Moving to the Dominican Republic - Heidi and Tom – 1995’
Two years living on the beach, windsurfing, lifting weights and adventure traveling round the Island by motorcycle.

On our first date, Heidi told me I was not the man for her. She said she wanted someone that would take her to live on an island! I said "you stick with me for a few years baby and I'll sail you to an island" Well, she stuck with me and in 1995 we both quit our jobs, sold our house, sailboat and truck, rolled out some 401K money, packed two backpacks and took off for the Dominican Republic.

Before boarding the plane bound for the Dominican Republic we only had reservations for one night. Hotel El Paraiso, in the heart of the tourest village Sosua and all the action. I mean that in more ways than one!

We liked where we were but checked out several other hotels to stay at next. The next morning I negotiated for a long term stay at Hotel El Paraiso. I started out by asking the price for 1 week. I follow that by asking the price for 1 month. Next I ask the price for 3 months if we paid cash, in advance. This worked well. We received a huge price break for a 3 month stay. $600 per month complete with full kitchen, pool, with a big patio.

We planned on staying for two years so for sure the first task after securing a place to live was to buy a used motorcycle. There were motorcycle rental shops all over. The first week I test drove several. I started learning Spanish on the plane ride over and no one speaks English here. Heidi and I would study our Spanish books and create cheat sheets for me to use while looking to buy the motorcycle. Wow, what an adventure.

I pick out a Yamaha DT125 enduro. It had a few scrapes and bent parts but it popped a wheelie with ease and felt strong. $1500 and we are set to explore the island in style.

The village of Cabarete beach is 7 miles away from Sosua, where we were staying. Cabarete beach quickly became our favorite destination for a day outing on the motorcycle. We knew we had to move here next.

Tropic Breeze, right on the beach in the village of Cabarete, Dominican Republic. This is where we stayed next. We found it by just walking along the beach one day.

View from our patio, Cabarete bay.

Cabarete bay is rated as the 3rd best windsurfing spot in the world.
We felt we could have lived here forever. In fact we talked about buying it when we found out it was for sale. Well.... two months later the place sold and we had to move out. Bummer :(

We found an even better place, La Punta hotel apartments. We needed to wait a month for the room to be vacant though. We stayed for the month here, at Caribe Surf. A hot plate and ice cooler was all we had but again, we were right on the beach.