Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller shares a series of experiences from his time driving in Latin America, highlighting the unique challenges and cultural nuances of life in the region. He begins by recounting a recent encounter with police, where he was pulled over by a lady cop who did not speak English, and he did not speak Spanish, leading to a quick resolution without any bribe. He discusses the common practice of roadblocks and the dynamics of bribery, noting that bribes are typically small, around $20, and that expats often have a set limit for such situations. Johnny also shares insights about language barriers, the use of Spanish, and the cultural nuances of interactions with law enforcement. He emphasizes the importance of concealing his RFID-proof passport pouch and avoiding sensitive areas during pat-downs.
Next, Johnny discusses his experience with a traffic stop in Guatemala, where he was fined $25 for not having his driver's license. He contrasts this with the stricter penalties in the United States, where driving without a license can result in fines, license points, and even car impoundment. He highlights the differences in law enforcement practices between Guatemala and the U.S., noting that in Guatemala, he wasn't required to get out of his car or have someone else drive. He then shifts to discussing the legal consequences of various driving infractions, such as driving under the influence, using a cell phone, speeding, and reckless driving, which can result in misdemeanors or even felonies in the U.S. Johnny also shares a story about his Latino friends who were drinking while driving and later had a flat tire, highlighting the common issue of not having spare tires in Latin America.
Johnny then recounts a series of experiences while driving in Latin America, including a car breakdown, a roadside encounter with a helpful police officer, and a unique river-side picnic. He discusses the prevalence of corruption and the cultural norms around bribing cops, contrasting it with his experiences in the United States. He also describes a casual, family-friendly outdoor dining experience in a river, highlighting the unique and informal nature of Latin American culture.
The segment then shifts to discussing the practice of bringing your own bottle of wine to a restaurant in Latin America, noting that while it's common, it can lead to a fee called a 'Descorche fee.' Johnny also mentions that bringing your own wine might make you seem cheap. He emphasizes the value of in-person seminars for expats, highlighting the importance of networking and real-world experiences. Johnny talks about updating his expat essentials course and the challenges of reviving the tourism industry post-COVID. Finally, he addresses the confusion expats often face with electric bills in Latin America, explaining that while utility companies are often privatized, power outages are usually due to local infrastructure issues.
In the final segment, Johnny discusses the causes of frequent power outages in gated communities in Latin America, attributing them to poor wiring and electrical contractor work. He explains the subsidized electricity rates for lower-income residents, highlighting how the cost structure differs from the United States. Johnny provides a detailed breakdown of his own electricity bill, comparing it to the average U.S. household, and mentions his ongoing project to install a solar power system to go off-grid.
Topics
Cultural nuances in law enforcement interactions, Bribery and corruption in Latin America, Language barriers and communication with local authorities, Concealment of personal documents and safety practices for expats, Traffic laws in Guatemala vs. the U.S., Legal consequences of driving infractions, Cultural differences in driving habits and law enforcement, Car breakdown and roadside assistance, Corruption and bribing cops in Latin America, Cultural experiences and informal dining in Latin America, Bringing your own wine to a restaurant, Descorche fee
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:31 A Real-Life Encounter with Law Enforcement in Latin America 00:01:57 Understanding the Dynamics of Bribery and Corruption 00:04:21 The Importance of Concealing Personal Documents for Expats 00:05:32 The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time 00:05:34 The Absence of Zippered Belts 00:05:42 A Love for Zippered Belts 00:05:44 The Pouch That Has Been Used for 30 Years 00:05:48 A Recommendation for a Product 00:05:54 A Note on Amazon 00:05:58 The Use of Amazon 00:06:00 The Real Leather Zippered Belts 00:10:56 Car Breakdown on a Highway 00:12:22 Police Assistance and Corrupt Practices 00:14:05 River-Side Picnic and Cultural Experience 00:16:28 Bringing Your Own Wine to a Restaurant in Latin America 00:16:59 The Value of In-Person Seminars for Expats 00:21:42 Electric Bills and Utility Companies in Latin America 00:21:58 Power Outages in Gated Communities 00:23:00 Electricity Subsidies in Latin America 00:25:12 Electricity Cost Comparison 00:26:30 Johnny's Solar Power System Project
Transcript
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 out to play and now 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 Hey, how about a boots on the ground getting pulled over by the cops story something that just happened to me on Sunday And here's how it went down some Latino friends of mine who don't speak any English By the way invited me to a very special outing a kind of a lazy Sunday afternoon Latino picnic now
[00:49] It happens to be on a river actually in a river Nothing polluted about it either. It was beautiful clear fresh water coming right out of the mountains So we had to drive about an hour and a half from the big city to get there It's way in the boonies tell you about that later So anyway, we have two cars the front cars a van Latino guy driving it and I'm driving a car behind it And right as we were getting out of the city. It's a big highway now There was one of those usual suspect police roadblocks just checking cars here and there for licenses Registration pretty much anything they can fault you for to try to squeeze some bribe money out of you You know, this is Latin America So the van in front of me whizzes right on by them and they waved me over There were just two cops pulling over and that's usually when they try to hitch up for bribes
[01:36] Anymore than three or four cops at a stop They'll almost never try to gouge her because you know Then there's way too many witnesses in case you want to file a formal complaint Not that anybody would have never heard of a case But you know these days with everyone recording everything and anything on their smartphones Well, let's just say one or two cops can easily block and cover for each other But any more than that there'll be just too many cars pulled over at once and someone just might be filming So keep that in mind next time you're south of the border if it's a bunch of cops pulling people over don't worry They're not gonna nail you for a bribe though It could easily happen if you're dealing with one or two cops even so don't worry if they try to bribe you just pay the Bribe it's always small 20 bucks you so in fact a lot of smart gringles who've been down here a long time They just come right out and say hey, I've only got 20 bucks on me. That way you can take some control of the situation yourself
[02:28] Set some bribery limits, you know, so anyway, I get pulled over a lady cop walks up to me First thing I said is habla ingles. Do you speak English? She said no So I went into plan a which is I don't speak any Spanish. No hablo español That's when they usually roll their eyes and say oh hell this ain't gonna be worth it and they wave you right on through I can't tell you how many times that's happened to me and you know I'll tell you it's a big mistake if you've learned some Spanish to try to practice it on cops Because then for sure they're gonna put more time and effort into hassling you Oh, and I forgot to tell you if there's a lady cop involved You'll almost never get nailed for more detail, you know for bribes It seems to be a kind of universal law that males in all careers and walks of life are much more corruptible than females Unless of course your name happens to be Clinton, then you're born with the ugly gene, too
[03:17] So I figured correctly it's gonna be on the up-and-up No bribe here and then the male cop walked over looked at my car papers They were in perfect order and said let's send see up off of or hoven man You got to love it down here when people are talking to you and they slip in that word hoven j o v e n That means young man And really I'm sure I had 20 something years on that guy and he still called me young man hoven And he wasn't being sarcastic They never seem to be sarcastic with gringos because they figure we don't understand and I'm Spanish to get it and they're never Sarcastic when using that word hoven young man, by the way Latinos do use sarcasm here. They call it Sarcastica or if it's a guy Sarcastico, in fact, my girlfriend accuses me of it all the time. She says are you being sarcastic?
[04:05] It is Sarcastica and believe me She knows it when she hears it because she's pretty good at it herself when she wants to be though in a fun way So anyway, I dug into my passport pouch. You've heard me talk about that special passport pouch I carry it's RFID proof only about 15 bucks It wraps through your belt on a loop and tucks into your pants. It's extremely well concealed Impossible detect even if you're getting patted down because it's hanging in the front of your pants Not hanging on your left or right side or back side By the way, you longtime listeners may have heard me say I've known of a few instances where gringos have been robbed or rolled Almost always when they're doing something they shouldn't like hanging around a bad neighborhood or climbing an isolated volcano somewhere Anyway, gringos and expats have told me they've never been patted down on the front
[04:54] You know the groin area even you know when you're walking to a bar or a disco I know you can't do it anymore with this cool video crap But in the past you'd get the pat down at the front door Well, they'll never touch you in the groin area because it's a very macho society and they consider it Unmanly to touch a man's private parts even in a pat on Latino men will tell you it's too much of a maricon Thing to do too much of a gay thing. Hey, just ask one You'll see which is why that passport pouch that I've been using for 30 years now Actually, I've gone through a couple of them in 30 years cuz they do wear out like anything But just note if you have one and you wear it the way it's supposed to be worn in the front Even if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time I bet you the bad guys miss it completely just as they have no idea of the existence of zippered belts
[05:42] God, I love those things. I'm always wearing one By the way, if you want to know the pouch I use and have been using for 30 years now Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com. You can get it on Amazon for something like 15 bucks Hey, and don't send me any hate mail about using Amazon I mean look what are you supposed to do not use them in protest? Is that puny effort gonna help things get real? Oh and about those excellent real leather zippered belts that I use Sorry, but for now anyway, you can only get the real nice ones in one of those cool little towns around Lake Atitlan Guatemala the most beautiful lake in the world could be the second most beautiful though Some say Lake Como and Italy's number one. It's all a matter of taste So don't forget if you're visiting Guatemala or come down to the seminar check out those excellent hand-tooled zippered belts
[06:29] They come in lots of different styles shapes and colors and are only around 15 bucks each Hey now there is a fantastic gringo export business idea would be perfect to sell on the internet I can't believe no one's thought of it yet. Sure. There are zippered belts on the internet, but they're crap compared to these Oh well, so anyway the cop wants my driver's license. I dig into my passport pouch and my license is not there Actually, I've got a couple of valid licenses from a couple of different countries and none of them were there And it was my bad because I have three of those passport pouches And I just happened to grab the wrong one and I knew because there was a woman cop present I wouldn't be able to bribe these guys. So I was gonna get a ticket So the next question obviously was do you have a license? I said, yeah, I left it at home
[07:15] We can go over there if you want you follow me back and I'll show you well, you know They would have done that the lady cop was just about ready to bite Yep, I think because of that gringo advantage they would have obliged so they discussed it for a minute in the end They thought better of the idea They had the orange pylons out on the road and they couldn't leave their assigned station They said look we'd like to but we're posted here for the day So the lady wrote me up a ticket for not having a license the cost 25 bucks to be paid at the nearest police station or bank whatever but here's the thing They didn't make me get out and have someone else drive They didn't impound my car which is exactly what they would have done if that happened to me up in Illinois or Cleveland and
[08:01] That $25 fine for not having a license Well, I just looked up a site that shows fines state-by-state for driving without possession of your license well, the fines range from 100 to 200 bucks three to six points off your license and if you're alone They'll impound your car and if you're with someone they'll have to drive and if they impound your car It'll cost you around 500 bucks to get it out of the lockup Plus you'll have to go to court and produce your valid license So that's a dare at least a whole morning down the drain too. You get the point, right? Oh, and by the way, you heard me talk about that book three felonies a day and people have sent me emails saying nah That can't be right. Sorry. It's true Well, how about this one? for example if you're under the influence of alcohol or drugs and you occupy a driver's seat of a car and
[08:47] The engine is running. You don't have to be driving doesn't have to be moving But if the engine is running in most states of the Union you've committed a felony So for example, if you're just a little bit wasted and you slide Across the seat through the driver's side door to get to the passenger seat You've just committed a felony and of course if you're a regular driver and you use the cell phone or text at any time at all each Time it's a misdemeanor And of course every time you pop just one mile an hour over the speed limit you've committed a misdemeanor And if you stop for speeding you could also get ticketed for reckless driving Also a misdemeanor, but if you get a ticket for reckless endangerment of others That's a felony like for example reaching in the back of your car to slap your kid Of course, you probably knew that already, but maybe you didn't oh and another thing happened while being stopped at the cops The van with my Latino friends in it ahead
[09:34] Stopped turned around and pulled up right behind me while I was talking to the cops I mean right behind me and they slid open the van door pulled out a cooler popped a few beers and just Started drinking after all it was Sunday and we're going to a picnic and when the cops finally waved me on my way the van Followed and everyone in that van including the driver Was holding a plastic cup full of beer as they passed they waved to the cops and the cops waved back again If that would have happened up in the states You can only imagine what the fines would be and how many hours we'd have wasted down at the police station Oh But the plot thickens on our way back from that picnic a couple hours later the van blew his front right tire now I got to tell you something about the driver He and his family own a couple of stores that sell car parts mostly bumpers grills doors and fenders
[10:24] For customers that own body shops and guess what surprise price He did not have a spare tire an absolutely predictable Latin American move I'd say 80 or even 90 percent of the cars in Latin America Either don't have a spare or the spares blown or doesn't have any air in it And you know when gringos get together inevitably we start talking about what Latin Americans call locuras The root word there is loco the fact that Latinos do many crazy stupid things like driving around without a spare or having a big-ass crack in your Windshield forever and just not getting it fixed So there we were on this big highway out in the middle of nowhere No spare tire for the Toyota van, and I was driving a Toyota yaddis, so I grabbed my spare I've always got a spare in good shape problem is my spare had four holes in it
[11:12] You know where you mount the nuts and his van had five holes where you mount the nuts So it's in the match makes you wonder why Toyota hasn't standardized the wheel rims Why have rims with four and five holes? I don't get it the Japanese usually have those kind of basic bases covered so anyway we pull off the rim I threw it in the trunk of my car drove out to a pin chaso sometimes known as a gomero That's a tire repair place by the way gomero has a root word gum as in rubber Makes sense and pin chaso has the root word pinch as in pinching someone or pinching something like a tire and tell you Perforated makes sense to pin chaso So I found a gomero slash pin chaso bought a new tire because the other one was shredded actually bought a used tire
[12:02] He mounted it balanced it etc Total charge 15 bucks and the used tire not half bad So I drove back to the big highway when I got there There was a cop car parked right in front of it with the lights flashing. He wasn't there to hassle anyone He was just providing help Road assistance and I said to him. I suppose you got lots of work helping people He said yeah, and he confirmed there was dozens of blowouts a day on that highway and only maybe seven had a service double spare and he said half the people don't have a jack or a nut remover or they've got a nut remover no jack or A jack that's broken or a jack without the handle to crank it up And so he lifted the back tarp on his police cruiser pickup And he had a couple of jacks and nut wrenches in there Just because it was necessary for a cop who patrols that highway again only in Latin America
[12:52] Oh, and when I got back everyone was drinking beer out of cups again, including the driver And yes, they offered the cop a beer, of course, and he did accept a can but he put it in his cruiser He didn't drink it in front of us I suppose again because anybody could be filming it and posting it on the web So it really is a fact of life that getting bribed by the cops is definitely being riskier and riskier for them It's a developing story We'll keep an eye on it and keep you posted now as for me when I first got down to Latin America I used to think wow, I can't believe it is everyone corrupt because you know until I got to Latin America I never witnessed a case where a cop was bribed not up in the States The average guy on the street wouldn't want to try that even in Chicago in the States bribing cops is best left to Mafia types and politicians they are cut from the same cloth, you know, but the average guy on the street, man
[13:43] He just would never try to attempt to acquire a cop and US cops themselves Don't shake down the average guy either though American cops might be corrupt and shake down drug dealers and stuff I'm sure you've seen that movie the average guy never gets a whiff of that though It seems everyone here in Latin America who drives a car or a motorcycle knows the cops are always looking for donations Ha ha now about that picnic I went to that took place on this river. In fact, it took place in the river I took pictures of it So if you want some cheap thrills send me the email the exhibit files at gmail.com and I'll shoot you off a couple those pics So as it turns out way up a mountainside about halfway to the top, there's a specific river with some steep rapids Well, they built a little park and they've got some barbecue style outdoor restaurants
[14:31] Nothing fancy and as it turns out those restaurants will take plastic chairs and tables You know the ones that have a hole in the centers so you can stick an umbrella in it outdoor cafe style Well, when you order your food and drink, it's dirt cheap. By the way, it's not high-class. It's very casual They'll take one of those plastic tables and chairs and umbrella and stick it in the river now the river itself is really moving and it's about 75 to 100 foot wide and they stick those tables right in the center of it and when you're sitting down in that chair The water is rushing by you pretty fast and you're in it the top of the tables Maybe only a half a foot from the surface of the water So you are when you're sitting there basically up to your navel and water and people just sit there all day Drinking and eating partying and carrying on it's a family affair with kids dogs and grandma too and get this people bring their hookahs
[15:23] You know, that's a faddish thing right now smoking a hookah pipe as for me I didn't want to sit in the river I sat in the cafe on the edge of the bank But while I was there, I saw at least four big hookah pipes sitting on top of those tables right in the middle of the river People just token away. Now. I don't know what they smoke in those things I never tried it, but the whole area kind of smelled like incense and menthol So definitely it was one of those only in Latin America Experiences really was a lot of fun. Just one observation though Even though we were in the tropics that water coming off the top of that mountain was cold But the people there in that water eating at those tables and I'd say there are at least a hundred of them or so The temperature that water didn't bother them at all. They were having a great old time
[16:09] Oh, and here's the thing You can order your food and get a table inside that river But you can bring your own cooler to and your own wine and beer and everything Even food and the restaurants don't seem to care as long as you're ordering something by the way There's an odd thing about Latin American restaurants a lot of them even the high-class ones Will let you bring a bottle of wine to dinner You know, you can never get away with that up in the States Anyway, if you do bring your own bottle, which is a really cheap ass thing to do I know but I've seen some gringos and expats do that often backpacker types what the waiter will do is bring over a corkscrew and charge you a little fee on your bill called a Descorche fee to scorche means uncorking fee Corche meaning cork a bottle opening fee
[16:55] So if you bring your own bottle of wine the restaurants that allow you to do it We'll probably charge around a buck to open each one But like I said, you really look like a cheap ass if you bring your own wine to a restaurant, huh? What will your date think hey, but again, this is Latin America full disclosure here I've been called cheap a lot of times in my life Captain Mango says that about me all the time, but I've never brought a bottle of wine to a restaurant That's pushing it. And now this short email from Richard. Hey, Johnny, what about a seminar alternative? Did you know Panama? Relocation tours is now offering online guides in lieu of having their seminars He says how about you something to think about for your own seminars? All right. Thanks for that Richard. Yeah. Yeah, I know
[17:42] That's why zoom is so popular now, but here's the thing Richard You know at least half of the value of my seminar is in meeting my crew other gringos and expats who are living down here Hooking and hanging up with my expat network getting some extremely valuable boots on the ground time Checking out hospitals clinics real estate businesses factories Volcanoes schools and universities and you really have to experience the alti Plano climate to believe it I'll tell you that's the real value of the seminar and then every night around seven We all get together go to dinner and hang for quite a few hours and do the kind of bonding You could never do on the internet with a zoom conference So I really won't and can't convert my seminars to some kind of online conference
[18:29] But what I have been doing over the last couple of months You probably remember my expat essentials course of a few years back formerly known as the five flags course Remember it was eight hours of audio and video what you might call Johnny's complete guide to getting out of Dodge Well in the last couple of months. I've completely updated and revamped that program I'm almost done probably in a month or two. It'll be ready It's all new and I've added a couple of extra chapters and brand new flags, too So the program will have various chapters. It'll be at least 10 hours long. You'll want to have it You won't want to miss it because it truly will be my latest greatest ultra complete guide to getting out of Dodge So stay tuned for that but of course, there's no boots on the ground
[19:15] There can't be and that's what my expat insider seminars are all about and the next seminar We'll be launching just as soon as those idiot government blockheads get it together on this Covid it testing and start offering that quick almost instant five or ten minutes Anyway Covid test right at the airport as they're doing in many countries in Europe right now when that happens and it's coming soon because Airlines and the tourists and hospitality businesses have been devastated and the only way to rev it back up to some degree Anyway, they'll never get back to normal is to make it easy for people to get that stupid test Though you have to ask yourself. Why don't countries do what Costa Rica? Mexico the Dominican Republic and quite a few other countries are doing that is let you enter the country
[20:02] And if you're showing signs of being sick or have a fever You just don't look well while you're standing there in line at the airport They pull you aside and give you the quick test But they don't require anyone upon arrival to get any kind of test at all So that's what it's like in the aforementioned countries But it seems just way too logical for governments to initiate that in the rest of the world But that's what you get when the government locks things down and makes you play by their stupid rules Though I always remember what my grandma said she said Johnny, please forgive the retarded They know not what they say or do but don't feel too sorry for them. They have a safety net It's called a government job and now for something completely different. I'm looking at my electric bill now Why am I doing that because I get all kinds of emails from people saying Johnny
[20:50] I'm an expat living in so-and-so Latin country or I'm just visiting and I look at the electric bill on the table And I can't make head nor tail of it and not just because it's in Spanish either There's just so many ungodly charts and figures and calculations. I don't even look or care about that I just pay the final amount calculated on the bottom line and get it over with in fact The last email I got on that subject was from Rory just yesterday He's in Panama speak Spanish on a five or six level and still can't figure out his electric bill So I'm gonna plow through mine today for you. Oh and not that your electric bill in the States is any less confusing But that's your problem. Of course, you've got a much bigger problem That's the fact that you haven't been able to get out of Dodge yet
[21:36] But that's why you're listening to this show, right? Anyway, let me explain a few things for you first now throughout Latin America Thankfully most all power utility companies have sold out part of their business to a private entity at least 50% of most Latin country powered utilities are owned privately in a partnership with government And so their power plants power lines and infrastructure are pretty much first world However, there are gringles and expats that have frequent power outages and that's not due to the power companies themselves It's usually due to some bad wiring construction within their own gated guarded community or neighborhood In other words, if you build a gated guarded community, the national power company will bring the lines in but you have to contract your own Electricians to do the rest. So if the electrical contractors who wired your neighborhood are putting heads
[22:25] Your colony or neighborhood will suffer many little power outages In fact, one of our best expat buddies Oscar Miner the crypto and Bitcoin mining King He's stuck in one of those gated guarded communities with lots of little power outages himself Meanwhile the neighboring gated guarded communities have no power outage problems at all I know I know when you say colony gringles and expats picture a nest or hive of wasps or they're thinking about some apocalyptic B grade zombie movie, but here neighborhoods are called colonies or colonias So get used to it now The thing is practically every Latin American power company has been forced by the government into providing subsidies For the poor and the lower middle classes, so then how do they determine that well?
[23:12] Logically poor people use a lot less electricity. They don't have air conditioning dishwashers trash compactors Computers vacuum cleaners and treadmills most of the poor and lower middle classes here in Latin America I have just maybe one TV a small refrigerator and some light bulbs hanging and the vast majority of them use under 200 kilowatt hours a month now if you look at your own bill You'll see there's a total of the number of kilowatt hours. You use a month Everyone's monthly electric bill the world over has that total sometimes It'll even be a bar graph on your bill showing the last three to six months of usage now Some if not, most Latin American countries actually have a three tiered subsidy system For example, there's a certain rate for the first 200 kilowatt hours used and then there's another rate from
[23:59] 200 to 300 or 4 or 500 depending on the country and then the real pricey kilowatt hour rate kicks in If you're using more than three four or five hundred kilowatts depending on the country So here's the breakdown of last month's electric bill for me. It's in the local funny money So I'll switch it to dollars here. I consumed for the month of January and the bill it says consumer 315 kilowatt hours that month and the cost breakdown is like this I have a fixed charge just for having the service everyone has that and it's about two bucks a month and for the first 200 kilowatt hours used I'm charged along with the poll folks who are in that range eight and a half cents a kilowatt hour Which for me works out to 17 bucks now for the next hundred kilowatts is a little more expensive
[24:45] Which is also partially subsidized at 12 cents a kilowatt hour So that hundred kilowatts costs me 12 bucks now remember I use 315 kilowatts for the month So the last 15 kilowatts are the most expensive in other words There's no subsidy anymore cost me 18 cents a kilowatt hour and that final 15 kilowatts cost me around $2.75 So my total bill for the month of January 315 kilowatt hours used works out to 49 bucks now compared that to the United States if you were using the same amount of kilowatt hours 315 per month which would be exceptionally low if I was up in the states But I'm just a single guy up there the average household of four uses about a thousand kilowatts a month About three times what I do and the average kilowatt hour cost in the states varies a lot from state to state
[25:36] But in general, it's around 13 cents a kilowatt hour though Actually more like nine cents the rest is all extra charges and taxes So the average household of four in the United States pays around 130 bucks a month for their electric bill so figure it this way the average family of four in the states uses around 12,000 kilowatt hours a year as mentioned around 1,000 a month whereas in Latin America because there are so many lower middle class and poor people the average family uses only around 1800 kilowatt hours a year or 150 kilowatt hours a month which falls nicely below that 200 kilowatt hours a month That's heavily subsidized and in that range the average person is paying less than half of the real cost of the electric power service
[26:23] Now you might ask the question Johnny you have an electric bill. I thought you had solar you're off the grid Well, I'm glad you asked that question I'm in the process of assembling a complete power wall system That will take me completely off the grid once again with this new system having lithium batteries to the tune of 30 Kilowatts plenty to power the house and charge a car like a Tesla Anyway, that's my latest project. I'll keep you posted But of course, I am installing the latest and greatest battery pack technology and my panel's the latest and greatest to 450 watts apiece Wow, I'm getting them from that company Canadian solar I'll have 24 of them and they'll put out a little more than 10,000 watts an hour when the sun is shining That's 10 kilowatts an hour
[27:10] My advice since solar is so cheap these days buy more than you need that way You could keep the air conditioning going if you have it and keep extra lights burning without people nagging you like my mother used to do Always saying turn the lights off when you leave the room Electricity doesn't grow on trees though these days if you've got a nice solar system, it kind of does 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 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