Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller explores a range of topics related to expat life in Latin America. He begins by discussing vaccination policies, highlighting the disparity in vaccine schedules between the general population and the more affluent, who often follow first-world guidelines. Johnny shares his experience with a UN health worker and outlines the recommended vaccination schedule for Latin American children, emphasizing the intensity of the regimen. He also notes that many vaccines are past their expiration date, raising concerns about their effectiveness and safety.
Next, Johnny delves into the lack of strict vaccination enforcement in Latin America, citing examples of expats and locals navigating the system. He references a former U.S. Marine who received multiple vaccines during the Gulf War, highlighting the potential risks of outdated or excessive vaccinations. Johnny also discusses the challenges of vaccine compliance in public schools, where parental consent forms are often not enforced, especially in areas with low literacy rates. He contrasts this with private schools, where expats may creatively bypass requirements by fabricating documents. Johnny criticizes the influence of Western institutions like the UN, WHO, and the Gates Foundation in Latin America, suggesting that many locals are unaware of or resistant to these efforts.
In a lighter segment, Johnny discusses the concept of expats being considered 'deviants' due to their deviation from the norm, highlighting the dual nature of the term 'deviant'—which can be both positive and negative. He then transitions into discussing the volume of emails he receives, emphasizing that while he reads them all, he cannot provide detailed personal advice on the air. Instead, he encourages listeners to use his consultation service for in-depth discussions. Finally, he addresses real estate in Latin America, advising against buying property in areas with a high concentration of expats, as it signals a market bubble and potential for overvaluation. He warns against relying on glossy real estate magazines and big franchise real estate companies, suggesting that real deals can only be found through local, on-the-ground investigation.
Johnny also discusses the current state of the real estate market in Latin America, highlighting that the real estate bubble is cracking and that there is a significant renters market. He warns against buying properties now, especially from gringos who are promoting projects, as the market is overinflated and the 'greater fool theory' is in play. He mentions that the real estate market is not just about houses but also land, which is also in a bubble. Johnny suggests that the market will correct within a year or two, and that the big-time investors, including narcos, politicians, and plantation owners, will eventually have to sell their properties when the market crashes. He also shares an anecdote about a beautiful first-world development project that is largely vacant and warns that even if one gets a property at a discount, it may not be worth living in due to the surrounding vacancies. Finally, he discusses the immigration and residency process in countries like Paraguay and Guatemala, noting that it is relatively easy to obtain residency there.
In a final segment, Johnny recounts several experiences of being an expat in Latin America, highlighting the 'gringo advantage'—the idea that expats, particularly those from the U.S., often face less scrutiny or are treated more leniently in various situations. He describes instances where he and his wife bypassed security checkpoints, were not searched, and were given passes in places like a supermarket and a bar. He also shares a story about a condo owner blaming 'gringos' for missing items, suggesting that locals might not always trust expats. Johnny concludes by reflecting on the contrast between the first-world government expectations of Latin American countries and their current state, comparing it to a 'Three Stooges flick.' He ends with a reminder about an upcoming seminar by Richard Martin.
Topics
Vaccination policies in Latin America, Disparity in vaccination schedules, Effectiveness and safety of vaccines, Role of international organizations like the UN and WHO, Public vs. private school systems, Cultural mimicry of Western behaviors, Influence of Western institutions in Latin America, Expats and the concept of being 'deviants', Volume and nature of listener emails, Real estate market in Latin America, Real estate bubble, Rental market
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:38 Vaccination Policies in Latin America 00:00:57 Belief in Vaccines Among Locals 00:01:26 UN Health Worker and Vaccination Guidelines 00:04:24 Recommended Vaccination Schedule for Latin American Children 00:06:44 Vaccination Practices in the Gulf War and Their Implications for Latin America 00:08:21 Expats Bypassing Vaccination Requirements in Private Schools 00:09:40 Cultural Mimicry of Western Behaviors in Latin America 00:12:22 Expats as Deviants: A Backhanded Compliment or a Label of Deviation 00:14:53 Real Estate in Latin America: Renting Over Buying in a Bubble Market 00:18:09 The Real Estate Bubble is Cracking and Renters Market is Growing 00:18:16 The Real Estate Bubble is Cracking and Renters Market is Growing 00:18:25 Warning Against Buying Now and the Greater Fool Theory 00:18:37 The Cost of Building First-World Quality Houses 00:19:00 Land Prices Have Doubled in Some Areas 00:19:17 The Market Will Correct Within a Year or Two 00:19:20 Big-Time Investors Are Realizing the Bubble Is Bursting 00:20:01 Beautiful First-World Developments Are Vacant and Not Being Sold 00:23:53 Forgotten Items and Bypassing Security 00:24:08 Processing Paperwork and Bypassing Scanners 00:24:41 The Gringo Advantage at the Supermarket 00:25:16 The Gringo Advantage at the Bar 00:26:08 The Condo Owner's Suspicion of Gringos 00:26:56 Reflections on Government and the Gringo Advantage
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 Okay in response to all you listeners out there who send me emails all the time wanting to know about the Vaccination policies down here in Latin America. Well, first of all, I can tell you that there were do-gooder groups out in force Going out to the boonies and trying to vaccinate the hell out of all the short little dark brown people
[00:51] In fact, I've yet to meet any Latin person from the bottom to the top of the economic heap who doesn't think Vaccinations are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Yep. It's certainly that lifetime effect and the gringo advantage again I remember when I was a kid back in the 60s 70s and 80s You couldn't find a single American who didn't think vaccines weren't miracle drugs The thought that they'd hurt or even kill people was completely out of the question. So you could say down here in Latin America It's like the 60s 70s and 80s Everyone buys the first world party line that vaccines are the absolute way to go Anyway, that's it. I actually ran into a United Nations do-gooder health service kind of guy spewing the usual Vomitus United Nations and World Health Organization crap toe in the line by the way driving a brand new double cabin
[01:41] White squeaky clean Toyota Hilux pickup truck That's standard issue for all do-gooder type station down here by the way And you know what so obvious are these guys and gals and poor neighborhoods were the average person doesn't even have a car much Less a motorcycle sometimes, you know when I pass a car like that, which is generally parked at night surprise surprise parked in front of an upscale watering hole or the nicest hotel in town or Hooker Club, I've seen that too how they get away with that stuff, huh? Well, that's because they're on so-called do-gooder missions and no one's there to check them out Especially where they love to congregate way off the gringo tourist trail out in the boonies And you know, I've often thought the next time I see one of those things parked in front of an upscale restaurant or hooker club I'd like to bust out the windows or put a few knots in the UN guys head with his selfie stick
[02:32] But I'm not that kind of guy though. You can dream can't ya? Anyway, this young UN guy was a pretty nice guy By the way, though thoroughly brainwashed and deluded into thinking that the UN is the world's savior that aside He showed me a printed list in Spanish Explaining all the vaccinations that kids were supposed to get in Latin America, you know The UN and the World Health Organization guidelines for vaccinating people in third world countries now remember These are only guidelines and the truth is this UN medical corps guy told me about half that is 50% of all Latin American children never actually get those vaccines. And if they do they're often way past their expiration date So I guess that means we should call the 800 number of the hideous Bill Gates Foundation
[03:20] They'll come down and fix everything now, won't they? Remember their mission is to vaccinate people to death in Africa and they're succeeding Anyway, let me read you the guidelines here for Vaccinating young children in Latin America. That is the minimum required vaccine schedule for the sweaty masses now for upscale Latins and gringo wannabes It's a bit different naturally since their kids go to private schools and they follow us Guidelines, they'll send bulletins off to the parents saying that kids have to come back from their summer Vacations with a doctor's note saying they've got their proper battery of vaccines The goal being of course for upscale Latin kids to become just like they're artistically prone Hyperactive add first world kid analogs
[04:06] So those upscale clueless Latin American parents are perfectly fine with loading up their own kids with vaccines to the point of toxicity If it's good enough for gringo kids, they wanted to anyway Let me translate this list of recommended vaccines for Latin American kids Okay, first when a kid is born he gets the BCG and hepatitis B vaccination So then what's a BCG vaccination? Oh, you're gonna love this. It's called Bicel Calmette Gherin vaccine it consists of a live strain of Bovine bacteria. Yep. That means it contains bacteria from a cow. So what's it do? It's a vaccine that's supposed to prevent tuberculosis and other Mycobacterial infections then at two months the kid gets his first rotavirus shot
[04:58] Then the kid gets his first Penta Valente shot. So what's that? Well for the uninitiated Penta means five So that means it's a blast of five combined vaccines one against Influenza type B, which is flu, right two whooping cough, which is pertussis three tetanus four Hepatitis B and five diphtheria Also when two months old the kid gets a polio boost then if and when the kid recovers at four months They get that rotavirus booster number two that Penta Valente five in one Vaccination boost number two along with their second polio boost then if the kid survives to six months They get the third whack of that Penta Valente that five in a one and they get polio number three
[05:46] Then at 12 months they get the equivalent of the MMR shot. That's mumps measles and rubella then at 18 months They get DPT that's diphtheria tetanus and pertussis along with another polio blast So the United Nations and WHO along with practically every single Latin American country's Ministerio de Salud That's minister of health have authorized a total of approximately 30 Vaccination doses by the time a kid hits 18 months sounds pretty nasty I know but remember more than half the kids in Latin America are not current at all with this schedule And who knows about all those injections that are well beyond their expiration date now that doesn't scare you Listen to this about a month or so guys talking to an ex-us Marine who told me that
[06:35] Before he and his group went into the Gulf War and we're talking about the first Gulf War here When was that the early 90s anyway for five days in a row? He and his crew got injected three times a day with multiple unknown cocktails of combined vaccines That means 15 different vaccine cocktails in one week. Thank you, Uncle Sam, but back to Latin America What should you do if you bring a kid down or have kids down here yourself? Well, thankfully down here parents are still in control And if you don't want vaccines for your kids, it's still a case where it's up to you and there are no vaccine police However, if your kids happen to go to a public school, which is never recommended, you know government-run school
[07:21] The chances are very good that do-gooders from some organization usually up in the states will show up Heard all the kids into the cafeteria and blast away. So how do you get around that down here in public schools? They don't pass out parental consent forms, especially when a good percentage of the parents of kids in public schools Can't read themselves. Don't laugh expat Eddie's future mother-in-law is illiterate I'm not kidding, but we won't tell anyone will we so then what if you have kids down here and they attend private schools Or one of those high-buck helicopter schools. Well, of course, they're gonna give parents vaccination guidelines, etc And in fact one gringo married to a Latin down here told me that he just had to bring in a letter Any kind of letter scratched on anything basically from a doctor or even a nurse saying his kids had the required vaccines
[08:09] And since he's an enlightened intelligent gringo He knows better than to give his kids vaccines and his Latin wife Well, she's a nice person but totally clueless and she follows his lead, which is good So guess what he did he downloaded a prescription form from the internet in English He photoshopped it signed it as if he was a nurse and that was plenty It worked fine He said no one really looked at it and they didn't really care as long as they had a piece of paper to stick in their files In fact, he said he handed it to this secretary at the school who doesn't speak English anyway So it meant nothing to her. She just filed it like he said it worked like a charm So down here in Latin America Anyway, you can either buy the corrupt company line like a hundred percent of Latin parents do you know the UN?
[08:56] WHO all those do-gooder charities and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Malignant cesspool who of course follow the US Department of Public Health Vaccination guidelines or else you can just make up your own rules as you go along like so many of us cringos do Why not? There's no enforcement. There's no vaccination police like my gringo buddy says don't put up a stink just Photoshop I repeat for better or for worse There is no FDA and no trace of a Nazi style vaccination enforcement squad. Nope. It's nothing like it is up in the States However, Latins even so-called knowledgeable educated Latins are years behind in their knowledge of vaccinations and all the problems They're in again. It's all about the gringo first world wannabe syndrome
[09:44] You know it is a Latin goal to copy everything that the first world gringos do and believe me you can't fight it You can't try to explain and use logic. I've tried many gringos and expats have tried But it's no use what I mean to say is that if you're sitting at an upscale party with a bunch of so-called educated Latins I'll bet you a thousand dollars to your one that the subject of vaccines and their inherent problems will never come up Nor will this subject of the housing bubble that's staring them right in the face every single day Nor will they ever discuss derivatives? They don't know what they are or the imminent collapse of the first world fiat money banking system Since latin's believe the US dollar is still backed by gold. Well, you get the picture Oh, and by the way, you'll never ever hear any negative comments coming out of a latin's mouth about president
[10:34] Oh vomit or even Hillary Clinton because you see something like 80% of latinos who can vote up in the states He'd be the ones who can't vote Democrat. They always have so that kind of lunacy is rooted firmly down here in Latin America Even so-called educated latins with degrees and diplomas when asked affiliate themselves with Democrats up in the states It turns out in colleges and universities down here in Latin America They do review the various political systems, especially in the US because everyone eventually wants to live in my jammy, right? The Latins that remember anything they've learned in those classes Remember the usual poop they shovel out in political science class that Democrats have always been pro little guy pro worker And pro Union Party and the Republicans. Well, they're just stodgy old conservatives pro business and anti-union
[11:25] so it's futile to sit down with a Latin person no matter how highly educated and try to explain why there's not a dime's worth of Difference between the Democrats and Republicans. You'll just get that deer in the headlights Look that I'm sure a lot of you listeners are familiar with from your own discussions with people up in Seattle and Cleveland Hey, I remember those discussions Johnny who are you gonna vote for this time? Wrong question to ask and you know as it turns out down here in Latin America If you want to instantly get a deer in the headlights Look try this when some supposedly educated Latin person with more than a lukewarm IQ asks you who you're gonna vote for in The next election if you were to say something like I used to say which is I vote for no one In fact, I haven't voted for over 30 years
[12:12] Voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil. So I don't bother Well, don't do that because Latins will look at you like you're a deviant anarchist Which is kind of a backhanded compliment because I'd rather be called an anarchist than a Democrat or Republican and really all of us Expats are deviants by definition it's true because we deviate from the norm and you know deviant in a modern sense as traditionally negative connotations because of Sexual deviants and all that but you could be deviant in a good or a bad way. Look it up Okay, let's get to a couple of emails now. Oh and one thing about emails, you know I get a lot of them sometimes 300 of them in a day A lot of them are spam and junk mail, of course But I actually do get to read them all even you listeners out there who occasionally send emails that are five pages long
[13:02] No lie now I like to read the occasional email on the air that I think everybody's gonna be kind of interested in or most people But for all you listeners out there who send me very detailed emails about your own situation I just can't answer that stuff on the air and I definitely get carpal tunnel if I started scratching out an email For example, Johnny, what would be the neighborhood you would suggest that is the best living area in Cartagena, Colombia for a person like me receiving sixteen hundred dollars a month Oh, and by the way, I'm a diabetic vegan with allergies and a deviated septum I have $42,000 in the bank. What would be a good place for me to invest that money? And what bank or banks would you recommend I put it in for a short-term safekeeping? I have a dog so I'd like to be within two blocks of a nice park to walk him and on and on now
[13:52] I'm not kidding you I actually get emails like that and worse and some in much more detail and you know It's not to say I can't answer very specific emails like that. I can't I've got friends all over the place down here All I have to do is make a couple of quick phone calls and I can find out a lot of that stuff So anyway, that said I'm talking about generalities on my program here And if you do need specific details about your own situation where to live work play retired do business and or just hang out Just go to expat wisdom calm click on the consult link and we can talk privately about your situation for a half an hour Or so and when people sign up for those personal consult phone calls I always ask them to send me a prioritized list about what we're going to be discussing a couple of days before we do the
[14:39] Call so I can make certain inquiries when necessary anyway that said before I get into a couple of emails I have a general comment about real estate in Latin America now You know I always recommend being off the gringo tourist trail because that's where you're gonna get the best deals However as a general statement, I gotta say it's time to rent and not buy I mentioned that before because we are in a huge real estate bubble practically throughout Latin America now In fact in some big Latin American cities real estate is even more expensive than it is now up in the States So don't expect to find any deals down here unless you find those desperate sellers And there are lots of them around but you got to be down here with boots on the ground to find them You're never gonna find them on the internet nor are you gonna find them by coming down and hooking up with a real estate agent And I hope you know by now you're never gonna get a deal if you hook up with one of the big franchise real estate companies
[15:30] Like century 21 or remax who like I've said before are all over the place down here now now note You definitely do not want to buy land or real estate in a Latin city or area where there are gringos Selling the project or promoting it that my friends is a huge red flag Indicating the market is way oversold already. That's what you see in Costa Rica and Panama for example You look in the big glossy real estate magazines that come out every couple weeks or a month and yes those didn't exist some years ago But now they're everywhere go to any grocery store usually at the checkout counter or where they're selling the daily newspapers They'll have a big stack of free glossy real estate magazines sometimes five or even ten different kinds
[16:15] Let me tell you you'll find zero deals in those magazines And like I just mentioned if gringos are in on the deal that should be your sign to turn tail and run now I notice that gringos like to stick their big faces in the ad too It's a sign that you don't even want to be near the city or town or whatever where that gringo is promoting that property Why you might ask because it takes a good long time in any Latin real estate market for the gringos To start dipping their toes in the mix like for example when I first came down to Costa Rica some 25 years ago There were no gringos that all selling real estate only lands and now there's dozens if not hundreds of gringo real estate agents in Costa Rica Everyone of course wants first world prices and everyone's got to take a big commission. So why am I bringing this up?
[17:04] Well, I just got an email from some of my traveling gringo friends who are down in Colombia right now And they sent me a full-color glossy listing in English Promoting a brand new gringo style housing development in Cartagena Now gringo promoters have infiltrated Medellin Cali and Bogota too. They're popping up everywhere to me It's a sign that we're at the top of the market when you talk about Colombia Medellin Bogota Cartagena Cali There are no more deals unless you find a desperate seller and there are more and more of those guys popping up But you need boots on the ground to investigate that stuff for yourself Many early investors not gringos, of course, but some years ago into multiple unit complexes They saw what they thought as a never-ending boom coming and now they're sitting on a lot of brand new real estate
[17:53] That's vacant and soon enough as maintenance fees drain their cash reserves away They will become desperate sellers Of course only at the very end after they tried everything else and tapped themselves out will they be selling first? They'll offer their places up for rent at huge discounts too And in the end there won't be enough renters to go around either So that's when a lot of really nice properties will be dumped on the market cheap So the real estate bubble is cracking and we're in that phase right now where it's a huge renters market But again, let me repeat when you see gringos Selling into the real estate market as promoters and developers the games over believe me wait for the big washout It's coming and for all you gonna be some wannabes up there who are thinking hey I'll just buy some vacant land and build because I know and Johnny says you can build first world quality for 30 to 40
[18:44] Bucks a square foot and it's true. That means a thousand square foot house 30 to 40 thousand bucks a 2,000 square foot house 60 to 80 grand and that's very high quality, too However land here is in a real estate bubble too So you're not gonna get any deals there In fact the price of land in some areas including farmland has doubled in the last three to five years So like I said just wait and the deals will come and the question is how long you got to wait Well, I'd say no more than two years and I'm thinking maybe a year meaning That's when the air will really start rushing out of the bubble So a lot of these big-time latin investors ones with a lot of cash, you know narcos scumbag politicians and owners of big sugar and coffee
[19:29] Plantations who just didn't want to put their excess money into the bank at one or two percent They're the ones that have created this bubble and they're not getting a return on their money at all and they're now realizing this In fact the maintenance on these projects because they're so inadequately filled is killing them So the question is how long can these investors in these big projects hold out until they're completely tapped? That's when tons of these places are gonna hit the market at one time In fact right now I could take a drive and in 20 minutes I could pass a big beautiful first world development project a guarded subdivision where houses go for 150 to maybe 350,000 now there are dozens if not hundreds of such first world style developed projects within an hour's drive of any big Latin city
[20:17] And they look perfectly fine and beautiful by day nicely done well landscaped and manicured But when you drive past them at night, there's almost no lights on in the units How could that be that means they're all built and done and ready to sell but they've got no buyers So then when the bottom falls out of the market, do you want to live there? Even if you get it at 50 or 25 cents on the dollar, nope You don't want to live in a community or subdivision no matter how nice it is When you've got vacant houses all around you, you know what that leads to right? So again rent rent rent and if you find yourself in a nice Latin American city Looking through the real estate ads or better yet have boots on the ground there
[21:03] Just beware when you see gringos selling and promoting projects in English Know that if you buy you're getting in at the very top of the market the good deals are gone and everything's been picked over You know about the greater fool theory, right? Well, you don't want to be that fool which is exactly what's happening in Costa Rica right now Longtime gringos there are telling me that when some gringo does sell their property They think they're lucky stars. There was a greater fool and they hightail it out of that country in a hurry Usually to Nicaragua by the way. Okay. Now you probably remember a couple of shows ago I mentioned that in those 15 out of 20 countries I consider off the gringo tourist trail you can count on the fact that big brother is not alive and well In fact, it's only a figment of the imagination of idiot politicians who pass first world legislation in their own chaotic
[21:54] Third-world countries the pinheads who pass those laws do not mingle with the regular people on the street They have their mansions and bodyguards and SUVs and helicopters and beach houses in my jammy So they're living the first world life and then some while their constituents make 300 bucks a month now if you remember just a few shows ago I mentioned that I wasn't a typical government immigration office in Latin America and it Was so chaotic and disorganized that there practically was no security at all And I went through all the details on that and I got a couple of emails after that saying Johnny it almost sounds like a bad Monty Python or Saturday Night Live skit Maybe you just got there on an off day and happened to experience all that stuff. It just can't be like that all the time How could they run a country like that? And that's why I'm gonna read the following email that I just got a couple days ago
[22:43] Now let me set this up by saying, you know lately I've been talking about two places in particular where it's pretty easy to get your temporary and permanent residency That would be Paraguayan Guatemala and since my latest expat wisdom seminar that took place about a month ago was in Guatemala Some of the people that came down Decided to stay on for a couple more weeks and try to get their residency going So let me read this email coming from two of the people who are going through that process right now This one's called Observations on being a gringo in Central America. It says hi Johnny as You know, my wife and I are staying here in Guatemala after the boots on the ground seminar to get our residency process started Here are some things we have observed about being gringos
[23:28] You may have mentioned these gringo advantages on your show, but I'm not sure number one at the Department of Migration that's immigration in Guatemala City There is a full body scanner that one walks through before entering the building and there are armed guards stationed there on our first visit I was concerned that my pocket knife and Leatherman Multi-tool which I always carry would cause a problem and be confiscated I just forgot to leave them in our place before setting out that morning We also each had a day pack type of backpack on two. Well, I walked through and the buzzer sounded and well nothing Nothing happened at all We just followed our legal assistant on through and went to the room where our paperwork was being processed
[24:15] On another occasion. We walked around the outside of the scanner Completely bypassing it and just headed right up the stairs to the room We needed to go to the scanner buzzes for everyone and I could see some purses being searched But never in three visits so far where we asked to hand over our backpacks or to remove knives, etc And believe it or not another place where we simply are given a pass as clueless gringos Is that the main big supermarket called Bodegonia in Antigua, Guatemala? It's a large grocery store and we have been there several times for food and supplies The first time we walked in with our backpacks on we just walked right past the table and lockers where apparently you're supposed to have Your purses and packs checked by the guard and left behind in a locker where they give you a number
[25:04] I didn't hear the guard say Backpack as we just walked on by but my wife did and we just kept on walking and trucking and did our shopping We have been there several times since and we just Obliviously cruise right on past that check-in station and go shopping now another place where the gringo advantage kicked in was a bar That was located on a busy street in Guatemala City We were going there with a new expat friend the notorious captain mango You may have heard of him and he and I were patted down by an armed guard But my wife just stuck her hand out and shook his hand. Hello. I'm a gringa. Nice to meet you, too And yes, we had our backpacks on there too, and they were not looked at at all Some security, huh and one more quick story
[25:51] We rented a very nice condo in Antigua and when the husband and wife owners stopped by to ask if everything was fine We said yes, but that there was no hair dryer for my wife to use Well, the owner's wife started searching and didn't find one either and said to my wife something like this She said it's missing, but it couldn't have been gringos gringos. Don't take things Anyway, just wanted to share these latest observations and experiences Let you know of any others as time goes by signed a happy anonymous couple seeking peace, fun, serenity and residency Somewhere in Central America. So there we have again a great example How government works or doesn't work in Latin America somewhat like a Three Stooges flick So it's true
[26:36] all Latin countries would love to have a first world big brother government just like the US and some on the tourist trail spots like Costa Rica and Panama have geared up and have some first world equipment at the airports, etc But when you're off the gringo tourist trail, it's just Laughingly obvious that they're getting nowhere in the big brother department So yeah, gotta love it and the fact that the gringo advantage is alive and well Oh and before we finish today, here's another reminder that Richard Martin is having his Southeast Asia seminar So if you happen to be of the mind to be an expat in a completely English-speaking environment And we'd like a chance to learn about Richard's favorite city Penang. Just give him a call at 702-609-9962
[27:22] Or send him an email rwlmartin1 at gmail.com his seminar again is from August 23rd to the 28th 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 don't forget to check out expat wisdom calm to sign up for your free Reports on Latin America. See you next time nos vemos