10
Years On Margarita Island, Venezuela
Making A Business And Living In The Caribbean ~ by Peter van der Hoek
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readers,
Here some stories
about life on a tropical island.
After living
some ten years on Margarita Island I can truly give an honest opinion about
life here. First of all let me tell you that life on an island, especially
a tropical one, is incomparable to life anywhere else! The daily routine
is slow paced no matter how important the stuff you have to do. There is
after all, always tomorrow. Because of the always shining sun people are
chronically in a good mood and laid back. Everybody’s willing to help you
with about everything as long as you aren’t in a hurry to do so.
Living on Margarita
is, as long as you have a job of course or some other kind of income, a
dream come true. There are however some things you have to beware of. Given
the fact that you’re living in a relatively poor country, you should be
aware of people trying to get hold of your money, which you must have in
their opinion simply because you’re a foreigner, so the first step is to
learn the language. Once you can defend yourself in their language you’re
practically accepted as one of their own, making you a lot less vulnerable
to financial risks. |
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Living a stress
free life also means that you’ll have to adapt to that life! Don’t just
enjoy it when it’s in your favor, don’t stress out once it doesn’t!! If
they show up late, deal with it and do the same thing next time you have
to deal with them, and calculate it in your time schedule.
Through personal
experience I can tell you that you should never try to close important
deals on your own. Always take a person who you trust and who dominates
the language with you to ensure that you really get the best deal you can
possibly get on just about anything. Whether you want to buy some property,
start a business; get your visa, or whatever else.
Let me tell
you something about myself and my experiences here.
Ten years ago
I moved from Europe to Margarita Island. It wasn’t entirely a voluntary
move by the way! Dropping by to celebrate a well deserved holiday I rented
a nice apartment near the city centre but still near the beach. Planning
on staying just a few weeks I didn’t bother to change my foreign currencies
into travelers’ checks. After a few weeks the apartment was broken into
and all my money, my passport and my tickets were stolen. Normally that
would be enough to hate the place and to never to want to go back there.
Not in Margarita!!! After a few sad days I realized that I was actually
still having fun! After a few more days I was offered a job as an English
teacher at a small language school and I fell instantly in love with the
job! Settling here was surprisingly easy as everybody was friendly and
willing to help me with just about everything I needed to be happy. Soon
I got my first paycheck and moved into another, simpler and cheaper apartment.
I got the hang of teaching and because of that my Spanish improved rapidly.
A few years later I fell in love and got married to a lovely girl. Nowadays
the language school is mine together with a mate. We’ve since moved to
a new, greater and more modern location, and we now have a group of teachers
giving classes in 6 different languages. Over the years we have taught
several thousand people and that has helped us build up a network of relations
for all kinds of situations. We work together with Justice Ministry as
we have several trained people working as interpreters in court cases,
and regularly translate official documents for them. Also, we now possess
a legal department which helps foreigners who retire to Margarita Island
set up companies and to legalize their status.
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Due to our contacts
within the local, as well as the central Government, we’re able to assist
in all kinds of legal matters in a quick and secure way. We know the right
lawyers and accountants and as we have opened quite a few companies already
we are well known on this lovely little island.
Anyway, as
you will have noticed, living on a tropical island has really changed my
life. The slow paced, happy-feeling, no stress way of living can be recommended
to everybody who’s able to adapt to it and willing to simply enjoy it!
If you’re interested
in a similar life-style check out these web-pages: www.retirecaribbean.com.ve
and www.academia-peter.com.ve
Thank you for
your time dear readers, and from the warm sun and gentle breeze I wish
you a long and stress-free life!!
To contact
Peter and Arne Click Here
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