#1092 – The Expat Files: Climate, EMF, and Relocating to the Alti Plano

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wonder Hello there all you ex-pat wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here So let's get started, you know, I get questions all the time about global warming and climate change And I don't really care what you call it, but you can't change it. There's nothing you can do about it Some people say it's extremely serious others say well, you know, that's just the way the solar cycles work

[00:48] I know I know global warming's all the rage, right? So was the coming of the next great ice age I recall in the 70s. There is a book a big bestseller I think it was called the climate conspiracy the coming ice age Which is exactly the opposite of what people are saying today, right? So then which scientists do you believe? Well, we all know global heating and ice ages come in cycles you can track them over thousands even millions of years and People never somehow discuss the fact that in each and every day the Sun comes up and it's suddenly 10 or 15 degrees warmer than at night. Meanwhile, you got people saying it's unprecedented Within a hundred years we protect the average temperature. The earth's gonna go up one degree. It's unprecedented

[01:35] We're all gonna die but that carbon credit system created by fat boy Al Gore that'll save us, right? Please carbon credits. Have you ever seen or traded or bought one yourself? No It's just another manifestation of what George Carlin said. It's a big club and you ain't in it Oh those carbon credits. They sound so useful. They sound so green and so ecologically friendly Old Al Gore should get some carbon credits for all the flatulence. He produces from all of his orifices So then what's it all about? What's the average guy know about carbon credits? Nothing, it just goes to show how little we know and how hard it is to calculate those things except we do know the glaciers Are melting right? So I'm not gonna be a denier But I will say this if you're at all concerned about global warming don't wine don't blog don't write letters to the editor

[02:24] Your absolute best bet is to move to one of the altiplano regions of the world Just think of Denver, Colorado when they call it the Mile High City, right? Not that it's a good place to live I've heard various opinions. Let's just concentrate on the fact that it's a mile high Since you lose about three degrees or so Fahrenheit for every thousand feet above sea level That means it's about 15 degrees cooler than other regions in the state that are closer to sea level And it's not exactly three degrees per thousand feet either You see it varies between three and three and a half degrees per thousand feet Depending on the humidity how dry or saturated the air is and you hear me talk about the altiplano in Latin America all the time There are altiplano regions all over the place here Mexico City is in the altiplano few people know that of course

[03:13] I never want to live there for lots of reasons one of them being they have a terrible shortage of water and the air pollution is Beyond irritating if you've got allergies or respiratory problems at all You should forget about Mexico City though. It is a nice place to visit think of it They've got something like 20 million people living in that metropolis And of course, it's got some really nice upscale high-end neighborhoods But with a severe shortage of water water only coming out of the tap eight or ten hours a day In fact, I know of some gringos the next pests that live in really nice neighborhoods that have water trucked in to their colony That's what they call them colonies neighborhoods every single week They have a giant neighborhood cistern and they fill it up by truck every week So water shortages don't matter if you got the money you just buy it by the truckload

[03:59] But what about the future? What's gonna happen when the people who don't have money? What are they gonna do when the real rationing begins? But back to the point that there are many places where you have altiplano in Latin America as mentioned Mexico has got a few cities and regions in the altiplano Oh Haka for one, but it's a very dry kind of high desert altiplano Honduras has one or two cities a capital city to go see Gompa, which I'd never want to live in. It's one of the ugliest cities. I've ever seen however They've got a beautiful little town called Copan on the border of Guatemala. It's got some excellent Mayan ruins It's calm safe beautiful only has about twenty or thirty thousand people but you know because it's a small town There's no action at all So you have to be prepared to be bored though as my mom always said if you're a curious person you'll never be bored

[04:48] She was right about that in a million other things. But man was she wrong about politics She still votes the Democrat Party line because she thinks the spirit of Kennedy is still in there somewhere or at least That's what her connection to the Democrats is but then again, she's 90 years old So you can forgive her for that any person who's still lucid at 90 Well, you can forgive them for pretty much everything except their driving habits. Oh And voting for Obama and the Democrats don't get me wrong. I'm not for Trump. I voted for no one He did have promised though at first. He said all the right things at first before he got into office But he proceeded to select the worst Bankster Wall Street presidential cabinet known to man What a massive opportunity lost?

[05:34] Stringing them all up by their thumbs would be an insult to Mussolini. Oh But there are solutions to the terrible mess politicians have got us into one is term limits just two terms That's it one term in office and one term in prison Orin this might sound a touch drastic you call a full session of Congress and drop a small nuke I know I know that sounds pretty drastic because it would destroy irreplaceable historic buildings and statues in the process. Oh well But where were you? Oh, yeah talking about the Alti Plano here in Latin America for all you guys and girls out there Whining about global warming. Those are wasted tears because you cannot do a single thing about it Except either live with it or move to the Latin American Alti Plano

[06:20] Of course, you've heard me say over and over again that pretty much the entire center of Guatemala is the Alti Plano From the moment you hit the border driving south through Mexico You hit the Alti Plano and for the next couple hundred miles, you're in the Alti Plano Exclusively in fact practically the entire pan-american highway as it runs through Guatemala is in the Alti Plano So if you ever want to see what it's like take that right? It's beautiful and safe, but I wouldn't do it at night Not because of bad boys but bad roads bad drivers and bad lighting then after driving south through Guatemala when you finally hit the border Of El Salvador. That's when the Alti Plano finally drops off So there's a tiny little bit of Alti Plano in El Salvador Maybe about 30 miles worth while following the pan-american highway down. It's really beautiful farm and coffee country, too

[07:08] It's a great place to check out In fact, it's so scenic that little stretch is called the Ruta del Flores the flower root Because there are so many beautiful tropical flowers and trees that grow in those slightly higher elevations That would be a great place to live too if you're in the mine to relax and ditch the city life They've got some fantastic little coffee plantations in bed and breakfasts along the way, too Though I'd say forget it if you're into hustle bustle and nightlife Then as the El Salvador Alti Plano drops off still along the pan-american highway You quickly drop down to sea level and soon enough you're at Bitcoin Beach and all the other little surf towns That have been so much in the news lately because they're all using Bitcoin Speaking of El Salvador and Bitcoin when my next seminar finally gets underway. We're working on it

[07:58] We will be spending some time at Bitcoin Beach And we're planning on visiting that volcano near San Salvador That's the capital of El Salvador where as we speak they're setting up that country's Bitcoin volcano project That's what they're calling it You might remember that in June the president of El Salvador said the state-owned Geothermal electric company would be building additional facilities to mine very cheap 100% clean 100% renewables zero emissions Electricity from one of the volcano geothermal stations that's already producing energy now Meanwhile, did you know that a third of El Salvador's population is actively using its Bitcoin wallet Chivo? I told you about that in a previous show. That's over 2 million people and Still the world wonders. How do you get people who make and save so little they don't even have a bank account

[08:48] You know 70% of El Salvadoranians don't even have bank accounts How do you get all those people who are living on the edge to use Bitcoin? Well, they've all got smartphones the app's free and the government's giving them $30 in Bitcoin just to sign up and the thing is in order to spend that Bitcoin to buy things You got to learn how to use the app So people are lining up to learn every town's got a group of Bitcoin go-to guys where locals could go to learn how to Use the app takes about 20 minutes or so to get them up to speed. Wait a minute Wait a minute 20 minutes to learn about Bitcoin hell It took me hours and hours probably weeks way back when when it first hit the scene Well, there's been a complete revolution in ease of use since then as for the users of the Chivo app in El Salvador They don't have to know a thing about how Bitcoin works because the app does it all for them

[09:37] Just like you don't have to know how a motor works to drive a car or how your cell phone signal works with a cell Tower to use your phone, but back to that amazing altiplano Colombia is another country that has various spots that are in the altiplano all the major cities except Cartahena That support big beach town, but the other big three cities are in the altiplano Kali Bogota and Medellin which means of course no heating or air conditioning bills There are lots of other smaller towns and cities in the altiplano in Colombia, too But would I live there what I recommended well, I could easily live in Medellin Kali or Bogota though Now they're sort of first-world expensive The problem is with the rest of the country if you're just gonna live in the city Hey, that's okay, but I wouldn't want to live in or travel to the boonies

[10:24] They've got big problems in Colombia once you get out of the big cities, and I don't feel so good about that It's all about the cocaine. You know the coca fields listen to this and you'll soon realize why I have my concerns and Just remember and this goes for Mexico to things are not gonna get any better across the world You know, but you knew that already right so where things seem to be borderline Okay today forget about it when it comes to tomorrow. Let's talk about the boonies of Colombia for a bit Did you know that in? 2016 not so long ago the Colombian government signed a peace deal with the largest group of rebels waging war That's the cocaine wars of course the FARC f-a-r-c was supposed to be the end of the conflict that it raised for a half a century and Killed more than two hundred twenty thousand people man. Yeah, you don't hear people talking about that up in the first world

[11:13] That's two hundred and twenty thousand dead just in Colombia alone during the coke war You know in Vietnam only fifty thousand US soldiers died. All right, so far so good, right? Make it so bad Well, the deal was made in 2015 to get all these farmers You see all of them growing coca leaf for a living to grow food edible crops In fact out in the boonies coca was the main driver of the economy for years and years and poor farmers picked it Rebel fighters taxed it and the narco traffickers turned it into cocaine then they ferried it to buyers in Mexico and the states Etc. Now according to that 2016 piece the peace deal included a farmer development Substitution plan meant to help those coca farmers grow new crops that they could sell in real legit markets

[12:00] In other words grow crops you could eat instead of snort. Take a guess how many farmers were supposed to be in that plan 99,000 yep, that's 99 with three zeros after it who knew there were that many farm families growing coca leaves So the farmers were supposed to switch crops the rebels were supposed to turn in their guns and the government was to offer jobs roads schools and a Way to switch over to edible crops ie hortic cultural training And the plan was so hailed by idiot first-world countries that the lard-ass Colombian president who came up with the plan Won Manuel Santos got the Nobel Peace Prize for it these days. That's worth over a million bucks just like Obama guided for pretending he didn't kill people and

[12:48] Then because it was considered such a great plan the US and other idiot first-world countries dumped billions more into it And now six years later According to the Crock Institute International Peace Studies group who are in charge of monitoring the progress of that deal they've determined that only four percent of the rural reform measures are complete and 83% of the farmers have not been helped or even contacted at all Exactly what you'd expect from government, huh? So guess what surprise surprise after six years and billions spent for nothing the usual suspects got rich And I'll give you two guesses who as a result today in most of Colombia's rural towns It's back to business as usual get this the little stores and tien does except not only Colombian pesos and dollars

[13:39] But they accept coca leaves and processed cocaine base as payment just as readily as coins and bills and get this the four percent of the farmers That actually did get retrained in growing new crops, etc The ones in the coca crop substitution program as they call it Yes they did get retrained and they got fruit trees and other saplings and other seeds for cash crops and a few obligatory visits from Horticultural technicians who were supposed to teach them new skills and the result after two or three years Most of the trees died the agricultural technicians never came back disappeared or were unavailable to help Well as it turns out even the farmers whose crops did come in Their little towns and pueblos are so far away from larger towns and cities where they could sell or offload their crops

[14:26] Those so-called successful farmers say the bad roads and the rainy season prevents them from getting edible crops to market They spoil and deteriorate rapidly. Whereas coca leaves you just bundle them up and they stay fresh and potent pretty much indefinitely No degradation. No storage problem. So in the end is a typical government screw-up or maybe not millions even billions of dollars changed hands part of that long-lost drug war, you know, a President even gets a Nobel Prize shades of Obama it for such a successful plan that after six years of operation Only 7,000 farmers are breaking even if you could call it that out of the 99,000 that were supposed to have a productive new legal business

[15:12] So what you have right now in Colombia is over 90,000 rural farmers on the boonies Growing coca leaves again, just like old times and the FARC and the narcos have moved right back in so in Colombia They've got 90,000 farmers who don't have any other way to make a living except illegally Which brings us back to the question is Colombia a good place to have your plan be well you decide You know international living has it tops on their list for some time now, too If it were me, I could live in one of the big three cities in the Altiplano Kali Medellin or Bogota, but that's for the present if I had to project into the future I'd say it's a big risk So for sure if you were to visit Bogota Medellin or Kali Colombia today You would see no sign of the FARC or gangs or the cocaine business at all

[16:02] You'll see nice cosmopolitan cities with lots of upscale development Of course, they've got their slums to all big cities, too But there are business districts and residential neighborhoods, etc. That are absolutely first world So just as with Mexico City, I get people sending me emails all the time saying hey, I've been to Mexico City They've got some great absolutely first world areas there. It's nice. It's cheap It's cosmopolitan. That's true. But you have to look at the big picture and what it's gonna be like in the near future It's breaking down. Believe me. Remember the world is not getting better. You know damn Well, we're already down that slippery slope Why do you think so many people are piling into shows like this? Oh and for those of you who used to accuse me of being a pessimist

[16:47] I'm talking about before this covid it thing used to get a lot of emails Calling me out on that a doomsday kind of guy poor diluted Johnny He thinks the sky is falling funny how I never get emails like that anymore And now I get emails from rational formerly calm collected people who are genuinely scared shitless About what's happening in their very own communities up in the States. What's up with that? You know for the last 11 years or so I've been talking about the good the bad the ugly and the great here in Latin America, right? Well, you know if my show was about the United States instead of Latin America, I'd have to rearrange that slightly I'd be talking about the bad the unpleasant the unacceptable and the barely tolerable Because I can't see regarding the United States Canada Europe practically all first world countries

[17:32] Not much goods happening there not anything to be optimistic about how about you? Although I'm still quite optimistic about relocating to Latin America bottom line If you're playing on getting the hell out of Dodge unless you're a beachcomber You should absolutely check out the altiplano funny thing though Most people up in the first world have never heard about it much less experienced it Oh and one last thing for you diehard global warmest if there is such a word I've heard people even notable scientists throw around certain number of degrees. They expect the earth to warm up in the next hundred years I've heard anywhere from a half a degree to two degrees warmer doesn't sound like much at first But it can be catastrophic especially if you're living on the coast considering Projected glacier and ice melts the thing is though if you're so concerned about it

[18:20] Remember you just increase your altitude 1000 feet and your average ambient temperature will drop three degrees Fahrenheit or so and the fact is Locals down here. Don't even call it the altiplano till you're at least 3,500 feet up and that's a nice drop of around 10 degrees Fahrenheit Versus sea level by the way most of the towns and cities that are considered in the Latin American altiplano are around five to six Thousand feet above sea level. That means if it's 90 degrees at midday by the beach in let's say La Saba or Roatan Honduras Now a couple hundred miles away. There's Tagusi Galpa known as Tagusi down here the capital of Honduras It's at the fringe of the altiplano around 3,500 feet at midday

[19:06] It's around 80 degrees or slightly less and at night when it's 75 degrees Fahrenheit on the beaches of La Saba and Roatan That means in Tagusi 3,500 feet above sea level it's around 65 degrees at night. Does that sound right for the tropics? Not really, huh? But that's the impression first world people get because as far as they're concerned The weather south of the border is always like Cancun hot and humid all the time Well, they're wrong. Now, of course as you go farther south down through South America, you got Chile Argentina Brazil you get your four seasons back only in reverse because it is South America Oh, and I gotta tell you for all you who are thinking about Paraguay. It's kind of an ugly country It's flat and what most people don't know

[19:53] There's a terrible shortage of water going on the drought down there has been going on for years In fact, the country's largest lake is half gone Evaporated not looking good for the future. Oh, by the way, I got a little expat Eddie story coming up for you I'll probably be telling that one in next week's show He's been traveling and he had two events happen to him that are worth mentioning The kind of stuff that could only happen in Latin America and probably only to him One of those stories is a robbery story and the other happened at a nice first world resort All right yank in the wheel a bit here You longtime listeners have heard me mention dirty EMF dirty electricity I've got my own little very sensitive dirty electricity meter It was around a hundred bucks or so, but it serves me

[20:39] Well, I can walk around the house your house anyone's house or any building for that matter and determine exactly where the dirty EMF is Oh, and if you want to know which meter I have send me an email the expat files at gmail.com I'm bringing this up because I've been getting some emails lately from people saying Johnny you're talking about going off the grid That means solar panels inverters huge batteries electric cars. So people are writing and saying Johnny I understand when you have all that stuff hooked up to your house And especially if you've got an electric car or Tesla power walls in the house They're putting out all kind of dirty EMF dirty electricity Oh, and by the way, if you have a good EMF meter and you're pointed at a dirty electricity source It'll tell you not only the EMF that's present. It'll tell you if it's normal excessive or dangerous to humans

[21:26] By the way, EMF stands for electro motive force The thing is electricity does leak out of your equipment and high levels can be dangerous, but you won't know it and won't feel it It's not DC voltage you have to worry about but AC electricity which is in everyone's outlet You know 60 cycles it switches back and forth 60 cycles per second And every time it switches it produces little spikes of electricity that you can't see but nevertheless you can detect them with a meter You can measure them at various distances from the object you're measuring And there's something called the inverse square law Which means that for example if you're one foot away from a microwave oven Let's say and your microwave while on is putting out a certain amount of dirty electricity dirty EMF If you step two feet away, not one now, but two feet away

[22:14] You won't measure half as much EMF as you might think or dirty electricity Your meter will measure one quarter as much. It's called the inverse square law It's a physical property of rays and radiation electrical and otherwise so why mention that well because if at one foot away The EMF is at damaging levels when you get two feet away from the source Oftentimes it can be normal just fine therefore no damaging effects at all now suppose You decide to move three feet away from your microwave the dirty electricity is one-ninth The force not one-third, but one-ninth the force you measured at one foot away confused already Well, that's simple algebra anyway You'll find the very dirtiest electrical sources in your house to be number one a microwave oven as mentioned

[23:01] Yep, you think they're safe But they're not I've measured a lot of them with my meter and really you shouldn't be standing any closer than five feet To a microwave oven you can buy an EMF meter and prove it to yourself near the all microwave ovens are spewing Terribly dirty energy when you're closer than five feet and that's because in time the doors opened and closed hundreds Probably thousands of times over the years and the door seals get sloppy and leaky So technically a new microwave oven should be a lot cleaner than one that's two or three years old But that's not always the case anyway What are the other culprits around the house your good old laptop computer puts out a lot of dirty EMF? So the oxymoron there is you should never put it on your lap even though It's a laptop then again here in Latin America there are signs everywhere that say don't put your toilet paper in the toilet

[23:50] The what's that all about? Well, if you listen to this show, you know what that's about Now the thing is using my little device I've found I have to be about two feet away from my laptop Before the EMF readings dropped down to normal or acceptable same thing with an iPad and man Most people can't even read the letters on their laptop from two feet away The solution there is to get yourself one of those portable keyboards preferably not a wireless one Then you're operating with Bluetooth That's just radiating on another band and it's putting out dirty EMF to though Some are much better than others and you'll never know until you buy it bring it home and use your meter I know I know it's a hassle to have a portable keyboard with a wire But hey, that's the only way you're gonna cut down on the EMF. Oh And those big screen TVs they put out some EMF too, but if you're five feet away, you're okay

[24:39] Oh, and here's another dirty EMF apparatus that'll surprise you The common electric fan fact is anything that's got a motor is gonna put out some dirty EMF And I've got two fans around here a pretty big one in a small portable one Both of them put out a ton of EMF and you have to be around four to five feet away before the meter registers normal acceptable levels By the way, my EMF meter reads three different kinds of dirty electricity and it keeps switching itself Automatically showing you all three levels and what's normal and what's not In fact, I've got my meter in front of me right now. I'm two feet away from my laptop. Listen to this Now I'm moving farther away and at three feet. It's gone. I

[25:28] Really like this meter because you don't even have to look at it All you gotta do is set it to audio and when it beeps, you know, something's wrong It's not normal when the beeping stops you're out of danger kind of like a Geiger counter It's a nifty little device. Everyone should have one. Oh and by the way I mentioned everything that runs on AC is gonna put out some EMF whether it's normal or dangerous or not You need a meter to find that out Now I know I've said this before but LED lights they're everywhere, right? Well, if they're screwed into an AC light socket, which most of them are they put out a hell of a lot of EMF But once you're around three feet away from them completely normal, no problem, but you get close man They're just pouring out the dirty EMF, but they're so efficient and cell phones I know people are never gonna stop using those things. I suggest you only hold it to the side of your brain

[26:16] You don't care much about you know, they're gonna have to solve that one day The results will come in and especially kids are doing a lot of damage to themselves and don't know it It's gonna show up later though. Oh And you know gas and diesel generators those portable jobs They put out tons of dirty EMF You don't want to get near those things stay at least five feet away from those too Oh and I've been checking out solar systems solar panels themselves Don't put out any dirty EMF because they're pure DC the inverters that the panels are connected to put out a lot of dirty EMF because they're switching the DC to the AC so that you can use it in your house But again that magic five foot distance away from the thing is perfectly fine. You're back down to normal Oh and as far as those lithium-ion batteries hooked up to your solar system the most expensive being Tesla Powerwalls

[27:02] But there are a lot of clones too They put out a little dirty EMF, but not much their AC couple So they have to put out a bit you can be two feet away and be in the normal range But I wouldn't want to have those things stacked in my bedroom But really no one's gonna have their solar equipment in a living space anyway Though you may have been hearing that if you're driving an electric car, you're just bathed in dirty EMF Well, I'll be reporting on that in a future show. So stay tuned You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B We can schedule a one-on-one phone or Skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week-long expat insider seminar in Central America

[27:50] Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan B Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com. No spamos