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I grew up in Ponce, the south coast is generally more dry. I will suggest start by staying on the area and drive around. Go to a local marina and talk to the local fishermen and weekend sailors. Salinas and the areas around that part will be more of locals than expats like you will find in the metro or Rincón area. Guayama and Ponce are bigger cities si you will find more big name stores.

Hope this helps.

Hello All I'm moving to Juana Diaz Pr,
Near Ponce within a year.  My family willed me
3 acres of land with two homes already located on the property.  There's the main home and a smaller " rental home or family home". I've been working with an architect to resesign the main home to a modern/contemporary home.   My fear and hesitation is investing a large amount of cash to redo the property when the island is in a dire situation.  Any thoughts or suggestions ?

It depends on your attitude toward the property and PR in general. Do you want to live there? How soon you want to live there? Is the property mostly a vacation home for you?

If you are not moving in soon then why make the changes now, why not keep it as it is and let your money grow to invest later?

The next 2 years I expect that the island will be going thru mayor growing pains due to the Promesa team forcing the government to downsize significantly. There will be major unemployment both from goverment and some private sector. After that I expect a slow upcline of positive activity once we are done bellyaching. After 5-7 years we should see a clear level of progress which will be the clear signal and when heavy investment really kicks in.

But things will get worse for the first 2 years, basic services will be affected because budgets will be severely curtailed. Expect property taxes to go up b cause municipalities will receive a lot less from the central goverment.

If you are not moving in, just do maintenance, leave the heavy work for 1 year before you make the jump to the island and let your money grow. You can rent both properties in the mean time.

This is a long read but I wanted to share my ideas of a new life and business ventures in PR. As most  on this site know I live dab in the center of the South coast in the center of the historic district of Ponce. I have had a parttime experience with this for about 16 years. This is how I am building a life on the Island..I have a successful airbnb operation that friends of mine manage when I am away. They use the house for gatherings as a grass roots movement emerges.  These folks are artists, agriculturists, poets, musicians and the likes. We are creating a new way to live and I can offer my expertise of living independent of most lifestyles and having an American entrepreneurship education. None of this could have been developed without the internet and direct access to a retail market via the likes of airbnb, Etsy and other means of marketing that eliminates the middleman and profit loss. The us market is one of the major markets in the world and we have direct access to this market. Puerto Rico is my base of operation. My home is a destination because I give people the opportunity to experience an authentic vision of Puerto Rico via an artist's interpretation of Ponce and PR. Even the local folks I mentioned have experienced this when they are in the home and this has given them a bit of hope to be able to work together in creating a rich lifestyle that is not always determined by greed. Along with a manufacturing business that I have had for 15 years that uses online marketing I have other projects in the works that will incorporate  this grass roots movement. I have planted my farm with lemon grass. With this we will be distilling the grass for the oils. This can then be sold via internet  and used in making natural mosquito repellants and lotions. I can offer samples to our house guest with information regarding this grass roots movement in PR to encourage interest. I have also planted fresh curry leaf and kaffir lime leaves which are renewable resources that just keep producing. These leaves can be shipped very easily and inexpensively and sold directly to a specialized consumer via Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, etc. A paste can also be made that is added to coconut milk and introduced to creative chefs to open another taste on their menu. I will be putting bee hives on my farm just above Ponce. Cuba has a thriving business selling Organic Honey to Europe. I have a friend who travels the world promoting not only the quality of honey but very active in helping the bees survive the onslaught of pesticides and decimation. My farm has a huge amount of swarming honey bees constantly looking for viable housing. Organic Puerto Rican Honey could  be a lucrative business with a us market. I also had an art gallery 20 minutes outside of Asheville, NC and was considered the best kept secret in Asheville and became a destination. I gave an artist from the amazon area of Peru his first US art showing. He is a visionary artist. We had around 200 people show up with most of them under the age of 40. all this was created in a few weeks via social networking.  Just last year he was in LA and  was a bit of a celebrity with actors housing him and buying his work. One piece sold for 17,000. He wants to visit me in Ponce.  My idea is to create an international visionary art, healing plant and honey bee conference in historic Ponce in 2018 . By then I will have extra rooms available in my home, casitas on the farm for the back packing type. We will be able to offer organic meals, etc. I have a big mailing list as we have contact information of our international airbnb guests that have stayed with us over the years.  We have their photo comments and email addresses of hundreds of guests,. I have mailing lists from  people who have attended my art shows in Asheville, NC, Along with this I have numerous contacts. Along with this I have numerous friends and acquaintances who have very viable businesses that are outside of the mainstream way of seeing things.  All of this and more I plan on showcasing in a beautiful, culturally rich, historic, classic colonial town. There are plenty of empty buildings to house a temporary art exhibit and conference. This in turn could create satellite shows and exhibits. I would like to showcase the Taino culture in art along with the Amazonian shamanic art. One skill I do have is to become a destination and that is due to thew value of new visions in art and life style. This is why I chose Ponce many years ago without really knowing why and now I do. I will keep everyone posted once I resolve my investments here in Nc and turn my full attention the my ongoing creative adventure in Puerto Rico

This sounds very interesting.  I would like to visit your place when we return to PR soon.   We had friends that were honey farmers in Minnesota.    The idea has great potential.

You have some awesome ideas in the works, Mrkpytn!

Thanks, fortunately the projects are  already moving forward even as I sit here in the cold mountains of Western North Carolina trying to resolve issues of closing on the sale of my studio. This is the sort of thing you  would think only happen in Puerto Rico. Easement issues

Mrkpytn, I can certainly see why your headed to this area. My point of interest is just east of there. Jobos/Salinas. For my reasons, a much greater protected harbor. Seems to be about 25 nautical miles further west. I already find Jobos to be 43 nautical miles out of SVI.

Have you been in the area? Are there decent services there? Seems like there should be.
I'm told I would need to go to Guamaya to replenish goods if in Jobos/Salinas

I am not very familiar with Guayama but I do  not think it has the likes of Sam's or Home Depot. I think it is about 30 t0 40 minutes from Salinas to Ponce.

I have no major complaints about the services in Ponce .

My brother has his boat moored at the Salinas Marina.   They also have dock space. It is a nice marina.

frogrock wrote:

My brother has his boat moored at the Salinas Marina.   They also have dock space. It is a nice marina.

Hear it's a Pirate Ship! Should be easy to spot!
Does he do day sails?

I'm seeing Wednesday 15 March as my day in town.