are confusing. You can have an awesome gated community and it seems like you are in paradise and when you drive out make a slight right there is graffiti all over the walls and it looks "getto".
Yes, the infrastructure in the island is nothing to be compared to the states. It is about geography: unless you have flat land, things are difficult to organize. All towns are very close to each other and from a developmental perspective, it is very hard to keep the nice communities "aways" from the gettos so to speak. In fact, the thing with gated communities came as a result of that.
Average Pay - Not too appealing. I hear you need to know someone to get a half decent job and most jobs are between 6-8$ an hour.
They pay teachers and nurses - nothing over there.
Yes, it is very hard to find a job there. And as you said, even nurses and teachers are underpaid. Puerto Rico IS NOT the place to move if you want to start from scratch. Now, if your company sends you there and pays you accordingly, then you could have the best time ever!
Price of Groceries - Lots of the stuff I bought there was more expensive than the groceries I buy within the states. What bugged me the most was that
the plantines were 85 cents (how) when you can stop at the side of the road and pick them up from the ground for free. Plantines
are only 50 cents at walmart here.
Wrong spelling!!!! We are talking about "Plátanos" not "Plantines"
. And yes, they are more expensive there because the ones you get at WalMart come from South America. Cheaper labor, cheaper product.
Gas prices - very confusing - they charge differently so you really don't know if you are getting ripped off.
They sell gas by the litter not gallons. They are not ripping you off, they just use the metric or European conversion. But gas prices end up being the same like the US. Remember, it is a US territory. The US goverment wouldn't allow them to inflate the prices without measure.
Well, did I get it right?
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