Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller dives into the complexities of urban life in Latin America, focusing on traffic congestion, government inefficiency, and cultural differences. He discusses the impact of population growth and poor urban planning on traffic, the role of public transportation, and the challenges expats face in navigating these environments. Johnny also touches on real estate trends, minimum wage disparities, and the unique cultural attitudes that shape daily life in the region.
Johnny highlights the lack of enforcement of regulations and the inefficiency of government systems, which contribute to issues like air pollution and traffic congestion in major cities. He contrasts the detailed-oriented first-world approach with the more relaxed, less regulated Latin American approach, noting that while this can be beneficial in some areas, it exacerbates problems like pollution and traffic.
He recommends that expats and gringos avoid living in big or medium-sized cities and instead consider suburbs, which offer more affordable and spacious living options. He highlights the real estate bubble and the fact that it's a renter's market, making suburbs an attractive choice. Johnny also notes that if you don't work in the city, you can avoid the worst of the traffic. However, he acknowledges that during rush hours, traffic can still be chaotic.
Johnny discusses the impact of traffic congestion on daily life, noting that many Latin Americans live close to their jobs to avoid long commutes. He compares the experiences of expats and gringos in Latin America to those in first-world cities, noting similar traffic issues but with different cultural and systemic approaches.
He also touches on the disparity in minimum wages across sectors, particularly the low wages for agricultural workers, and contrasts this with the higher wages available in the U.S. Johnny comments on the littering habits of Latin Americans, suggesting it is a cultural issue rather than a lack of education.
Finally, Johnny mentions the severe traffic jams in major Latin American cities and the data supporting this trend, referencing a study by INRA X that attributes the traffic jams to population and economic growth, along with poor urban planning. He ranks the worst traffic cities globally, noting that Colombia has the second worst, and Thailand has the worst.
Topics
Air Pollution in Latin America, Government Inefficiency and Regulation, Traffic Congestion and Commuting, Cultural Differences in Urban Living, Expat Experiences in Latin America, Traffic congestion in Latin American cities, Real estate and housing options for expats, Public transportation reliance in Latin America, Engineering solutions for traffic management, Government inefficiency and its impact on urban planning, Traffic and urban congestion in Latin America, Demographic trends and population growth
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:32 Air Pollution and Government Regulation in Latin America 00:02:10 The Double-Edged Sword of Government Inefficiency 00:03:43 Air Pollution and Traffic in Latin Cities 00:04:53 Commuting Challenges and the Gringo Trend 00:05:49 Traffic Congestion in Latin American Cities 00:05:56 Suburbs as a Better Living Option 00:06:47 Engineers and Scientists as Real Estate Skeptics 00:07:46 A Structural Engineer's Critique of Latin American City Design 00:11:25 Solutions for Traffic Congestion in Latin American Cities 00:11:30 Buses and Traffic Congestion in Latin America 00:12:14 Demographic Trends and Population Growth 00:13:04 Minimum Wage Disparities and Economic Opportunities 00:15:08 Littering Habits and Cultural Attitudes 00:16:55 Traffic Jams and Urban Challenges 00:17:07 Traffic in Caracas and the Challenges of Driving There 00:17:09 The Hazards of Driving in Latin American Cities 00:17:16 Causes of Traffic Jams in Latin American Cities 00:17:24 Population Growth and Urban Development as Traffic Contributors 00:17:31 Global Rankings of Worst Traffic Situations 00:17:37 Colombia's Traffic Problems and the Worst Cities 00:17:54 Advice on Living Near Large Latin American Cities 00:17:59 Living Outside the City Limits as a Solution 00:22:56 Johnny's Curiosity About Police in Latin America 00:22:59 Phil's Observations on Chaotic Traffic in Latin America 00:23:25 Phil's Confession About Running Red Lights 00:23:41 The Lack of Enforcement for Illegal Driving in Latin America 00:24:18 The Failed Breathalyzer Initiative in Cuenca, Ecuador 00:25:21 Expats' Frustration with Local Driving Norms 00:25:55 The Controversial Mexican Beer with a Trump Mascot
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 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 You know people who come down to Latin America recognize a couple of big problems in Latin cities One is air pollution Of course, as I've mentioned many times Latin governments pass all the first world laws But they never seem to enforce them or when they do it's very sporadically
[00:47] That can be a good and bad thing a double-edged sword because we don't want more government intrusion and interference We want less of it, right? You guys up in the first world are learning that lesson the hard way However, Latin societies in general are just not big on details Whereas as first world gringos were born into a competitive and detailed oriented society And the reason you'd call a country or society first world or third world depends for the most part on the standards They adhere to for example when you build a house or any kind of project up in the States You have to go through a hundred different Idiotic inspections and every time the inspector to justify his job Of course has to find some picky thing wrong. There'll be something you have to tear out change or adjust
[01:32] Come on If that building inspector returned to his government office and everything was a okay and he had nothing marked on his clipboard His job and usefulness would be redundant. It's what you call government job security, right? You ever hear this story about the window installer who sent his kid around at night to throw rocks and break people's windows Well, you can bet when that kid grows up. He'll end up working for government now down here in Latin America When you build a house or building there's are supposed to be inspections and sometimes there are one or two Which is why when Latins build the house or a building they're loaded with defects and when gringos are first world people build theirs You'll always see the difference in the details So what works in our favor in cases like that where you've got endemic government fat ass laziness?
[02:18] Well, unfortunately, it works against us when it comes to pollution Especially in the medium and large cities and yet you'll hear many long-term gringos and expats say, you know I'll deal with the pollution down here I can live where I want and I just won't live where there's a lot of pollution and you know That'll solve the problem for them as individuals. Anyway, I hear that from gringos all the time They know how far the pendulum has swung up in the states up there Everyone's known a business or two or three that has been regulated out of existence Sure down here in Latin America Oftentimes the lack of regulations and enforcement kind of pisses off a lot of us gringos though. Latins don't seem to mind They're used to it. For example, there's the fact that Latin men consider the whole world their urinal
[03:03] And if you're down here long enough soon enough, you'll find out and maybe it's a good thing That government inspectors even cops don't even know their own rule books Now you think that would be a job prerequisite, right? But remember 95% of these guys do not own their own cars and until they got that government job and got to ride around in a car or a Police vehicle they never even had a driver's license. How could they when they didn't have a car to take the test in? I mean really who can afford a car on a salary of four or five hundred bucks a month So how can you expect those numbskulls most with only an eighth or tenth grade education to know how to police the roads efficiently? Oh, and you'll find in most every medium and large Latin City medium to heavy air pollution You just can't avoid it cars and motorcycles blown fumes and the worst offenders public
[03:53] Transportation and chicken buses and who owns those or contracts out those services why the government of course? So when new green expats and gringos arrive at the airport That's the first complaint. They usually have the pollution Oh and the second biggest complaint you get from gringos when they see Latin cities for the first time is the congested streets in the chaos Of the traffic that means if you live in or near any big or medium-sized city You learn to pace the traffic with the time of day Or you'll end up spending four hours a day in traffic like so many Latins do who drive to work Though it might be nothing new for some of you up there who are braving that kind of traffic in Cleveland or LA or Chicago if you do I don't feel sorry for you because it's really your choice right doesn't have to be that way, you know
[04:39] Though luckily in any big city that has terrible traffic There are those times of day where it's easy to go from one end of the city to another and a half an hour or less And during rush hour two maybe three hours for the same trip So bottom line if you're gonna work in a Latin City you better live close by to your job all the better Of course work for a mural and condo Residential high-rise Subdivision or house that way you almost never have to fight the traffic like most clueless Latins do day in and day out. In fact, that's why perhaps 90% or more of working Latins live for the weekend That's the 90% that spends at least three to four hours a day Commuting in a car or a bus and recently as mentioned in a past show There's been a big push for Latins with a little bit of money to live out in the burbs
[05:27] So they're moving where the air is clean away from the pollution and the chaos and the crime However, since the big cities where all the jobs are they have to drive in and out every day. I have to mention again It's all about lag time. They're following the gringo trend of moving out to the safe airy burbs Meanwhile, they found out like so many stupid gringos up in the states who moved to the suburbs did They'll be stuck with the rest of the lemmings in traffic for two to four hours a day So again gringos and expats coming down I recommend you don't live in a big or medium-sized city, but the suburbs are very cool There are a lot of great wide-open inexpensive upscale options. After all, there's a tremendous real estate bubble and it's a renter's market It's a great option because you're far enough away yet close to everything
[06:15] Especially if you're retired or you work from home and you don't have to drive into the city more than a couple of times a week Sure during the rush hours. They'll still be terribly chaotic and irritating traffic jams But if you don't work in the city, you won't have that problem And if you have to go in you pick the times when the traffic set a low ebb now speaking of terribly Irritating traffic and traffic jams, you know people from all backgrounds and careers listen to this program For some reason that seemed to have a lot of computer scientific and engineering types I kind of think because they're real estate based their life on facts They're seeing the cracks in the wall up in the states and they know the finger and the dike is not gonna last much longer which is why it seems so many engineers and scientific types are on board with a plan B and
[07:00] Not surprisingly why so many liberal arts types are not at all interested in leaving the country They're not on board with a plan B and believe the government will make it right that is spend their way out of this mess They know how to fix it They'll tell you the government just needs to create a few more laws and departments and agencies They'll tell you we just have to get the right people in there. Hey, it worked so far with every past crisis, right? that said just recently I had a long talk with an ex-pat gringle friend of mine a Structural engineer from the states He said he could write a book on what latin's do wrong when they design their cities and why the traffic is absolutely miserable and chaotic No matter how many transit cops they put on the streets in hopes of organizing some of that chaos So we got to talking about it a little bit and he said Johnny
[07:46] You know if any one of these cities put me in charge of the civil engineering projects I bet I'd be able to lessen the chaos and increase the traffic flow by 50% He said I don't care what latin city you pick. They've all made the same mistakes He says he can't believe these idiot road contractors haven't got any access to the modern road Construction programs and software and if they do he said they probably don't know how to use them or they're not in Spanish He says these days they use Google Maps and drones to take thousands of real-time videos of the traffic flow Specifically the bottlenecks that tie up traffic every day in the same places Then you plug in those road parameters into the software and the answers come out immediately For example, you tell the program you want the modifications that'll make traffic flow
[08:32] 30% faster at a given section of road and it prints out a number of solutions and the software even designs the road Modifications for you. He said these software programs are available in all the civil engineering departments of every University But the real problem. He said is they're copying gringo methods and techniques again And they don't necessarily apply here in Latin America. For example down here He says the vast majority of the population uses public transportation Basically chicken buses and such and don't have cars and that completely changes the traffic flow patterns now in some of the very big Latin Cities there are elevated trains and subway systems called metros Of course though only a handful of large Latin cities are so equipped So in about 90% of the large and medium-sized Latin cities
[09:20] The overwhelming majority of people travel by bus in that regard My gringo friend said he knew how to solve the bottleneck problem cheaply and easily and I've thought about this myself First you start with a redesign of the bus stops If you do any traffic road pattern analysis, you'll see that's where almost all of the rush hour bottlenecks occur He said what retarded road contractors in Latin America traditionally do They'll put a bus stop in front of a school strip mall subdivision business center Whatever they'll design an extra indented lane so the buses can pull in and pick up the passengers The idea is that the bus has pulled into that spare lane out of the flow of the normal traffic You've seen that set up a million times. It's all over the place in the states, too, and it works
[10:06] However here in Latin America Where more people by far take buses than cars that extra little lane at the bus stop is never enough They're designed so that two maybe three buses can pull in there out of the flow of regular traffic So they're vastly under designed for Latin American conditions since there could be seven eight even ten buses Lined up to get to that stop So picture 50 60 even a hundred such bus stops with the overflow buses stopped and blocking the right lane And that's when this engineering buddy of mine said you know what they've copied first-world techniques here But stupidly keep repeating the same mistake and except for the big cities with subways and elevated trains Only a small percentage of US citizens take the bus to work every day
[10:53] So he said it's these retarded thick-headed government idiots who give out the road contracts mostly to their own crown Who've turned these Latin American cities into the chaotic traffic messes that they are and how to fix it? He said is easy. You don't have to spend millions widening roads and creating auxiliary access routes There's only two things you have to do to alleviate probably 50% of the congestion in Latin cities wouldn't that be nice he said but ain't gonna happen Why because it's too logical and it's government so how to fix it Well, he said number one do not allow buses to stop willy-nilly anywhere They wish just to pick up passengers and that's just what they do instead You'd have to force them under pressure of fines and such to only stop and pick up passengers at designated bus stops and at the bus stops
[11:42] You know the big ones at shopping malls and schools and such where the buses really pile up That's where you cut out another lane instead of one little lane where they weave into you make two And you make them long enough to allow seven or eight buses to slip out of the main streams of traffic It's easy to picture that right, but have you ever seen it done in Latin America? No? And if you had it certainly was done by mistake Meanwhile the traffic chaos gets worse and worse as more hayseeds come from the bony's to find work in the big city You know there is a mini baby boom here in Latin America Contrary to what's happening up in the first world the average age of the population here is still quite young in fact If you're driving through any poor low-class or indigenous area when you hit the main street and start seeing a lot of people walking around
[12:28] You can't help but notice how many young girls are pregnant mostly kids having kids That's something you rarely see with the upper middle classes and in the high-end malls as you notice statistics point out the higher the level Education the smaller the family size etc But in those middle and lower middle class small towns out in the boonies where the average person on the streets has maybe a six Or an eighth grade education. Well, that's what you're gonna get a lot of young people making babies and of course as they get older They want enough money to buy cell phones and stuff a difficult thing to do when you're working an agricultural job making agricultural wages By the way in most Latin countries the agricultural minimum wage is much lower than the standard minimum wage Most Latin countries have a two or three tiered minimum wage system
[13:14] When in some Latin countries ones with hefty big brother systems in place like Colombia Argentina Chile and Costa Rica They could have ten or more different minimum wages depending on which sector you're in service sector agricultural tourism Makila or factory government workers Hey, that's an oxymoron right and more and you know anybody with a half a brain sees that's government how to control and completely nuts But you know, we'll talk about that some other time But as it stands Latin countries off the gringo tourist trail usually have three minimum wages one for factory workers one for Regular service sector workers and one for agricultural workers with the agricultural worker always getting the short end of the stick Why do you think the uneducated hayseeds from the boonies come to the big city looking for jobs?
[14:00] Oh and why do you think the lure of a minimum wage job up in the states? Which is from 7 to now 15 bucks an hour depending where you are Looks like manna from heaven when the average minimum factory wage job here in Latin America is around 1 to 2 bucks an hour Well, that's a no-brainer even for someone with a sixth or eighth grade education, especially when the se when you are American Oh the American dream comes with around 50 or more social welfare programs You could sign up for as soon as you arrive Hey, if you don't believe me, I'll send you the government link. So again continuing with the theme I brought up on last week's show I don't recommend anyone living within the city limits of a medium or large Latin City sure You've got all the services entertainment and all the shopping you could possibly want just like the first world and beautiful high-end
[14:46] Subdivisions hotel districts business districts and such too But the traffic is out of this world and the pollution stifling and like I said last week you don't want to be within two chicken bus transfers of a ghetto and You're gonna be if you live in a medium or a large-sized Latin City That's just the way it is. Oh, and finally, I'm always talking about how Latins are lacking in first world details Well, one thing I mentioned some years back is Latins are the biggest litter bugs You'll ever meet and I know you longtime listeners have heard me tell the story of way back when when I was in Costa Rica Riding a chicken bus probably 25 years ago now. And yes, there actually was a sign in Spanish, of course Right up by the bus driver. It said tira su basura afuera el bus
[15:31] meaning please throw your garbage and litter outside of the bus and that's a Latin tradition and even though you think the upper middle class and Wealthy Latin population would be averse to littering and trashing their own country Especially since they're so insanely nationalistic and patriotic I mean you've heard how crazy those soccer matches can get haven't you? So with Latins the nationalism and patriotism angle is way over the top Which is beyond irony for sure since many of them would sell their first born to live up in the States And you know some of them have now as far as Latin's being the kings and queens of litter I can't tell you how many times I've been behind a brand new SUV Sometimes with government plates and watched as the coke cans and McDonald's rappers got tossed out the window
[16:17] Yep, that's patriotism and love of country All right, then there's those Latin gentlemen in high-end expensive cars who'll pull over on the highway whip it out and take a leak now As you might expect it's Latin guys doing all that littering He almost never see Latin women throwing stuff on the ground They're a little more coothed in that though. My question is why don't they teach that stuff in the schools? Why aren't mothers teaching it to their own kids? Especially the concept that the world is your urinal. Oh, well speaking of bad traffic And traffic jams in Latin America Mexico City Caracas Venezuela and Bogota Colombia are noted for having the most severe and continuous Traffic jams in all of Latin America. That's according to data compiled by an outfit called INRA X International traffic data agency however right now just lately
[17:07] There's practically no on the road in Caracas And you know it would be an excellent place to drive gas is practically free except for the roadblocks the stray bullets the cops and the Molotov cocktails anyway the study by the INRA X says the reasons for the continuous terrible traffic jams is Population and economic growth along with continuous urban development and poor urban planning hmm You think by the way they give a top 15 list worldwide? Where the worst traffic situations are number one believe it or not well, maybe you can Los Angeles number two this I never guess Moscow Say what Moscow then you've got Bogota Colombia at South power Brazil Caracas Venezuela and Mexico City
[17:54] So at my advice again is there's nothing wrong with living close to a big Latin American City You know 10 20 miles outside the city limits But to me there are just too many negatives to living in a big or medium-sized Latin City proper myself and believe me I've tried all kinds of Latin American living from living at the beach the Caribbean Islands I've lived next to rivers lakes and dormant volcanoes and of course my all-time favorite the Alti Plano And I've also lived in a couple of large Latin cities That is with a million population or more and my definition of a medium-sized Latin City would be a hundred thousand to about a million Anyway, this might surprise you says here in this report that Colombia has the second worst city traffic problems in all the world now that's something
[18:40] International living never tells you and as for the worst country traffic problems in the world That's Thailand now for those of you who've been to Colombia specifically media and that's where all the gringos are going and international living is pushing Them there. So who'd have thunk worst traffic in the city is found. Guess where the Pablo where all the gringos are So the traffic problems there are just like all the traffic problems in most Latin American cities only worse That means countless motorcycles weaving between fast and slow-moving cars You know motorcycles will slip past you any time they possibly can and that's why you eventually get multiple scratches in your car And often your rearview mirror gets flipped back or even broken off That's happened to me twice already and it shocks you by the time you realize what's happening
[19:28] You can't do a thing even flipping the hook because he's long gone Oh, and by the way only upscale Latin gringo wannabes and deported illegal aliens know what the hook is now gringos Tell me it's against the law for Motorcycles to weave through other cars to get ahead or wedge through other cars that stoplights to get to the front of the line Well, you know the cops down here never got that memo Nor did they get the other memos either like for example motorcycle cops riding around without helmets though There's a helmet law and the law against three four five and six people on a motorcycle They didn't get that memo either In fact cops often ride three on a motorcycle if you're watching this on YouTube right now You'll see three cops on a motorcycle without helmets In fact, I've heard many a newbie gringo say Johnny look over there
[20:14] The motorcycles and cars are making lanes where there were no lanes before all I can say is welcome to Latin America Oh, and the traffic is so bad. Medi in Colombia now. They've got that system or every other day You've got the right to drive depending on the last digit of your license plate even or odd They call that system pico a placa, which means oddly enough small plate or small license plate What a pain, huh? But since this is Latin America, there is always a workaround If you're a wealthy latin or a gringo you buy two cars and make sure the plates haven't even in an odd Hey that works Actually that pico a placa law is a little more complicated than that But you get the idea by the way Mexico City, which is a real traffic Hellhole because well, I think they've got 15 or 16 million people there now
[21:02] They've been running that alternate plate system for a long time The locals will tell you the only ones making out on that deal are the cops who are collecting a lot of extra bribes All right. So again, let me mention if you live in Medi in Colombia You're more than likely gonna be living in the Pablo district since international living got on the bandwagon Medi-in along with Cuenca Ecuador have become sort of the gringo capitals of South America with the Pablo district of Medi-in kind of a my jammy of the Altiplano as Explained by the following email. It says hi Johnny I have a friend ex-military who's retired who lives in Medi in Colombia in the poblado district Let me tell you I have visited three or four times now and man Pablo has dreadful traffic not only that it's first world expensive and nearly everyone
[21:53] There's a gringo and the water tastes funny too because they chlorinate the hell out of it I'm from Philadelphia and I'm not exaggerating when I say that everything the food barber shops taxis beer even pirated CDs Whatever you name it is twice the price of everything in the outlying areas Why it's because of all the gringos and Europeans flooding And of course one another thing if you just step out of the poblado gringo eyes district The crime is out of control my retired friend says he's had his phone stolen twice both times Get this on the Medi-in Metro. That's the subway However, I would say there are other places in Colombia that are absolutely paradise nice air no pollution Not much traffic then he says speaking of the metro and public transportation. It's so congested in poblado and nearby these days
[22:44] He says you're like a sardine in a can most of the time, which is probably why it's so easy to get robbed So yes, people are feeling the pain the pain that comes when gringos start filing in then he says I'm always curious to know what the police do in Latin America I've seen so many cars going through red lights and making wrong turns down one ways even speeding through gas stations to make the cut Through to beat the congested traffic at the light up at the next corner If you tried that in the US, you're looking at a $500 fine minimum So my advice Johnny as you say stick to the smaller towns in Colombia and everything will be fine There are some paradises left. Thanks for all the info Phil. Alright Phil. Thanks for that But I have to make a confession here I'm one of those guys you talk about that cuts through gas stations occasionally to beat the congested traffic
[23:32] Down the road at the red light. You're right. I wouldn't do that in the States, but down here I do it once in a while too. So does everyone else why because you can get away with it The cops will never give you a ticket for that. They don't even know it's illegal But it does annoy some gas station owners and to prevent that which they can't always do because let's face it You might be a customer pulling in Even so they'll sometimes block off the corner with those big orange plastic pylons during rush hour By the way, since we're on the topic of driving public transportation, etc. Get this This is news coming out of Cuenca Ecuador Considered by international living Conde Nes Traveler and others to be the number one expat Retirement destination in the world, which means it's exactly where I don't want to be listen to this
[24:18] It says there are so many instances of drunken bus drivers that three years ago the government and the police department started an experiment without any publicity because they didn't want it widely known that bus drivers were often So they placed three breathalyzer machines at the public bus terminal Intended as a deterrent so bus drivers wouldn't drink and drive the drivers would blow into a tube And if the results were negative the breathalyzer would issue a ticket so the driver could leave the terminal and continue his route good idea Yes, but this is Latin America and guess what for at least a year now those three breathalyzers at the bus terminal have been broken They're not working at all. And of course since the word maintenance is not in the Latin American dictionary Especially in the government dictionary. No one seems to be in a hurry to do anything about it
[25:06] That said I have to admit that the traffic chaos in Latin American cities is enough to drive Gringo's baddie. In fact, I can't tell you how many times I've been in a car with a newly arrived Gringo or expat Sometimes if you just landed for the first time and I'm picking them up at the airport And we're not in the car five minutes when I hear the gringo in a backseat say look at that You see that it's someone running a red light or a stop sign or going the wrong way on a one-way street It's just kind of a shot to people who've never been down here before and that's why road rage is so prevalent in Gringo's here So guys be wary especially if you've got a dominant road rage gene You will get all fired up and crazy when you see things like that. I know I've been there in fact That was there just yesterday. Alright enough said about that. Hey, did you know a Mexican brewery has
[25:55] Decided to put out a new beer. It's called amigos beer, you know means friend, right? Except it's got a big ugly caricature of Donald Trump as its mascot. Yep. It's Donald Trump. He doesn't look happy He's dressed as a mariachi with a big sombrero and said brewery executive director Luis Enrique de la Regiera, we knew that the Donald Trump beer label was gonna be a controversial thing, but it's selling like crazy What to put on another shift unfortunately though getting back to the Latin litter problem I alluded to a little while ago people who are buying that beer some for a joke and some who are angry at Trump The latter seemed to be getting pleasure in smashing the bottles as a sort of violent statement against what Trump is and represents
[26:42] By the way, if you're watching this on YouTube right now, you'll get to see what that beer looks like. All right We're getting toward the end So just a couple of fast announcements if you're thinking of coming down to my next Latin American insiders seminar Probably be in January 2018 Send me an email and I'll keep you on the early bird list That's the expat files at gmail.com and if you can't come to a seminar or get boots on the ground just yet go to Expat plan be calm and sign up for my expat essentials course having trouble getting your plan be organized The expat essentials course is just the thing for you And for those of you who are somewhere along on your plan being and need some specific advice You could always set up a Skype or phone consult with me Just go to www.thenewexpat.com and download my phone consult questionnaire. Have a look at it
[27:30] I'm sure it'll get the wheels spinning This is the expat files living in Latin America If you want me to help you out with your own plan be 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 be from right up there in the states Go to www.expatplanb.com and check out my three videos. See ya nos vemos