#880 – Episode 880: Water Purification, Bathroom Challenges, Expat Communities, and Safety in Mexico

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 as I wonder Hello to my trustee portable water purifier with me I know I know there are lots of good ones out there, but one I use I think is the best of all Especially because it lasts a lifetime because you know about 95% of all the other water purifiers You have to change some kind of element in them or cartridge You know the drill or even throw them away and you longtime listeners know I'm not the backpacking type and I'm not a hiker I do lots of walking though, but not out in the bush So I really don't have a need to carry my water filter around with me like a lot of people do especially backpackers

[00:47] They got those portable little plastic or stainless cup type deals with straw Those are specifically designed for the outdoorsy type so you can use river water stick the straw in there And just start sucking. I know some people are good at that or just scoop some water into the canister and start sucking You know the drill hey those things are just fine, but what I take with me I leave in my hotel or bed and breakfast or Airbnb and make up my water as I need it Of course lots and lots of you listeners know exactly what I'm talking about because you sent me an email and I sent you a file I'm a little report on exactly what I use with photos and where you can buy the parts and put it together from Amazon The portable outfit I use is a Sawyer filter good for a lifetime actually good for a million gallons And if you don't believe that just check out the specs. That's the first stage it filters dirt bacteria viruses cysts

[01:37] However, I'd never know about the chemicals the organics are in the water these days and a Sawyer filter It's not gonna pull that stuff out Which is why I added my own little modification of one of those catered in hard to pronounce that tiny little canister attachment That I load up with activated charcoal pretty much before every trip Then after each trip I screw off the top dump the charcoal out put some new stuff in and give me the cover back on I'm set to go for at least I'd say 25 gallons of charge you never have to change the Sawyer filter But if it starts running slow you just reverse it and back flush it and you're back in business again When you're on Amazon with the Sawyer website to try to order that thing there are lots of variations And I spell that out in a little report that I put together for you guys Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com and send you the file

[02:26] The thing is the Sawyer filters are all the same, but they come with different Tubings and attachments and my recommendation is to order the one that's got the rubber grommet adapter for your kitchen faucet So you just slip that over a kitchen faucet or any regular faucet turn it on Slowly because otherwise the pressure just might blow it off and you're in business Oh speaking of slowly you really want to open the water valve So that the water comes out in a kind of a dribble Let's say about a stick is the wire on your USB cable for your phone charger That would mean the streams about an eighth of an inch in diameter Sure You could open the valve a lot more and pump up the volume and get it coming out It's thick as a pencil or bigger and that won't make any difference to the Sawyer element But it'll make a lot of difference to the activated charcoal canister

[03:11] That's the final stage of the thing now you want the charcoal to remove all the organics chemicals pesticides and stuff And that's all about flowing surface area So if you open up the valve and shoot that water through won't have much of a chance to have decent contact with the charcoal To remove the chemical so the slower the better But you don't have to turn it down to a drip or a negligible stream like a guy with the clap or a prostate problem Just a small steady eighth inch diameter stream is perfect Here's what I usually do when you go to a hotel They'll usually give you a couple of free bottles of water right well use those to brush your teeth and stuff No problem, then I'll just empty them out and fill them up with my own pure water Sometimes if I'm staying in a place for weeks at a time I'll go to the nearest local market and buy a gallon jug of water empty that out now I'll have a gallon on hand all the time of my own pure water

[03:58] now for you absolute purists who don't even want to use any plastic containers at all and You know when I'm in my house or in my car. I'm one of those I use glass only now If you're traveling or in a hotel and you have a fancy to use glass You can go into your minibar pull out a glass bottle or two beer. You know still comes to glass bottles, right? So you knock them down or dump down the drain and fill those up with your pure water or if you're staying on for a long time go to the corner liquor store buy yourself a bottle the cheapest rot-gut wine that Has a glass bottle or if you like wine buy a decent bottle chug it down and use that for your daily supply of pure water Just try to get one with a screw-on cap because corked bottles are pretty messy speaking of glass bottles Here's my personal favorite a Grosch beer bottle remember those things. They still sell them in liquor stores here and there

[04:48] They're thick as hell practically indestructible and they have that really cool old-school resealable cap You know what I mean, but they are relatively expensive. All right, so again my strongest recommendation for portable water Purification is to get one of those little Sawyer filters and man They are small about as big as a salt shaker personally I always have my little kit in my carry-on luggage wherever I go Of course, I have it inside of a plastic bag with some rubber bands around it because when you use it There's always a little water left in it. You don't want that leak into your suitcase Now the best thing about my little setup is that little rubber cowl that you slip over the faucet However, these days there are many upscale hotels Airbnb's mom-and-pop hotels and personal residences that have funky so-called designer

[05:37] Non-standard sinks and water faucets in both the bathrooms and the kitchens and that cowl that plastic grommet you slip on It just won't stretch. It can't be adapted then your poop out of luck, right? Well at first it would seem that way but I got a good hack for you Just go into the shower and unscrew the shower head You'll find nearly all shower heads if you turn them a counterclockwise Will unscrew and you'll end up with the shower head in your hand and the chrome pipe sticking out of the wall And that's perfect It'll be about three-quarters inch in diameter then just shove that rubber cowl on and you're in business Only problem is you're gonna be standing in the shower with your clothes on while you're doing it unless you want to strip down Why not if no one's looking your choice? Otherwise, you're bound to step in water or get some on your shoes And when you're done just screw the shower head back on now in some older hotels where the plumbing is kind of skanky

[06:26] You might not be able to unscrew the shower head very easily Sometimes the gunk deoxidation and the minerals in the water will kind of weld the shower head to the pipe now I've found you can almost always unscrew it by throwing a towel over it and then going at it gives you a much better grip And mechanical advantage then with your bare hands But normally it's pretty easy if all else fails and you can't get the shower head off or it's a funky shower design And it's not meant to come off that way I've seen a few of those but it's rare and you know last time I encountered a stubborn one like that it wasn't even in Latin America wasn't Rome about a year and a half ago So in that case when you have found you've lost the lottery you got that 1% You just can't adapt a rubber cowl to for lover money. What do you do? Ah, well You'll notice if you order one of those Sawyer kits, it'll come with a little blue plastic bag

[07:16] Almost looks like an old IV bag. They used in military hospitals out in the field It's got two openings on the bottom You could plug your filter in there and there's a screw-off lid on the top. That's where you pour your water That's meant to be filtered then gravity will force it through the Sawyer filter then on through the final charcoal filter It'll drip pretty slowly unless you put the cap back on and squeeze the bag, but you'll have pure water Oh and it's got a hook on it, too So you can hang it up on a lamp or something and you won't have to hang around for 10 minutes waiting for the water to So in the end you buy that little Sawyer kit plus the charcoal adapter and you're ready for anything When you could buy activated charcoal at a fish supply store, you can get a half gallon of it for around 10 or 15 bucks Now I travel a lot and that'll probably last me 10 years again

[08:02] If you want the complete details on that send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And remember I don't make a penny off of telling you this stuff. All right speaking of emails Let's get to some right now You know if you've been listening to the expat file shows in the last couple of months You've heard me talk about Mexico and how I'd never want to live there visit Yes, if I got a good package to you can't go in or whatever Anyway, I've given you ample boots on the ground proof Why it's a bad idea and I thought after laying out some really stark examples from common Americans living down there After hearing that you'd think bingo is an expats with a plan B Trajectory would be getting the hint already. But you know some smart guy a lot smarter than me once said There's nothing more difficult than to persuade a person whose mind is already made up

[08:49] Take this email just came in a couple of days ago from Dustin. He says Johnny It sounds to me like one of your listeners is having issues in Mexico. You should recommend he moved to central Mexico I just walked by a Rolex store in Guadalajara yesterday. The economy must really be booming here He says that came from Dustin by the way If you didn't hear the show I did a couple of weeks ago regarding a longtime listener Who's been living in Oaxaca and Altiplano region in southern Mexico explaining how he too for many years was living the good life But now is seeing the underbelly of what's really happening in that show He talked about how his own landlord and his landlord's family have been involved in criminal activities and the son Who owns a trucking company is packing up his family and leaving going back to the states where he's been before why?

[09:39] Well, he's been threatened and extorted. He can't move any of his goods until he pays off people. So he's thrown in the towel and Here's another email just came in from someone who's looking at Mexico for their plan B destination Now my question, of course is isn't anyone listening? All right. This one comes from Fred. He sounds like a really nice guy He says hi Johnny, my wife and I enjoy your podcast. I'm the one who subscribes So I listen more often than she does when we have a drive off and play one of your episodes She always finds them interesting and fun to listen to we've been talking about our own plan B But we own a small business and the exit strategy needs a lot of work. It's gonna take time Meanwhile the other day we're listening to your August 4th episode about Costa Rica and I asked my wife if she would be

[10:25] Interested in learning more about your seminar. She said yes thing is it's hard for us to take a vacation We are a mom-and-pop operation We usually schedule our week of vacation around Thanksgiving because of the two-day holiday in the US So scheduling is an issue for us. I think you're looking at January 2020 for your next seminar And we might be able to make that work Then he says another issue for us is we don't speak Spanish However, my wife recently became interested in a place called a hic mexico Because there's a huge expat community there I understand what you say about getting off the tourist trail and learning to talk to the locals because you have to But I'm getting old enough to think the brain cells are past their best used by date I suspect that would be the village idiot who has to use gestures and noises to communicate the rest of my life

[11:11] The other choice is to look for a place where there are plenty of expats to help out Seems to me that a big expat community would know which of the locals they can trust to and the locals would know That if they screwed over one of the expats all the others were here about it and nobody would want to do business with them Anymore, for example in the place my wife's looking at there is the Lake Ciampa la society for expats that has been building a library and meeting room Along with a full calendar of activities for expats similar to what is offered at our local senior centers in America They have lawyers realtors insurance agents. They can recommend I'm sure I really like the idea of an expat community That has a community center with Spanish lessons yoga lessons movie nights blood pressure screenings all of it and Johnny You talk a lot about people moving to Latin America

[11:58] Question is do most people want to find an expat community that can join? I recall you suggesting that people spent a month or more where they plan to move before they commit I wouldn't want to move and then find out I don't like the neighbors It seems to me that it would take longer than a month to figure out a place is gonna work for you or not In closing, we are big fans of your podcast and really appreciate the inspiration. Please keep up the good work I like to get information about your seminar to give us more to think about. Thanks Alright Fred before we get into this I have to make one comment you mentioned that I said that people have to spend a month or more before they decide To move to a place Fred I say you have to spend six months to a year in a place You think you're really gonna like before you should make the commitment to buy any real estate or build set up a business or think about

[12:45] Planting your feet permanently for one thing since 80 to 90 percent of Latin America only has two seasons They're rainy season in the dry season. They call them winter and summer You want to have a good taste of what you're in for climate wise So you want to spread out that six months or so between the two seasons so you can get a taste of both Other than that Fred in a lot of cases It's a good idea Especially if you don't speak any Spanish to have a soft landing in Latin America when you first start out on your plan B So sure your cost of living is gonna be a lot more than if you were off the trail But still it will seem like a bargain because the prices will be lower than the states the difference is for example If you live in Houston or Chicago and you've been paying fourteen hundred bucks a month for a two-bedroom apartment in a nice area And you end up in Costa Rica or San Miguel Allende, Mexico both heavily on the tourist trail

[13:36] You might pay nine hundred a month for pretty much the same thing and you'll probably be overjoyed with the prospect However, if you were off the gringo tourist trail way off in a nice upscale gated guided community or residential tower in let's say Guatemala Honduras Bolivia Paraguay El Salvador you'd probably be paying four or five hundred a month for the same thing That's less than half as much as you pay when you're on the tourist trail And another thing when you're on the gringo tourist trail looking for medical care I'm certain you'll be happy with the prices are probably half of what you pay up in Cleveland or even less But when you're well off the gringo tourist trail You'll be a quarter to a fifth what you've been paying for it up in Cleveland or Chicago Case in point high quality dental work as in crowns up in the states They're well over a thousand bucks now for a good high quality one becoming all kinds of quality

[14:25] You know good better and best like everything else here in Latin America same crown same equipment first world-trained dentist to 300 bucks sometimes even a bit less However on the tourist trail such as in Costa Rica five or six hundred bucks you get the picture Still a tremendous deal compared to what you pay up in states, but hey, we're not talking about saving pennies We're talking about saving a couple of hundred bucks every time you need a crown Let's say if you're off the tourist trail now talking about Mexico, man If you want to go there for your plan B, you're asking for trouble Getting back to that story about our happy couple living in Oaxaca until they found out their own landlord and the family was involved in Well crooked things that said just received another little addendum to that story and this ought to scare the living hell out of you

[15:13] He says Johnny when I'm about to tell you borders on journalism and journalists get whacked all the time So allow me to be anonymous to avoid the chance of becoming a whack e and I'll paraphrase here He says today and might previously laid back sleepy little neighborhood I'm gonna give you some direct feedback from a well-known local guy who's well informed about all the drug gang lunacy That's going on here. He says you recall my landlord with his own dark crime history Well, he just took one of his recreational trips up to northern Mexico He does that to whore around usually with a full bottle of Viagra in hand Well, Johnny get this on his way up north the Halesco new generation cartel Personally escorted him to a small-town stronghold in Sinaloa State and entertained him there

[16:02] Guess what? He filled me in on that whole trip during a baby shower for his niece We were invited to yesterday. It was a fun local experience with around 50 folks attending now He told me about his trip up north He said cartel members made him wear a flak jacket with three magazines for the ar-15 They gave him the carry turns out my landlord's son-in-law was the introductory gateway to this encounter and went with him All in all he was on that blowout party horn trip for around three days while there He said he was offered a mid 30s woman as property to do with what he wished Basically a slave. He said he's going to go back and get her and take her to his property in Tijuana for what?

[16:49] I don't know, but it's not hard to take a guess He also said that right now there's a particular law and order that's prevailing locally due to iron-fisted Drug gang rule and the ruling gang is given to blow out cocaine fueled parties Heavy drinking and freely shooting off firearms whenever and wherever they please yeah That's how bad it can get here eventually creeping into even relatively peaceful spots like Oaxaca All that's going down and getting worse as the Mexican state continues to become increasingly ineffectual countrywide He says it's a crumbling Leviathan as for me after living five peaceful years in Oaxaca I just bought a lonely planet latest Guatemala guide and plan to use it on a scouting trip

[17:35] Dodge for me here is getting pretty dicey time to get that fuck out of Dodge Signing off Johnny best wishes from Oaxaca all right me Johnny here love those boots on the ground reports You sure don't hear stuff like that on the six o'clock Cleveland news that said here's my question you live it up in the states You're getting that plan B rolling at least you're thinking about it now seriously is making a move to the kind of place He just described okay with you. Oh and remember Oaxaca is in the southern part of Mexico Not on the dense northern narco rim along the Rio Grande now as for Oaxaca as the crow flies It's something like 900 miles from the US border where all the drugs are getting through you heard me 900 miles so don't buy it when people say all the drug crime and gang activities is up by the US border it ain't it's

[18:25] Everywhere, but you've got tens if not hundreds of thousands of gringos and expats with blinders on living in gringo eyes towns And with those blinders they feel they're nicely isolated away from the crime the gangs in the narcos Meanwhile your landlord next door neighbor or store owner down the street invites you to a fiesta a graduation quinceaños party Well, you're guaranteed to be sitting in that room with some people who are up to their sombreros and illegal and dangerous crap Is that your idea of an excellent plan B destination? Meanwhile just this week something happened in Mexico that you're never gonna hear about in the six o'clock mainstream media news But man, it's onerous the new president Lopez Obrador Just forced a law through the Mexican Congress called the law of extinction of Dominion. So what does that mean here?

[19:13] I'll translate and read part of it to you what it is. It's an asset forfeiture law That means in Mexico if a person is involved in certain activities They completely lose their rights as a person and they lose all of their property It's turned over to the government the state can make the decision to without a judge The state can make you forfeit your property without any consequences forever This law existed before but it was only limited to issues relating to drug trafficking In other words, if you get busted for drugs that government could claim your property all of it You've got that same law up in the states. That's why the feds the FBI and the DEA have periodic auctions That's where even average guys like us can buy Hummers gold-plated jacuzzis cigarette boats and bad expensive art

[19:59] Well, Mexico has always had that law too But first the guy has to be convicted which almost never happens in Mexico because you can buy your way out of anything But now you no longer need to convict someone the Constitution has now been amended to expand the scope of property Confiscation as deemed by government officials without going to court So even before when I had to do it drug traffickers, they had to be convicted first now It says they've added to that list. It's drug trafficking any involvement in organized crime Intentional homicide rapes kidnapping offenses human trafficking violent crimes Man, that one's wide open for abuse, huh? And also the government can now confiscate your property completely if you use government social programs for electoral purposes

[20:46] It says also they can take your property if you have illicit wealth Acquisition now who's gonna determine that it says they'll also take away your property if you're involved in extortion Hydrocarbon crimes, I suppose that means stealing oil sexual abuse and violence against minors femicide burglary cargo and transport robbery force Disappearances including those committed by private individuals and offenses against the firearm act and the list goes on and on in other words what you're saying is if you're picked up and suspected of anything on the previous list a Government official not a judge can write up an order to confiscate all of your property bank accounts land Cars clothes jewelry furniture everything and who do you think is gonna get that booty now when you think about it?

[21:34] This is pretty serious because the Mexican government can arbitrarily force you to forfeit your property following a mere suspicion or Unfounded complaint and you get this it says in the law the forfeiture will apply even if the accused person has died Thus targeting his heirs and successors for property loss It says the forfeitures can be retroactive for past crimes, too Even if a person has done their time It says the person whose property is to be forfeited must prove their legal ownership of the property Rather than the state having to prove that the property was obtained illegally or with the proceeds of an illegal transaction That means in general if you don't have receipts or contracts proving you bought something

[22:20] Let's say a car or a swimming pool Whatever the Mexican government can automatically take it from you you have to prove you bought it with clean funds They don't have to prove that you bought it with illegal funds So there you have it another nail in the coffin for Mexico in a really strong case for basically skipping it as one Mexican lawyer said in an op-ed piece just yesterday Suppose your kid who's living at home with you stole a car or was stealing drugs well with the new law That means that a government official could confiscate all the property of the parents to without ever having to go to court and get An order from a judge. I hope this is sinking in. I hope you're getting this Hey, I'm all for confiscating property from convicted thieves extortionists kidnappers No good next whatever but only after they've been tried and convicted, please

[23:09] But in this case you could have some syphilitic government bureaucratic post bag making that decision It's just an invitation to all kinds of abuse and in Mexico Remember you can't sue the government at least no one's ever been successful some have tried, but it just goes nowhere I mean look with an estimated 2,000 manhole covers missing alone in Mexico City Imagine if you or your car fell into one of those and you could sue the Mexican government and get a settlement If you think that's possible you've been living on a different planet Oh and not to mention if the government does take your property and you go to court and try to get it back Average time to file a civil case and get it heard in court in Mexico City. Try Seven months that would be just the first round now speaking about how long it takes to file a case in court and actually

[23:56] Get it heard or resolved. How about this in 2013 six years ago now a bank called co-opera and Cuenca Ecuador went bust leaving 113,000 account holders locked out of 48 million bucks of their own savings at that time Cuenca wasn't really loaded up with gringos yet But there were gringos and 400 of them had accounts at that bank and lost their dough Well after six years the case is finally over how about that and they've dispersed some money But at least 15 million will never get returned to the account holders In other words, no one was made whole again. No one got all with their dough back now This is how screwed up Latin government's are it says the three officials who ran off with the money

[24:42] Claudio Abarado Lewis Garmona and Marcelo Vega Gasparuti are all on Ecuador's most wanted list And these three guys are living in my jammy and they actually know where they live it says declassified documents of the bank fraud provide details of how Co-opera bank laundered money through banks in Venezuela, Panama, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Argentina, Colombia and the US Building a pyramid scheme operation that fell apart when hands-on funds could no longer cover expenses and withdrawals It says most of the movement of the money to overseas banks was conducted through ghost companies created by the three Officials on the wanted list now there is a clueless gringo angle to this Why do you think those 400 gringos put their money in that bank?

[25:30] Because when something's too good to be true, it's probably too good to be true They were attracted by interest rates on CDs and past book accounts as high as 14% Then it says back then co-opera bank officials even held a number of seminars from 2011 to 2013 Specifically to attract expats and their money and investments offering those high 14% interest rates, man Emphasizing that some of the profits of the bank would be used to help the lives of the poor what a scam, huh? It's the same story with banks in every single Latin country The fact is most Latin countries have 10 20 even 30 different banks and only a small handful are strong and solid That's why I always tell gringos an expats when they ask me which bank they should use

[26:17] I say first ask your lawyer He knows if you don't have a lawyer and you need to get a bank account right away If you can even get an account without a lawyer put your money in a bank that's at least 25 to 50 years old never put your money in a bank that it's only three four five seven even ten years old Those are the ones that fail the banks that have been around for a while have a long history in there very solid But that's only generally two three or four banks out of 20 But really your best bet is to ask your own lawyer. They have clients who are bankers So they know to score in fact, I'll never forget the day My lawyer in Guatemala called me up and said John you got any money in van cafe get it out Thankfully, I didn't have an account there But guess what three months later it went bust everyone lost their money and the 12 guys on the board of directors

[27:03] Skip the country and guests where some of them live my jammy. Is that still part of the US? I can't remember You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan be 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