#686 – The Expat Files: Expats in Latin America, Clubs, Clubs, and Cultural Clashes

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 I wonder Hello there all you expat 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 All right. So let's start right off the bat with this one says Johnny. This is from Alden You're always talking about the fact that gringos and expats and people moving down to Latin America Need to have something to do keep themselves occupied or else they'll end up being case of beer a day or bottle a tequila a day

[00:48] Drunks well, I could tell you that's a hundred percent true at least in the gringo wise areas here in Mexico I've been down three years now, then he says I know John you say forget Mexico But I only found your show a year and a half ago. I already was in Mexico So I can prove it's a hundred percent true that you have to keep busy down here or you will turn into a drunk In my short time down here I've already met quite a few who have and I'd say most gringos at least 60% find something very constructive to do They start a business do something on the internet do arts and crafts swim play golf or tennis themselves to death It's all good though. However, where I am down here in the Baja Unfortunately, I found a lot of the retirement age people here I'd say at least 30% are retired gringo teachers or retired gringo government bureaucrats on pensions funny thing though

[01:37] They came down here to live because it's cheap all the while They're making it more expensive because and your listeners know this already where gringos congregate higher prices soon follow But regarding these retired US teachers and government bureaucrats They have a lot of time on their hands, so they must keep busy, too They could start real money-making businesses, but they mostly don't because they really don't know how they never had to hire fire Do inventory balance the books or work 80 hours a week like the rest of us who made a living Providing a service or making a product so a lot of them band together and spend their free time Doing the do-gooder thing nothing wrong with that as you said many times Johnny except again There's that old saying it goes something like this the easiest way to piss off a poor person is to stop giving him stuff for nothing

[02:27] That says it all and I could give you a lot of examples myself The other thing that seems to be endemic here in gringoized areas Is that those retired teachers and government bureaucrats feel they have to gringoize everything and at the same time save all the local poor people So they get together and start up all kinds of clubs and organizations and naturally every club has a hierarchy Seems like retired teachers and government bureaucrats just love holding meetings creating boards and handing out assignments Oh, yes, and there's clicks within these clubs, too If you're the new guy in town and you just show up at one of these meetings You're not one of the old guard. So you just don't quite fit in however I find most of those clubs and organizations are just gossip mills where people get together and pair off into their little cliques

[03:14] However, if you want to know the latest gringo gossip and rumors going around Then that's the place to be so stuck with a lot of time on their hands Some gringos have a lot of energy to funnel into these organizations It seems to me that certain types of first world people ones that are used to working within bureaucracies themselves They come down here and find everything so loosey goosey They try to put structure into theirs and well everyone else's life, too In other words It seems to me that people who functioned all their adult lives and bureaucracies come down and find like-minded gringos Who also feel kind of like a fish out of water because there is no real structured bureaucracy And they want to fix that which is why when they get down here They're just not happy until they join or start clubs like travel clubs book clubs weaving clubs

[04:01] And there's democrats republicans and americans abroad where they always try to force their values on the local people, too For example, they've got all sorts of clubs to help the local indigenous women whether they want to be helped or not You know, some people just don't want change But there are always some do-gooder gringos out there that are ready to force it down your throat I've seen it first. They soften them up by handing out some freebies then they hit him with the pitch Then he said johnny I was at a gringo do-gooder event once Where they got a bunch of indigenous local women to attend and they dosed them with first world feminism Then a guy got up and started telling him how bad Mining was for their country and i'm not talking about bitcoin mining either So aside from that sort of social justice kind of stuff

[04:47] I admit some of the events are worthwhile. They've got craft beer clubs civic park hiking clubs Even get this clubs that organize street dog castration days. Wait a minute. Wait a minute meet johnny again Did he say street dog castration days? Ouch. Now if they'd sponsor politician castration days, that's a club I donate to Anyway, erin goes on to say in the baja mexican town. I mean there are at least 25 organizations Run by gringos None of them i'd ever want to join myself though There are some clubs that do good deeds like the one that's organizing the castrations the dog castrations Man, you wouldn't believe the number of skinny main g street dogs. You see here though as mentioned previously

[05:33] Gringos are drawn to like-minded gringos And so the gringos I hang with are by and large guys and gals who were small business owners up in the states I found out for me and some of my own friends that it was the years of work the pressure in the states The treadmill as you call it the gilded cage if you will that becomes addictive It's true, of course and something that rarely comes up My gringo friends here who are mostly x businessmen will agree the pressure is kind of a necessary lubricant in the first World machine and if we don't have a taste of it once in a while we get antsy Funny enough if you're thinking about jumping ship and moving down here to latin america It's easy to find out if you're one of those antsy types Just recall your last vocation or two if you're like me and so many others who had real productive jobs up in the states

[06:21] Meaning of course, you didn't work for government in any way shape or form you find out even though you're on vacation You just can't relax. It's like you actually feel guilty for taking the time off Oh, yes, my expat friends and I have had this discussion many times and we all feel the same Which is why so many of us end up turning our hobbies into businesses Even though we all swore we'd never work hard again once we got down Oh and johnny I want to touch on another phenomena seems like every expat once he's been down here three months or so That is if he hasn't started in on some business ideas full steam already You wouldn't believe well, I guess you would because you're johnny How many of these brand new expats suddenly after about three months Start believing that they're some sort of expert expat even after a very short time down here

[07:07] Some expats like playing the answer man. Maybe that's an errant personality type. I don't know Next thing, you know, they've got a blog and some of them get popular pretty fast, too Especially in gringoized areas. For example, there's expats in medellin blog expats in bogota expats in cancun expats Nicaragua and on and on and the thing is most of the people writing and running these things Haven't even been in the country two years and nine out of ten of them certainly don't even have passable spanish Worse yet. I'd have to say nearly all of them are Exclusively hanging with gringos and they never mingle with the locals on a personal friendship basis It's the gringos who stick together Versus the locals usually the only dealings they have with the latin population is when they go to the store The bank or the doctor or when they're dealing with their maids or waving at the guard as they come into their gated subdivisions

[07:58] So johnny people should keep in mind that those expat blogs are not written by experts Most are written by novices that don't speak spanish Don't mingle with the locals and most likely haven't been in the country even two years I can prove that because I know a number of blog writers myself who fit right into that category Though I won't deny that they do have some good information on those blogs But do you know what it reminds me of greek town german town or chinatown in chicago? I'm from evanston, illinois myself, but I went to school in chicago Then he says every time I went to greek town german town or chinatown in chicago I noticed they all had their own weekly or even daily newspaper in greek german or chinese All obviously directed at immigrants who didn't speak english Then he said, you know johnny i'm half german and my grandfather once told me

[08:46] You know, you're accepted into a community and you've assimilated when you no longer have to depend or lean on your local ethnic newspaper There's a point when you get all the social and intellectual stimulation you need from the society around you Then he says, you know something johnny that never seems to happen in these highly gringoized communities like the one i'm in So I tell people be weary even suspicious of those expat blogs and bloggers There's a lot of puffed up pseudo experts out there putting together those things and They know really very little about the local community except for the gringos that have been inserted into it Oh and watch out when bloggers give you legal advice Oftentimes they're completely wrong about things like residency visa passports, etc

[09:31] Then erin asks this question. He says johnny. Why is it that everywhere gringos go? They immediately start organizing clubs and groups and NGOs To impose their first world rules and regulations on everyone. It seems like they feel they need that There's a kind of comfort in committees and groups and hierarchies Try this johnny next time you're in a room full of gringos Just count how many times one of them says how come the latins don't do this and why don't they do that? Yet you'll never hear a latin person say why don't the gringos do this or do that? That's because latin people are more laid back and into live and let live they're not interested in remolding their society So the problem as I see it is the gringos come down They start or join clubs and organizations in order to fix everything that's wrong with the latin world

[10:21] It's just so predictable and sad I'm one of the guys who left the states because the rules and rags up there were too burdensome And now there's all these government bureaucrats from the states retiring down here Try to explain that oh one more thing johnny talking about do-gooders There's another type my expat friends and I call designer label do-gooders. They're not the joiner type gringos living down here I referred to earlier They're the kind that come down for a week or two at a time with their brand name hiking and dropping in the bush clothes Now i'm not saying they don't come down here with very good intentions They do but they give away all kinds of stuff and that leaves a lot of social and economic wreckage in its path In the end, you don't learn the value of a buck by being poor and dependent on handouts

[11:07] You'll learn the value of a buck by having a job any kind of job that makes you feel like you're producing something Anyway, johnny. Thanks for letting me rant. But if you read this don't say my last name keep on keeping on Erin. All right, erin. Thanks for that. He hit on a lot of topics there and here's another email I just got that relates to one of them He says regards to the statement you often make saying that for latin men the world is their urinal I'd like to say in defense of the caveman It's a hell of a thing when a man doesn't even have the basic rights that a horse has Come on johnny You know that when two guys or two gals are having a heated debate. They'll often call it a pissing contest Where do you think that comes from and don't tell me you've never relieved yourself on the side of the road

[11:58] Any guy who says no to that is simply a liar. Yes. I've done it countless times and you have too johnny Then he signs his name carol. Then in parentheses he puts by the way i'm a guy Well carol, thanks for that email, but I take a bit of an issue when you bring up horses At least working horses pulling carriages full of tourists in historic districts and such including latin america Yep, you see him in many places on the gringo tourist trail, by the way And you know who isn't up for a ride in a nice horse drawn carriage It's a nice touch when you're on vacation, right? But note even down here in a rustic backward latin america horses doing carriage duty Will have obligatory poop bags attached to their butts. Nope

[12:43] No designer poop bags like those uppity horses in new york's central park, but poop bags nonetheless Luckily horses don't embarrass easily, huh? Now this directly relates back to our first email from erin I know he was irritated and kind of blanketly dissed. Uh, the gringo do-gooders down here And i'd say he's probably right in 90 of the cases But I have seen some gringo do-gooders accomplish some great things in the area of animal welfare Now you long-time listeners might remember a show I did three or four years ago We talked about how a high percentage of latins keep their pets in Unspeakable conditions case in point those fantastic tropical birds in tiny cages They can barely spread their wings in it's so sad really and you see that kind of stuff everywhere

[13:28] It doesn't matter if the birds being kept by a dirt poor family with a tin check or an upper class family with a mercedes SUV in the driveway in both cases You just might find a beautiful tropical bird holed up in a tiny stinky cage in a dark hallway or even a bathroom It seems like in the area of animal welfare and protection latins have not a clue So when expat gringo pet lovers see this they often step in as in the case of horse-drawn carriages in gringo tourists areas In fact i've heard of a few instances where gringo saved the pet organizations Have stepped in and have actually gone to court with spanish-speaking lawyers, of course And put the abusive latin guys who own these horse-drawn carriages out of business And some of these gringo pet welfare organizations will adopt those sickly horses and put them out to pasture

[14:20] That's a good deed now since those horse-drawn carriages are right out in the open for everyone to see They're unnatural for animal welfare groups to tackle that helps But of course does nothing for the tens of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of tropical birds all caged up and miserable And of course every latin country in jurisdiction has animal welfare laws, but there's no enforcement same old same old I mean, let's face it If you're driving around in a medium or large sized latin city And you come across a couple of 10 year old boys juggling machetes for dimes on the corner And there's a cop standing right there directing traffic doing nothing about it How can you expect those thousands of caged tropical birds to get any notice or any kind of fair deal? That's not to say there aren't groups of semi-enlightened latins involved in their own animal welfare groups

[15:10] There are The fact is every medium and large sized latin city, especially ones with universities have such groups But they're small and don't have much power So yes, there are some privately funded shelters and clinics for abused animals and animals on the street But down here with all that first world lag time factor, it's animal activism light You just don't see latin's picketing stores that sell leather goods It seems as one latin college kid told me latins have come to terms with leather Even the ones in the animal activist groups, they like it a lot and prefer it over plastic Synthetic leather stuff that seems to be everywhere these days So that means unlike animal activist groups up in the states You won't see latin activists tossing red ink on old ladies decked out in furs as they walk out of trump towers

[15:59] Nope, you won't see that anytime soon Mostly because it's too hot in latin america for fur to ever have caught on it just hasn't oh and as for latin vegans and vegetarians I've never yet met a single one. Not one that doesn't cheat an awful lot. Anyway That's not to say there aren't vegan and vegetarian restaurants all over latin america But they're mostly on or near the gringo tourist trail Or in very upscale latin neighborhoods where people actually know the difference So bottom line if you go into a vegan or vegetarian restaurant You'll see gringos and expats and europeans and upscale gringo wannabe latins who follow first world trends Although most restaurants whether on or off the gringo tourist trail will have a couple of so-called Vegetarian items on the menu and although latin america is the perfect place to be a vegan or vegetarian

[16:48] All you have to do is have a look at one of those big fantastic fresh produce markets That said even the most educated of latins are just not interested Now for people up in the states who say it's just so expensive to eat right and organic You really owe it to yourself to check out those big crazy produce markets here in latin america Especially when you're off the gringo tourist trail, it'll cost you a fourth to a fifth of what's your pain up in the states In fact at every one of my expat insider seminars I personally lead my whole group into one of those huge markets And as we're walking through I make sure that I price out various items so everybody can see Exactly what i'm talking about All right little segue here speaking of my next expat insider seminar It'll be january 6 through 11th, although we're about four months away

[17:36] It's the perfect time to get on my early bird waiting list and remember it's limited to only 25 people So send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you can't get boots on the ground right now Or make it down to the seminar the next best thing you can do hands down is to take my expat essentials course Just go to www.expatplanb.com And you'll find a free video waiting there for you that explains the whole thing And for those of you who want a personal phone or skype consult with me That is easily arranged a lot of people are doing that, you know, especially those who need some advice Somewhere along the way in their own plan B That said I always suggest you go to www.thenewexpat.com and download my free phone consultation questionnaire form

[18:21] Hey, you should download it even if you're not thinking about getting on the horn with me You'll see it probably hits on a lot of things you haven't thought about yet. So do check it out Where were we? Oh, yeah We were talking about animal rights and animal activists and all that stuff And that respect the gringo expats down here are really providing a noble service Though with most other causes they glom on to they tend to go way overboard That's another reason I do not like to live on or near the gringo tourist trail Do you really want to come down to latin america and find more of the same now speaking of animals? Yes, they still have occasional bullfights here in latin america They were once huge deals, but nowadays in the age of facebook and smartphones They seem to be dying on the vine, which is a good thing

[19:07] Yet they still have them but in most countries, they don't kill the bull anymore Cruel and inhumane the do-gooders say yet millions of cows and other animals are slaughtered each year So kids can have their happy meals. Well, you know what expat Eddie says he's always good for a top He says at least in a bull fight the bull has a half a chance to get even He's allowed to fight back and sometimes gets his revenge Now whatever you think about bullfighting and I do think it's kind of nasty I was dragged some years ago to a bull fight one in costa rica believe it or not And you know, I always rooted for the bull i'm serious because expat Eddie's right. They do have half a chance, you know Now here's something i'm sure you didn't know There's something that happens quite rarely in bull fights, but it does happen. It's called an enduto

[19:53] Yep, there are certain cases where a bull has been so cunning and fought so valiantly That the crowd will pull out their handkerchiefs and start waving them And if enough of the crowd joins in with that motion the fight is called in favor of the bull and he's spared He's put out to pasture and lives the rest of his life in peace And that's when he gets his promised 72 virgin cows No, but seriously there really is a thing called an enduto and that's what I always rooted for Oh and one last thing about animals here in latin america You'll notice if you're down here for a while when out in the boonies, especially you'll see lots of cows wandering around sometimes in the road That's because there are no feed lots here in latin america up north. They're so called corn fed, which is unnatural

[20:41] But it's supposed to be great marketing for a certain type of marveled beef, right? Well down here in latin america It's the people that eat the corn not the cows and the cows every day They're sent out in the fields to graze and since some cows are curious like to wander and break through fences and such They can do damage by the way when a kid or an animal or a pet or a wife or a husband Or anyone gets into some mischief The latins will call that a travassura or that person or animal is traviesa or travieso So when you hear someone refer to a kid as travieso That means the kid has to be watched because he gets in a lot of trouble though We're not talking about criminal trouble here Just annoying kinds of trouble that kids and animals can get into So anyway, if you were to look at the way cows live here in latin america versus the way they live up in the states

[21:31] Well, you'd have to say although they always end up dying prematurely They lead an infinitely nicer calmer more stress-free life here And remember this because most of latin america has three or four growing seasons You never see skinny cows and the other ubiquitous animal that really has a good life here is the driveway chicken Otherwise known in some latin countries as pollo de patio. That's a patio chicken So when you're driving around even in some of the big cities you'll see chickens along the side of the road I don't know why but they always seem to hang around the homestead people with driveway or patio chickens generally don't fence them in Let them roam and though their fate is sealed prematurely too Until the day when they end up on someone's plate, they really did have happy carefree lives

[22:21] At least unlike those artificially fattened and injected tyson chickens from up north driveway chickens have the run of the neighborhood They'll cross the road just to get to the other side and sometimes even fly a bit Meanwhile tyson and other highly processed chickens are so fat and their bones are so weak They can't even stand on their own two feet. You know the story They live most of their very short lives in a two by two square foot area That's why I like one of expat eddie's favorite lines. He says there may not be a god But there certainly is a devil. Oh that applies to so many things, huh? And you know for as many years i've been down here. There's still one thing. I just don't get How come when I go into the big market I can buy driveway chickens, you know kind of freshly dead Like for around a buck 30 a pound by the way

[23:09] They have a perfectly natural yellowish color and at that very same stand There's an indigenous lady always a lady the driveway chicken business doesn't seem to be gender integrated I suppose when the gringo do-gooders get around to it. They'll be demanding equal rights in the chicken business, too anyway, right next door to those big plump driveway chicken carcasses are the tyson or imported chicken carcasses that look all Pasty and white sickly looking like they've been dipped in chlorine bleach Those things are going for around 80 cents a pound half the price of the local driveway chickens and I don't get it The tyson brand which has been shipped frozen all the way from the us is slowly taken over the market Nope, there's no gringo advantage here because the people who are buying those tisons can see there's obviously something very different about those chickens

[23:59] So for the locals, it's all about the price and really side by side the tyson chickens look pathetic Enough said about that How about this final email from expat frank? He says don johnny after your recent show talking about people in latin america. I forget the country doing some bitcoin mining I'd love to do this myself I'm assuming that if latin americans can do it. Maybe I can with a recent standard issue Acer aspire laptop Running on a recent version of linex mint. However after virtual googling with duck duck go By the way, I virtual google all the time with start page.com with both methods You get the same google results without all the pop-up ads and stuff and there's no way they can track your preferences

[24:44] Anyway expat frank says i'm reading about having to buy an expensive desktop with hyper hardware fire power Can you or someone you know point me to info about doing it for a profit with hardware. I already have I want to do it while I sleep with wi-fi from claro dsl in my apartment complex Anyway, johnny. What's your opinion on bitcoin mining in latin america? Well frank I was talking about people in venezuela Doing bitcoin mining why because you see there are only two things in that country that are very very very cheap because they're subsidized One's gas and one's electricity. So if you've been investigating crypto currencies specifically mining and bitcoin mining You know then that to get a block verified. It takes a lot of electricity these days

[25:30] So much so that bitcoin and other cryptocurrency miners are moving their hardware to countries that have the cheapest electricity That's what it's all about. Anyone can get the hardware though. That's expensive, too Problem is you see here in latin america and you live in central america Electric rates are very high. So bitcoin mining is really not worth it down here However bitcoin and cryptocurrency miners are putting together all kinds of ways you can get into the act without actually buying any hardware One is buying shares of an actual cryptocurrency Mining outfit and depending on the price of the cryptocurrency you get a certain rate of return every month Now that's a very new concept and in that case you have to decide is the outlay of dough worth the projected payback time So how long is it going to take for you to pay off the initial investment in the project and get positive cash flow

[26:21] It's all a risk. No one can tell however I can put you in touch with some people in latin america right in your neck of the woods They're in the bitcoin mining but in a roundabout way now, of course, this thing is so new In fact everything about cryptocurrency and bitcoin is new Nobody knows what they'll be at in a year or two Though there could be a huge payout and nobody knows if these outfits that you're dealing with are buying into Are really legit or have any kind of long-term track record at all because there is no long-term yet So anyway forget about straight bitcoin or cryptocurrency mining as the big boys are doing it now They have huge banks of computers that are in countries where electricity is very very cheap You just can't compete against those guys However, there are a lot of other less straightforward ways to be a bitcoin miner

[27:07] That is an option if you're a bit of a techie though. None of this cryptocurrency stuff is for the faint of heart You know most gringos and expats down here are chance takers by nature It's in their blood or they wouldn't be down here And if you're living down here now or planning to come soon You have one sort of a lottery, you know Because you see soon someone or something is going to press the reset button up in the first world And you don't want to be there when that happens south of the border This is the expat files living in latin america if you want me to help you out with your own plan b Just schedule a one-on-one consult send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to learn how to move forward with your own plan b from right up there in the states Go to www.expatplanb.com and check out my three videos. See ya nos vemos