are cigars allowed past customs in dominica? i have a certain brand i enjoy and wanted to take a case with me.

You are allowed 25 regular sized cigars or 55 little cigars or 2 cartons of cigarettes.

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AUA & Ross Forum Moderator

I got to the island on Jan. 2 and I've already seen that American food is not readily available here. And if it is, it is rather pricey. My cousin loves diet coke and after 5 days he finally found ONE place that had diet coke. At the cafe next to Subway, he bought 12 cans of diet coke for $60EC. This is about $23 US. Diet coke is expensive here because it is imported. Regular coke is easily found because it is bottled on the island. So, if you LOVE diet coke, make sure to ship some.

I've discussed more food options on my blog Doctors of the Caribbean

I've been on the island for a week and some things i wish i brought with me are:

Command 3M hooks (to put anything up/mosquito net)
More Food
Toilet paper for the first night in your apartment!!! All my friends had this problem as well.
A few extension cords
Ethernet cord
a TV.....my apartment said it had cable....so i assumed it came with a TV but it didnt.

If you want more food, Island Thrift will ship an entire barrel of non perishable food from Costco! If you want more info e-mail us at info@islandthrift.com.

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AUA & Ross Forum Moderator

I agree with the toilet paper thing. Pack one in your suitcase.

Skittles - OK
Snickers/ Kit-Kat - OK
Laffy Taffy - OK
Caramel Creams - NO!
Starburst - OK
Blo-Pops - NO!
Jolly Ranchers. NOOOO!

Word to these wise: do NOT buy those grape-flavored Mentos labelled 'For Sale Only in Indonesia' - there must have been a shipwreck back in '04.

ok this might seems weird but i would like having some sort of weapon (sword, big knife, machete, etc) since my electronics are very expensive. (i don't want to sound snobbish or anything but my laptop was like $5k+ and the external hard drive is $850) and i would rather not have those jacked at knifepoint or whatnot. so is there somewhere this can be purchased?
and is it possible to buy protein powder over there? if so, where?

Machetes are sold everywhere. Protein powder can be bought at the bookstore but it's MUCH more expensive than at home so you may want to bring/ship some.

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AUA & Ross Forum Moderator

Why would you bring such expensive electronics to an island where the voltage is unpredictable + a whole lot of rain + bang it around taking it from home to class + low lvl requirements on software. I brought my 5 year old IBM laptop and its doing better than some of the new laptops I see around. My recommendation is bring a laptop which ain't a supercomputer, there really is no need for it. I use my laptop just for viewing powerpoints, going on the internet and skyping back home. There is no need for a super videocard or huge amounts of RAM. Get yourself a cheaper external Harddrive, you can get one for $200 for 500GB easily so you dont need to worry about a $850 HD. just my 2 cent.