It is truly difficult to really capture how much of a change in lifestyle it is for someone who is not from Puerto Rico to move to Puerto Rico. It is different for everyone and some people (like children) will adapt faster than others. It also depends where exactly you move. Some people like condos and gated communities that are completely shut off from everyone else and their daily experience will be quite a bit different from people who live immersed within a neighborhood. People with kids will have a different experience than childfree people. But overall, here are a few ways your life will probably change if you move to Puerto Rico.
1) Housing – Whether you buy or rent you will more than likely live in a cement house with tile floors and louvered windows. Often on a road with virtually no setback or yard. It takes some time to get used to, but when you’ve been through a tropical storm you’ll understand why concrete became the standard (though on the otherhand not always the best in an earthquake) and after you’ve swept your floors for the 5th time that day you will understand why you wouldn’t want to have moldy dirty carpet anyway.
Mofongo and Malta at a roadside stop!
2) Food/Diet – No you won’t have the best apples, asparagus and artichokes. You may find them, but they won’t probably be very appetizing and are probably about a month old from their travels. Lettuces and other tender greens will be sparse in the grocery store. But the tradeoff is a wonderful cornucopia of tropical delights if you just look a little deeply and/or grow your own. While we can get those standard apples here, I’ve never seen a pomarrosa in a store in the states for instance! Also, don’t expect Puerto Rican food to be Mexican food. Puerto Rican cuisine is its own specialty. While I miss the spicy Mexican foods of Colorado, I LOVE many of the great foods of Puerto Rico like pasteles and mofongo.
Warm weather to me means fun clothes!
3) Clothing -When it’s always nice outside, you won’t be needing that down padded snow coat or boots anymore…ever. Shorts and shirts or less. Most of the time I have a hard time putting on even that if we are staying at the property. However, one should always have a pair of pants and close-toed shoes on hand for the occasional visit to some governmental building or to go in a casino. Culturally most Puerto Ricans wear long pants. And must sweat like crazy. So if you don’t want to stick out like a gringo, you can wear pants. I still don’t usually though.
4) Activities – All year round summer means all year round summer-like activities. Especially if you live near the beach. Sure you can do most anything you did where you came from like go to the mall or a movie or whatever, but you will probably find yourself taking up some new hobby and activity. More than likely some creative venture. You also live on one of the most beautiful islands filled with all sorts of what you would probably consider exotic locations that you can explore anytime and pretty much without any pretense!
5) Shopping– Speaking of shopping….This is an island. Be prepared to get everything locally if possible. This is a who-you-know sort of place. You will need to be friendly with everyone because everything is connected. But if you do go shopping in the conventional way for example to some big box store like Sam’s or Marshall’s and you see something new that you may vaguely like and haven’t seen it before, you should probably buy it. More than likely you probably won’t see it there again or for a long while. And while you can buy a lot of things online, shipping is uncertain and sometimes pretty expensive.
6) Your abilities – You may have to do a lot more for yourself. And you will be surprised and amazed at the things you can do when you believe it. Heck, we are literally building a fricking house in the middle of jungle with very little outside help. You will grow and be stronger than you ever thought possible. But you have to be willing to give it a shot. You will learn about the can-do attitude of the people here. It may be done on Island Time, but if something gets set into motion, it gets done! You will probably learn a lot more home remedies and McGwyver type of fixes too. It helps to have 2 of everything just to have the parts!
There are “official” rules and then there are the “actual” rules of the road
7) Driving – At first you will think the driving here is absolutely nuts. Oh, they just used that as a bonus lane!! Oh, they said hi to their neighbor with a bunch of traffic behind them, ínteresting. They totally dodged that pothole and headed straight into traffic. Did they just go right through the red light?! Wow, the cashiers sell and OPEN the beer for customers in the gas station? Oh, they are just going to stop right here and buy some quenepas and m+ms, oh and a whole pizza, at this intersection? Or there is someone who is turning and the car in front of you decides to stop wave them in front. Then one day you are in a position where that move might be helpful. So you try it out. And then you realize you are pretty much driving just like everyone else. And it’s awesome!
Playground and a horse
8) Setting – Of course there are palm trees and gorgeous beaches. But there are also some of the weirdest, funniest moments and scenes I have ever seen.
Show me your paradise
9) Utilities – From the word Utility. The quality or state of being useful. And utilities ARE very useful. But they are not ALWAYS consistent or on. Water, electricity, internet. They all go out much more often than many other places. This is another area you will get to work on that attitude change thing. As I write this we have been without water for about 3 days. We have a slow trickle from the remains of the line, but we are careful not to shower long or flush the toilet too much. We have gone weeks without internet. And nearly as long without electricity. Instead of thinking they SHOULD be on…I try to remember how great it is when they are and also how nice it is to go outside and enjoy the world without all these man-made systems for a few hours. Also, another opportunity to find out how much you can truly do for yourself. Most people have generators, water cisterns and know where the best hot spots for internet in town are for this very reason of not relying too much on any one system.
Speaker trucks…one way to annoyingly tell everyone about some news or product
10) Freedom – You will not be nearly as coddled. You will be able to jump off slippery waterfalls and climb to hilltops and caves without helmets if you so wish. Police will likely look the other way at drunk driving. You will be able to have roosters and chickens (and goats and pigs and horses and…) in pretty much any neighborhood. You can host big gambling parties. You can sell stuff on the street. You can blast your music as loudly as you want. How you handle that responsibility of freedom will depend on you.
Flamboyan season -and a horse in a tiny truck
11) Seasons – This one seems to be a big one for some people. Like, “Don’t you miss the changing of the seasons?” For me, the only season I really enjoyed see change was the one that brought us out of the cold depressing dark winter/spring into full summer fun. Wasn’t that everyone’s favorite time? No school. Long days. Parties with friends. Hanging out outside. BBQs and nice weather. And so, I get to live in summer year round. And actually there are seasons here. They are just a little less pronounced and more to do with rain and fruit varieties (mango or avocado season for example) than with temperature. Also there are seasons of people at least in Rincón. Tourist season and off-season.
12) Your Attitude. (From Type A —> Type B): If you can make this change it will help you tremendously. If you can’t make this transition, this may not be the place for you. There are cockroaches here. There are rats here. There are mosquitoes.Things break more often and wear out faster. Things get dirtier and need to be cleaned more. There are poor people. It’s harder to find all the stuff you are used to. There are not as many jobs and definitely not as many high paying jobs. Things take longer than you are used to or think they should. We get it. But please…Take a chill pill. Go to the beach. Take off your watch. Listen to some music. Jangear con tus panas. Breathe in the moment. All of this is just part of the adventure. Have fun with it! Learn something! People who can’t adjust at least a little to Type B Island life will probably not enjoy Puerto Rico unless they completely isolate themselves from it.
13) Design of your life! With freedom, a can-do spirit and a laid back vibe you will probably begin to design the life of your dreams. You will be able to move from a wage slave beholden to someone else’s vision to the boss artist you have had locked away. With a lower cost of living you won’t need to make as much money to make that happen and you will be doing something you truly love and would do even if money wasn’t a factor. Often times in an informal under-the-table economy!
14) Language -Spanish! (Español) – You can get by, especially in certain areas like Gringolandia (Rincón, Aguadilla, most of the west coast, university areas, parts of San Juan, etc) speaking only English, but you certainly won’t have a very broad understanding of Puerto Rico and your social circle will be limited. Nearly everything is first in Spanish here. Puerto Rican Spanish specifically which is pretty different than other Spanish. Everything. From the TV to radio, to basic conversations with retailers to deep important conversations in government buildings. If that bothers you or can’t adjust at least a little to it, you may go crazy.
Borinquen Beach, Aguadilla
15) Tropics – This is the tropics. That means it is incredibly beautiful and post card perfect sometimes. We live where you vacation. But it also means that it can be pretty humid and hot. It means there are creatures and plants you are not used to. There are big spiders and bigger cockroaches. There are weird sounds that you can’t identify especially at night. There are termite swarms after a big rain. And the rainstorms are big and thunderous. Aguaceros! You will probably break out in some sort of sweat or plant poison rash (like Puerto Rican poison ivy) or even tropical disease (like Dengue, Chikungunya, Zika), you may get sunburned because the sun is pretty intense. It’s also an island surround by sea. The sea is dangerous! People often underestimate the power of the ocean and there are always a few drownings every year!
Mojito time!
16) Drinking – There is definitely a drinking culture here in Puerto Rico. Fueled by rum from the island (Bacardí, Don Q) as well as Medalla and other light beers. It would be a rare event or party without alcohol. It’s hot and a cold one tastes pretty damn good sometimes. Even customer appreciation events at banks, grocery stores, parades at all hours of the day etc are fueled with alcohol. Chinchorreos, cabalgatas, parrandas are all reasons to drink more. With that is a lot more acceptance of alcoholism and its consequences. You will probably have to watch your drinking a lot more as it can easily creep up on you.
La Junta de Control Fiscal No Viene a Salvar, Viene a Robar (The Control Board isn’t coming to save us, it’s coming to rob us)
17) Life in a Colony– If you move to Puerto Rico you will probably be struck by both the similarities and the differences from life where you came from. Puerto Rico has nearly everything you would expect in a state of the United States of America. Except one big thing: Self-sovereignty. Puerto Rico functions as a territory but is basically treated as a colony of the US. As a resident here, you will see what it means to be basically at best sort of forgotten and at worst downright pillaged of resources. We lack the right to vote for president and many of the decisions for the island can be over-ruled by US congress. And we have no voting members there either. It makes it much harder to address island wide issues when there is no representation and very little interest on the part of the US besides financial and military.
Cockfighting is legal and thriving all over the island
18) Overall a big culture change – Some of these are mentioned above, but suffice it to say that you will probably be in for a culture change if not shock. Puerto Rican culture is a distinct blend of Latino Spanish influence and history, afro-Caribbean roots and the effects of being part of the US. While it is difficult to generalize, I think it is fair to say that nearly everything you know culturally is just a little bit different in Puerto Rico. Views on time (hora Puertorriqueña), values of work/family (WAY more days off to “compartir” with loved ones), religion (mostly Catholic with a healthy dose of Pentacostal), food (mmm yum), language (a distinct type of Spanish), recreation (some things are the same but there are new ones here like cockfighting, surfing and coffee festivals that we never experienced before) , history (you should know the names of historical figures like Pedro Albizu Campos, Luis Muñoz Marin and Doña Fela), expressions (many funny common expressions here), social interactions (like kisses on the cheek or saying Buen Provecho), music (salsa, merengue, bachata, reggaeton and more), taboos, and much more are all going to be different in your new life in Puerto Rico.
I know this list isn’t comprehensive, but hopefully helps give you an idea of what sort of lifestyle change you are actually looking into if you move to Puerto Rico. For us, we love it and it suits our personality, but it may not be for everyone. Come and visit before you move. And if you’re anything like us, you will probably be bedazzled by the Isle of Enchantment.
Thank you for this! So comprehensive, so realistic. Your description of Puerto Rico reminded me of the mantra “be flexible!” we expats lived by in China. There seem to be many similarities between Puerto Rico and China, and in China, the only way to deal with the cultural differences between China and Western countries successfully was to be flexible. It sounds to me like Puerto Rico is the perfect place for me, and I’m now even more impatient to move there.
As a Puerto Rican living outside the island, I feel you’ve captured what life in Puerto Rico is all about!
Awesome post! Curious about the dressing up for a govt. building. Men wear slacks but do the women also have to wear slacks…can they wear a dress or skirt?
Yes you can wear a dress. You no thensign. No open toe. Is acceptable.for.women. shirt and no drinking beer
Superb article, thanks. For us, we’ve been impressed by how easy the adjustment has been, mostly because of how warm and welcoming Rincon has been. The differences have tended to be far more intriguing than jarring. And we’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much less expensive it is to live here than in New England.
Re: #17 There is much talk in the U.S. these days about racial inequalities and built in systemic racism. I’ve wondered if the status of P.R. doesn’t have something to do with the population as you described not being white with Eurocentric roots and poor. The Washington elite is particularly suspicious, racist and xenophobic about folks with Latino and Afro roots. The Philippines, another U.S. territory with a largely non-white population, has even fewer privileges than P.R. ( such as automatic U.S. citizenship).
I appreciate your flexibility, open mindedness, can-do attitudes, sense of humor and adventure shown in this post. You both are assets to the island.
You must understand that people of Puerto Rico are a mixture of ethnics varieties. For example in my family we descend from Spaniards who came from Mallorca, Seville and Galicia. That gave us a huge genetic traits that were mixed with the remnants of the Tainos and the strong traits from the African slaves who arrived here. For that reason, given that all our blood is tied to 3 races, WE DO NOT ENGAGE IN THE RACISM THAT US TEARING APPART THE CONTINENTAL USA.
The Philippines has been an independent nation since 1946, and not a U.S. territory, so it’s not surprising that its residents are not granted automatic US citizenship.
I’ve lived here for 26 years and you pretty much nailed it! It’s crazy, it’s over-the-top beautiful, and if you are smart, hard working, and persistent, you can create a life here that would not be possible in the states.
Life is good…and more to come…
You’re on point on so many things! Loved the article! As a local who’s been back for 20 years after living on the west coast for many years, even I was surprised at some of the lifestyle changes I had to make when I returned home to stay. Although, it’s important to note that life in the metro area is very different from life “out on the island”, or up in the mountains. Metro living can be very fast paced, and hectic at times. Even though it’s full of activities, and different experiences for all tastes, and ages. I’m so glad your enjoying life on our beautiful piece of paradise.
I moved to Culebra last year. This article is so on point. I have to get certain food items as they come in because it may be a while before I see it again. I miss salads, fresh lettuce is a rarity. Not accustomed to the roaches or lizards yet. I don’t think I will ever adjust to that. Lol. The driving on the main island is insane but it works. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything! It’s different but I absolutely love it!
Cassi, as you who worked tirelessly for the public good in Colorado (thank you for that) I find it strange that in #7 Driving, your basically advocating for chaos and complete disregard for others and others safety. Drinking and driving is not “awesome” in any form. #10 Freedom again, it is not cool to drink and drive or disturb others with loud music. In 17 Life in a Colony, I am sorry but Cockfighting is wrong plain and simple. Fortunately it is not thriving and hopefully will go away soon.
Honestly I appreciate your can do attitude and what you guys have accomplished. I however could not overlook some of the serious issues living there. You had a post about the Anasco Tower recently, saying how great it was. Was it cleaned up? The few times I was there it was full of human fecal matter, graffiti, and garbage.
Sometimes I think posts like these give people the wrong idea about living there. It is not “fun” to drive around carelessly or drunk, it is a crime and should be treated as such. I agree with a lot of maybe even most of what you say but there are bad things there and they should be called such not promoted as care free with no consequences.
Not everything is perfect, but it somehow works. I didn’t say I advocated for some things and certainly not drunk driving, but it is pretty common. Other driving norms aren’t very harmful, just annoying to uptight people. I kind of like that I can buy bananas at an intersection or just stop for a few minutes and say hi to my neighbors on the road. I also like that people wave us in when we’ve been waiting for while at an intersection. Those seem pretty awesome to me.
As for other things that may seem annoying…it’s sort of a live and let live thing. You may have to listen to loud music and speaker trucks, but you can also play loud music…If you like total peace and quiet, Puerto Rico is not the place for you.
As for cockfighting, I am not a big fan of it, but I understand it much more than I ever did before moving here. I also didn’t like the bullfight I attended in Mexico, but it is part of the culture. Those things may change, but for now it is part of the fabric of life here and that is why I wrote this post: so that people could see the current realities and decide whether or not it would suit them. Obviously, it didn’t suit you guys. And that’s fine.
Oh and the Añasco Mirador tower was just fine, beautiful even, the day we stopped.
Type A attitude. Can you switch to b attitude. And that is kinda what he was saying. Cock fighting come from our spanish side. Is call a gentlement sport. Why? I will tell you if you answer to my post . Well i think that when you travel the world you learn that you stop complaining and start doing. That is the gap between type a and b. Can you close the gap?
Found the info helpful and on point. Living in NY since 10 months old ( born in PR) only experienced PR sporadically through the years, but have always felt a pull to own and be a part of it. Not yet ready to commit full time, yet my recent visit was magical.
Your “tips” we’re great, certainly things to keep in mind! My faves were how my fellow PRs greet, embrace and all around support you as family everywhere you go! My least fave is the incessant humidity in June, the mosquitoes that find me every time, the less than strict adherence to time. But I must say these were less and less important as the days turned into my two week stay!
nice article well written thanks!
isla nacion is like a world in itself- you have good people and bad people, sorry to generalize but when you talk about what people do in the Anyasco tower or in the bathrooms at the Faro it really is the worst part of living in PR. for a people so fiercely proud of their nation you have an element that thinks nothing of vandalizing and destroying beautiful places, this is difficult to reconcile.
still there is way more good than bad. i love it here, the best thing is talking to people and neighbors jangueando, life in the states can be so insular and anti social as everyone mostly stays inside watching TV
when was the last time someone shot up a school in pr? people dont seem as angry as they are in the states. the killings here are mostly drug related and if your not involved its a safe place to live
another super bonus is that if you cant get all the fresh food you want you can grow it your self! growing banana plantains papayas and tomatoes is really easy. you can grow anything in pr!
I love your insight on living in PR you hit the nail on the head.I have experienced many of these situations myself. As for some of the negative comments posted here tell me where in the world everything is perfect to your liking. Yes Puerto Rico has some downfalls but everywhere I have been in this world has them also. It’s not for everyone but at least you are giving some insight to people who may be thinking about moving or visiting Puerto Rico. As for me I love here with all its good and not so good points. I’m not perfect so I guess I fit in just fine.
Cockfightingi isa tradition in Puerto Rico that come from the spaniards not cruelty like some people said.Anyway cockfighting will be a sport in continental Us in about 30 or 40 years . Remember as hispanics we bring our customs and our language to US .We are minorities anymore expect to be 150 millions in 1 generation from now.Ibelieve in cities twice the size about PR population like NewYork City ,Chicago Tokyo, Mexico City drive worst than in Puerto Rico. Still waiting for somebody who ever went to live in CostaRica or any other Caribbean or Pacific Island who ever found a more positive experience than living inPuerto Rico
Cockfighting in Puerto Rico will die before it ever gets a chance to leave the island.
Just like Bullfighting in Spain cockfighting in Puerto Rico is a dying sport. Most people don’t participate in it or even care about it. Its fanbase is an ever shrinking niche. There will always be hard core supporters of the sport and if it ever becomes illegal some will still participate in underground events but the reality is that the glory days of the galleras are long gone. You’re more likely to see young Puerto Ricans gathering at PokeStops and to be honest, I can’t really blame them.
Your list hit the target. Driving on the back roads is like being on a Disneyland ride. Mangos, quenepas, almonds and even cashews are easy to find. I love how someone will stop traffic for you if you need help getting out of your parking space. Or driving on Jeep Club day or Paso fino day.
I have witnessed the changes in attitudes in folks who come here. “Isn’t that a stop sign?” becomes ” It’s a one-way street so I will drive backwards”.
All holidays last at least three days, with the exception of Christmas, which is three months.
And all that media madness about Puerto Rico’s economy? Next time I am standing on line or trying to find a parking space at Home Depot or Walmart I will reflect on how ‘bad’ things are’
Love this island. No regrets.