Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller dives into the challenges expats face in Latin America, from extortion and safety concerns to choosing the right location for a business. He explains how to assess neighborhood safety by observing car types, shares personal anecdotes about cultural dynamics and social status, and discusses the risks of operating a brick-and-mortar business in high-crime areas. Johnny also touches on off-grid living and the affordability of solar energy solutions in the region.
Johnny begins by addressing a listener's concerns about extortion and safety for expats in Latin America. The listener, who has a family, is worried about the ongoing extortion of small businesses, which he witnessed firsthand in Mexico. Johnny acknowledges the issue, noting that extortion is a common problem in Latin America, particularly in areas not focused on tourism. He explains that while the Yucatan Peninsula, including tourist spots like Cancun and Tulum, is relatively safe due to its reliance on tourism, other parts of Mexico, especially lower and middle-class neighborhoods, are more dangerous. Johnny also discusses the importance of choosing the right location for a brick-and-mortar business, suggesting that expats should avoid middle-class areas and instead look for upscale, secure neighborhoods with good infrastructure and security. He emphasizes that while online businesses are safer, physical businesses require careful location selection to avoid extortion and other risks.
Next, Johnny discusses how expats and smart gringos can assess the safety and upward trajectory of a neighborhood by observing the types of cars present. He emphasizes that in safe, upscale areas, you'll see high-end vehicles, while lower-class neighborhoods are marked by older, junky cars. He also shares a personal anecdote about a gringo who opened a bakery in a middle-class neighborhood near a wealthy area, only to face extortion from a local gang. Johnny advises focusing on the movement of the upper middle class and wealthy to the suburbs, where nicer amenities and safety are more common. He also touches on the topic of kidnappings, noting that they often target people who show off their wealth or stand out in a crowd, especially in Mexico.
Johnny then delves into the social dynamics and economic realities of middle-class life in Latin America, highlighting how wealth and social status are perceived and judged within these communities. He uses examples of housing, music, and food choices to illustrate how even small details like pizza brands can reflect social status. He also touches on the risks of wealth, such as being targeted for extortion, and the cultural aspects of social interaction, including the use of social media and the importance of being connected.
In the next segment, Johnny discusses the challenges of starting a brick-and-mortar business in Latin America, particularly in cities with high crime rates and political instability. He advises against opening businesses in high-crime areas like Venezuela, Brazil, and certain cities in Central America such as San Pedro Sula and San Salvador. He highlights the presence of expats in Mexico, which leads to intense competition, and recommends focusing on upper-middle-class neighborhoods in medium to large cities. Johnny also mentions the closure of Hooters in San Salvador due to insecurity, and he provides insight into the cultural and economic dynamics of Hooters in Latin America, including its role as a job opportunity for young women and the risks associated with the chicken bus.
Finally, Johnny shifts focus to the broader topic of brick-and-mortar businesses in Latin America, advising expats to avoid certain dangerous areas and instead locate in upper-middle-class or wealthy neighborhoods. He also touches on off-grid living, sharing personal experiences with solar hot water systems and the affordability of such systems in Latin America compared to the United States. He concludes by promoting his upcoming expat insider seminar and encouraging listeners to reach out for more information.
Topics
Extortion in Latin America, Safety for expats, Choosing the right location for a business, Tourism vs. crime in Latin America, Online vs. brick-and-mortar businesses, Assessing neighborhood safety, Expatriate experiences in Latin America, Extortion and safety concerns, Urban planning and class segregation, Cultural behaviors and social dynamics, Social status and wealth perception in Latin America, Cultural and economic realities of the middle class
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:01:01 Extortion and Safety Concerns for Expats in Latin America 00:02:45 Safety in the Yucatan Peninsula and Tourist Areas 00:05:15 Understanding Middle-Class Neighborhoods in Latin America 00:05:52 Assessing Neighborhood Safety Through Car Observation 00:06:49 Extortion and Safety in Upscale Neighborhoods 00:08:58 The Trend of Wealthy People Moving to the Suburbs 00:09:54 The Profile of People Who Get Kidnapped 00:11:30 The Middle Class and Sudden Wealth in Latin America 00:12:08 An Engagement Party in a Middle-Class Neighborhood 00:16:16 Pizza Brands as Indicators of Social Status 00:17:22 Choosing Safe Neighborhoods for Business in Mexico 00:17:58 Avoiding High-Crime Areas in South America 00:19:55 Hooters Closure in San Salvador Reflects Regional Insecurity 00:22:40 The Dangers of Being a Hooters Girl in San Salvador 00:23:32 Choosing Safe Locations for Brick-and-Mortar Businesses 00:24:21 Personal Experience with Solar Hot Water Systems
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 as I wander 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 a few shows ago I read a long email by a guy named Nonanimous like that name if you recall he mentioned he'd been down to Central America a lot and found a very nice school connected to a US institution to help his handicapped daughter
[00:47] Well today we'll start with the second part of his email that has a lot more general interest starts out Johnny I've got a wife and kids which makes me concerned about safety Although I'm only about one and a half years into your podcast now I've never heard you talk yet about ongoing extortion of small businesses, which I know is happening in Latin America Now I tried to help a Mexican friend of mine in Mexico start a business there But he was getting stymied all the time by people demanding bribes so he could secure a retail location Also, I once saw an extortion letter sent by the Zetas to a business in Mexico Requiring regular payments from the business owner or else personally, I'm frightened about those kind of threats Wouldn't anyone be the question is are these threats less of an issue south of Mexico and our property owners subject to this type of
[01:37] Extortion too as well as business owners. I know that once you own property, you can't easily leave it or abandon it Secondly Johnny, I love your descriptions of opportunities to create off-the-grid type home set up with solar roof catchwater, etc Can you point to some examples where it's been done? Well side no nanamis Okay, no nanamis sounds like you've only going through the first maybe a hundred fifty or so of my shows remember I've got about five hundred and forty out there now in the ether somewhere now as you go through them You will see that I talk about extortion and criminality gangs cartels the whole works And of course how all that affects expat gringos if you go into the expat file archives You'll see some stories of explicit first-hand examples of businessmen getting extorted and you know
[02:24] It seems to be the national pastime in Mexico That's why I wouldn't want to have a brick-and-mortar business in that country for anything in the world But an internet business, well, no problem. You can do that anywhere with that You probably won't need an office or guards or inventory. No commuting. No traffic. No government involvement. No inspections simple But we're talking about brick-and-mortar businesses now However, having a brick-and-mortar business is still safe enough in the Yucatan Peninsula area because that's not the major drug corridor That's the tourist corridor. That would be Cancun, Tulum, Playa del Carmen, etc, etc The whole Caribbean strip straight up from Belize called the Mexican Riviera now If you've ever been there you'll see those places are first world nice and sometimes first world expensive too and the Mexican police monitor and patrol those places rather
[03:13] Well, because they are international tourist destinations and the whole Yucatan economy depends on tourism And thus the security and safety reputation must be maintained at all costs and as for the rest of Mexico Well, you know how I feel about that sure in the big cities. There are upscale islands of tranquility Mexico has many many wealthy people who live in upscale neighborhoods and such you see in the upper-middle class and wealthy gated communities They have the guards the walls the patrols the cameras the security etc to keep out the riff-raff the no-goodniks and the undesirables In fact in some of those big expensive neighborhoods in Mexico You'll find they're just like first world upscale gated communities where ladies push their kids in strollers walk their dogs and pretty much Live a very safe and secure life as long as they're within the guarded gates
[04:02] However, just a few blocks away could be a completely horrendous ghetto Where do you think those maids and gardeners come from that are filing in past the guard station every morning to start their shifts? So if you're in Mexico, that's where you want to live work and play in one of those upscale subdivision guarded gated communities Where everything's pretty safe. Unfortunately, that's where everything is pretty much first world expensive, too But that's the price you pay if you don't want to get that extortion note that says we need two to five hundred dollars a month Or else and note when you're outside of that protected subdivision If you don't quite blend in you don't have your eyes open and pay attention and you don't occasionally change your routine and schedule There is a chance you could become a target and as far as business extortion goes that just doesn't happen in a nice neighborhood
[04:49] But you see in the scruffy barrios of the medium and large Latin cities Extortion is a way of life. So you expect gonna be some wannabes It would be a stupid move to set up a brick-and-mortar business in a middle-class or lower middle-class Latin neighborhood If you do it, you're just asking for trouble. Remember when people say middle-class in Latin America They're talking about what we'd call lower middle-class kind of trailer trash in the States It doesn't matter if you're talking about middle-class in Mexico or any Latin country. That's just the way it is So beware green gringos and expats looking for job opportunities if someone says to you Hey I've got a great idea for a business and I have a location If it's in a lower middle-class or middle-class Latin section of town, don't bite
[05:34] However, if it's in a nice upscale community with modern nearby upscale malls and hotels, etc Then you're sure to be safe and comfortable and that might be a good place to put in a brick-and-mortar business, too Provided you're not within a few blocks or even a half a mile of a rundown scruffy middle-class neighborhood or worse Now there's a trick smart gringos and expats use to see if a neighborhood's on the upswing and it's gonna stay that way Just keep a real good eye out for the kind of cars that are passing by and the kind in quality of cars in parking lot Especially what kind of cars are parked overnight in the neighborhood because you see only in very good neighborhoods Will people park their nice SUVs overnight on the street? So in nice safe upscale areas, you'll see a lot of nice high-end cars
[06:20] However, when there are mostly 10 15 and 20 year old cars and a lot of junkers that you'd be embarrassed to drive yourself That would be middle-class and lower middle-class neighborhoods places You don't want to start a brick-and-mortar business and you don't want to live there either Anyway, there are countless nice safe neighborhoods even in the big cities But on the other hand at least half of the zones and subdivisions and any medium to large Latin City You don't want to live or have a brick-and-mortar business in and the fact is I don't know of any Gringo who's had a business in an upscale or wealthy area that's ever had an extortion problem However, I know gringos in iffy areas who have had that problem For example, I know a gringo who married a beautiful Honduran girl a miss something or another They set up by German style bakery in the capital city of Tagusi Galpa Honduras where she was from
[07:10] Why because her family was there and he felt connected and comfortable that there were a lot of people around that she was related To and Tagusi Galpa about a million people scruffy chaotic horrible terrible urban planning But some very nice neighborhoods too because let's face it. Every town has its wealthy businessmen, etc And they have to live somewhere. So they have nice subdivisions there too gated and guarded, of course However, the nice neighborhoods are always a stone's throw away from some pretty crummy ghettos Anyway, he started a nice upscale European German bakery in a halfway decent middle-class Latin style neighborhood on the edge of an upper middle-class district. So they thought they'd be fine So a few blocks east very nice cars and first-world amenities all the way and a few blocks west a crummy
[07:57] Scruffy ghetto and soon enough within about seven months He started getting those slips of paper under the door a local extortion gang was asking for around a hundred and fifty bucks a month Or else so like no anonymous says what do you do? You've got a business location and now the extortion notes come so anyway His business was making money and he said if he didn't have a family he had a wife and a kid by then He'd have been more aggressive and put the word out in the neighborhood that he was a crazy ass gringo with a big gun collection But since he had a family he didn't do that But he wasn't gonna give in to the extortionists He hired an armed guard with a shotgun to stand outside the door of his business You know, a lot of people do that in Latin America But you won't see that in very nice upscale neighborhoods and malls But you will see uniform guards with a shotgun outside of stores quite frequently in middle-class neighborhoods
[08:48] Remember you can have one too for only about 300 bucks a month. Most small businesses can afford guys like that You see them everywhere. So bottom line location location location My advice do concentrate on the movement of the upper middle class and wealthy to the burbs now Of course, that's an old concept that's been around for 40 or 50 years in the States But lag time has finally gotten here and there's a big trend for wealthy people who traditionally lived in the city to move to the burbs So beautiful first world subdivisions and the malls and the pools and the tennis courts that go with them are popping up Around every medium and large-sized Latin City and that by the way is where most of the huge housing bubble in Latin America is too But where were we? Oh, yeah, no anonymous in his email asks Tell me Johnny our homeowners as well as businesses victims of extortion too
[09:38] Well, no anonymous in the bad scruffy big-city neighborhoods Sure, but in the burbs and upper middle-class subdivisions that just doesn't happen So then what about kidnappings in Mexico? You hear about that all the time and who generally gets kidnapped. What's the profile? That's easy pretentious Inattentive people who show off their wealth in public now that seems to be a genetic disease here in Latin America as soon as a Middle-class person gets some wealth and slips into the upper middle class bracket immediately, there's a change and he has to let everyone know he's a somebody and their kids because they're equally afflicted with that gene have to Show off to their friends and neighbors and their 7,000 synthetic Facebook friends, too However, that rarely happens to expat gringos who've been down here a while unless of course
[10:26] They marry a latina and turn her into a high-maintenance show off. I've seen that happen a number of times that it ain't pretty Yes, I've seen nice Latin girls from humble neighborhoods make a warp drive transition to a shopaholic in a bulletproof SUV Yep, many a smart gringo is stupid in love, but that's a story for another day and we'll get to it Don't worry now That's not to say it doesn't happen in reverse when a gringo comes down and hooks up with a Latin guy and turns him into a Pretentious shopaholic monster. Yes, I've seen that happen once or twice, but mostly the other way around But where were we? Oh, yeah, the always lively subject of kidnappings So about 95% of the time I'd say that people who get kidnapped or robbed are people who are showing off
[11:12] Or people of means who stick out like a sore thumb and never change their daily habits However in Mexico, it seems to be so rampant except like I said in the Yucatan Peninsula That just being a gringo in the wrong place at the wrong time could make you a mark Oh, and by the way on the same subject I may have mentioned this in a past show But when a middle-class latin all of a sudden comes into a little wealth most times He'll build himself a little castle in the old neighborhood that sticks out like a sore thumb Or he just might stay put in the old crappy house and add on extravagant and truly awkward looking additions And sometimes you'll be driving through a really crap neighborhood and see some rather nice homes stuck here and there Meaning a wealthy guy in the neighborhoods drive to impress the neighbors sometimes overrides his common sense And they're the ones to be targeted for extortions and such
[12:01] But nowhere is it written that wealth and brainpower are two sides of the same coin now Let me give you just another small example of that recently I was invited to an engagement party in a middle-class neighborhood It was located at the parents house of the young lady in a house and neighborhood I'd never recommend for gringos and expats in fact I'm sure I was the only gringo who ever stepped foot in that house and maybe even the whole neighborhood I'd say the subdivision had 2,000 people living in it without a single gated community Which gives you an idea what it's like when before I forget let me digress a bit and tell you about the DJ He's around 20 years old had some really nice equipment must have cost him who knows 4,000 bucks plus he had a little pickup truck to piece of junk, but got the job done anyway
[12:47] I was truly impressed by all the cool equipment He had and the lights and the whole setup with the lasers the whole bit fog machines Then I asked him what he'd charged for a gig complete equipment him truck delivery whole thing He said 20 bucks an hour And if it's under four hours 25 bucks an hour and I understand the average cost for a mobile DJ in the States is around a thousand bucks Latin America you gotta love it. Oh, and by the way, no one at that party spoke English However, almost all of the guys there had t-shirts or sweatshirts on or sweaters with English language sayings on them What else and not a single phrase in Spanish anyway? I walked into the room and the party was well underway people were dancing and all that guess what as soon as the guys saw
[13:34] Me he decided to try to impress me with some gringo music and guess what songs he played proud Mary and Rock around the clock now you might think that would be a kind tribute to a gringo walking in right? But guess what those two songs were not by the original artists Creedence Clearwater and Bill Haley in the comments No, they were by some gringo clone band and I must admit they did the music perfectly, but the words were in Spanish Imagine that so I held back my gag reflex Until he played the next gringo song in my honor stairway to heaven which reminds me of my last root canal Followed by the topper some really rancid horse By air supply. All right, so I guess that's what I get for being the only gringo in the house
[14:25] and by the way I don't dance unless I'm forced into it and in the next hour every single young lady there Pulled me onto the dance floor and watched me make a spectacle out of myself But know that Latin women are not judgmental, especially when it comes to gringos because we do have that gringo advantage You know, in fact, I'm sure that through the night most of those girls had never even spoken a word or much less danced with A gringo before and of course they all had their cell phones out trying to take pictures of the gringo dancing and couldn't understand Why I ducked into the shadows and said no Facebook poor favore unless you want to be the next pinata with a spear up your ass Well, I didn't actually say that I was thinking it though And by the way with Facebook Twitter and was up hugely popular in Latin America
[15:11] Even though that's how most extortionists prey on clueless Latins No matter that's a chance Latins are willing to take to them It's imperative to be socially connected at all times sound familiar and also to show they've got the dough to buy a whopper Or a happy meal. I know I know I'm really digressing here, but let's get to the point Yes, the point and here it is at that engagement party. They serve pizza In fact, a lot of pizza delivered by motorcycle pizza delivery guys Which is the norm down here for all fast food restaurants even some of the high-class ones most offer home delivery anywhere by motorcycle It's called a domicilio Anyway, so the pizza came for a while I was sitting on the sofa with a lot of people standing around and I Overheard one young lady say to another a little snidely and with a wrinkly grin on her face. Hmm little Caesars
[16:04] It's little Caesars pizza and that's when I found out even with the Latin middle class Which is again lower middle class up in the states the people in that class judge each other's parties and get-togethers By which pizza they order turns out Domino's Papa John's and Pizza Hut which are all down here in Latin America and most big cities I considered upscale and higher class than little Caesars because little Caesars is a bit cheaper So get this at that party girls were on their cell phones texting that there was little Caesar pizza at the party Obviously meant to be somewhat of a put-down. So anyway sitting on the couch that night I realized they were dissing the party because of the pizza now understand This is middle-class Latin America
[16:49] I don't think any kid there had a parent who made over five hundred dollars a month Which means their parents probably order pizza for the family, maybe once a month In fact, it's rather a treat for the middle classes to go to any fast-food restaurant Kind of like it was in the 60s and 70s back in the states now that shows you learn something every day I've been down here over 25 years and little did I know that pizza brands reflect perceived social status Yep, an important piece of info to know the next time you throw a party, but where were we? Oh, yeah, talking about extortion and crime in the cities in Latin America So as for Mexico, I wouldn't want to open up a brick-and-mortar business anywhere except in a high-end district That would be upper middle class and wealthy area and there's a lot of those However, that's where the rents are high and certainly you'll be faced with the worst competition of all gringo competition because Mexico
[17:38] By far has more expat gringos living there than in all the other 19 Latin American countries combined So whatever great idea you might have in a brick-and-mortar business has certainly been thought of by another gringo now As far as south of Mexico, there are a few big cities I'd stay away from if I was starting up a brick-and-mortar business first I'd give up on Venezuela and the big cities in Brazil too much crime poverty chaos and malignant big-brother government However in most other medium small and big cities in South America You just scout out the good the bad and the ugly districts of the city You're proposing to start a business in and act accordingly Choose small towns or in medium and large cities choose upper-middle class neighborhoods in areas where you see a lot of nice cars
[18:26] As explained before to make it simple follow the upwardly mobile trend out to the burbs I know that sounds so 60s and 70s, but that's the way it is down here like time You know and as far as cities in Central America I wouldn't want to have a mom-and-pop business or even live in Tagusi Gompa The only thing it's got going for it is it's in the Algae Plano, but that's about it And then there's the second largest city in Honduras San Pedro Sula I wouldn't want to start a brick-and-mortar business there either though. There are upscale areas, too It's hot as hell and there are high levels of crime same with La Saba Honduras It's a mid-sized coastal town where you take the ferries to Roatan and Utila So it would seem a good cheap choice if you were into scuba and snorkeling However, it's a dirty scruffy armpit. You wouldn't want to do business or live there either take my word for it
[19:14] Then there's San Salvador the capital of El Salvador You know where all those gangs come from like the Salva Trucas You've heard so much about invading big cities up in the states Well, you know since so many of them are being deported back to Salvador I'm not one to recommend a brick-and-mortar business in that city either though There are some very nice protected upscale areas and a very lively hotel upscale disco shopping and convention center district It's still too close to some very scruffy areas for me. By the way Here's something I bet never hit the Milwaukee or the Cleveland 6 o'clock news in late-breaking news get this it says El Salvador Insecurity is driving away Chains of fast food restaurants the latest to announce the temporary closure of his branch is Hooters of San Salvador
[20:03] Yeah, you heard right that famous chain Hooters They've got them down here in Latin America to in most big cities In fact way back when when I was doing syndicated radio in Latin America They happen to be one of my sponsors along with get this Heineken Honda and Harley Davidson among others Anyway, it says here in a statement released by the Hooters parent company owing to Circumstances beyond our control namely the insecurity and ongoing violence in the capital We've been asked to temporarily close our Hooters operation in El Salvador We extend our heartfelt thanks to our ongoing customers employees suppliers and the general public for sharing the times and the excellent Experiences we've had here in San Salvador. So how's that striking? Well, I'll tell you how it strikes me
[20:48] Like I said when I was doing syndicated Latin radio here They were one of my sponsors and I was invited to many Harley Heineken and Hooters events And though it might not sound like it only upscale Latins would attend now No, every Latin American would love to have a Harley Davidson eat at an overpriced Hooters and drink Heineken Which costs up to twice as much as the local brew But only a tiny percentage of Latins the wealthy ones could afford those Extravagances down here to own a Harley is a status symbol and they're rarely seen on the road In fact, if a guy takes his Harley out five or six days a year That's pretty good though There are seasonal Harley runs from Latin country to Latin country and their destinations in rallying points Hooters I should know I am seed at a few of the events and here's what I found out about Hooters in Latin America
[21:37] Seems like every young Latin girl wants to work at Hooters Why because they've heard the tips are fabulous and they've heard it's a gathering place for wealthy young guys who just might be single so when Hooters puts an ad in the paper saying they're looking for hostesses they're in undated and Therefore Hooters has the pick of some of the most beautiful girls in Latin America because they all come down What it really is is an opportunity for a very good-looking girl from a poor neighborhood To get a job at a nice first world part of town Hopefully to snag an upscale single guy that can rescue her from her bad neighborhood and possibly save her from those harrowing daily rides on The chicken bus, you know young girls So hate riding the chicken bus every low-class guy and his brother is pinching him rubbing on him talking to him trying to hit on
[22:23] Him not to mention it's where most of them get their junk jewelry fake leather jackets and cell phones stolen, too Now I can see the problem They're not telling you about Hooters is that it's open till 12 and 1 o'clock at night and many Hooters girls Ride the chicken bus to and from work at least the first couple weeks or months they get hired on So when it gets to be known that a Hooters girl no matter how she dresses down is riding the chicken bus Who do you think the bad guys are gonna focus on? So basically in a city like San Salvador Hooters girls don't last very long on the job They either find their knight in shining armor right away Who by the way usually ends up being married with children and if that doesn't materialize She becomes so terrified of riding the chicken bus at night that she throws in the towel So then why don't it take taxis?
[23:08] Well, they try but in Salvador a lot of taxis won't go into certain neighborhoods So as it turns out it's not so much that the Hooters franchise itself is being extorted It's the fact that it's an insecure and dangerous job for the girls among other things So anyway bottom line brick-and-mortar businesses There are some big cities you want to avoid but in the vast majority of Latin cities No problem You just have to locate in an upper middle-class to wealthy Latin area that would be middle-class American style and up now Of course, there are a lot of exceptions to that rule and you have to be down here with boots on the ground to see that There are some places some niches in middle-class areas that are historically very organized clean and safe But you have to have boots on the ground and eyes wide open
[23:54] In fact the other day John and Jane Galt and I found some fantastic brick-and-mortar Opportunities in some places you'd never imagine and I'm not gonna tell you about them But we might if you come to my next expat insider seminar Which should be in July of this year. Okay, let's finish off with no anonymous his question about having a home or business off the grid He's asking if I can point to examples where people are doing that. Well, yes In fact 20 years ago, I put in a solar hot water system when I was in Costa Rica very cheap and dirty, too I think it cost around a hundred bucks. I use what you call poly ductile tubing down here It's very thick plastic tube that comes in a coil Just threw it up on the roof spread it out connected it to the hot water line and I had pretty much unlimited
[24:42] Hot water all day at night No, because I had no holding tank or cistern But it was a cheap and dirty way to have hot water and that was 20 years ago So all you gringo do-it-yourselfers out there can have a ball screwing around with solar stuff down here It's the perfect place because you've got maximum Sun power Because of that a lot of hardware stores sell complete solar hot water systems You could get a big one that'll service a family of six for around a thousand bucks installed and they work like a charm In fact, I have a commercially made installed system that gets way too hot And by the way, almost all the systems are Chinese and there's a few Israeli systems out there Which are double the price of a Chinese unit, but are pretty much exactly the same go figure, huh? by the way I just found out the average cost to install a solar hot water heater up in the States is from
[25:29] 6,000 to 12,000 bucks why because super high cost of labor up there and in most places up north it freezes So you need heat exchangers and antifreeze and stuff a much more complicated system and down here Most systems carry a five-year guarantee and they claim to be able to last 25 years or so And you know solar hot water systems today pretty much all have the same Technology a row of vacuum thermal tubes that draw heat into water won't go into the details and down here in Latin America And every medium to large city. There are probably six to ten different solar hot water heater companies with six or seven different brands Just shoot me an email if you want me to go into more detail on this. I'll gladly do it Anyway, and as far as solar panels producing electricity if you're in the Altiplano region that I like so much
[26:16] You'll find there's no heating or air conditioning So you could easily service all your electrical needs with a three kilowatt system or even less Installed that would be around 15 grand with the batteries Either way you'd be looking at more or less 10 solar panels Then you can just give the idiots at the power company the finger when you hand them back They're more than slightly damaged smart meter And you know even if it's rainy and cloudy for a three or four days straight Some of the Sun still gets through and you get hot water and electricity That's why your solar water setup has a 50 to 100 gallon storage tank and as for your electricity Your panels are charging the batteries all day. I'll be talking a lot more in the future about this. So stay tuned You know, I always recommend sizing your electric solar panel system to accommodate the amperage
[27:02] Necessary to charge up your future electric car now for a Chevy Volt For example, that would be a hundred ten volts at a minimum of a 20 amp circuit Then you could be completely self-sufficient and give the finger to the oil companies, too Now remember in a past life. I was a real engineer so I know half of what I'm talking about. So pay attention Okay, that said don't forget to go to www the new expat.com check out the famous John Galtz blogs and I'm on there too and of course my YouTube channel You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America coming to you twice a week from somewhere south of the border Email me the expat files at gmail.com And if you want me to help you sort out your own Latin American plans schedule a one-on-one
[27:50] Consult with me just send an email and let me know at the expat files at gmail.com. No spamos