Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller dives into the healthcare landscape in Latin America, discussing a comprehensive report on the topic that includes both personal anecdotes and statistical data. He addresses common questions about vaccinations and diseases like dengue fever and malaria, providing context on their prevalence and risk factors. Johnny highlights that while dengue and malaria are significant concerns, they primarily affect the poor and those living in areas with stagnant water, and expats are rarely affected due to their lifestyle and protective measures. He also shares a personal anecdote about a local woman in Belize who contracted dengue during a photo shoot, illustrating how the disease can affect locals but not typically expats. Johnny compares the risk of dengue to other everyday dangers in Latin America, such as choking on a bean burrito. He then recounts an incident in a restaurant where a gringo man choked and was taken to the hospital, but survived. He discusses how gringos tend to eat faster than Latin people, leading to awkward situations during sit-down dinners at Latin homes. He also warns expats about the cultural norms around eating and the types of food that might be served, which can be unappealing to some. Johnny touches on the topic of borrowing money from Latin friends and family, noting how common it is and how he has dealt with it over the years. He contrasts this with his experiences in the U.S., where he has learned to avoid lending money to maintain relationships. He also discusses the prevalence of loan sharking in Latin America, noting that it is often legal and a significant business in local markets. Johnny shares a method he uses to politely decline loans without causing offense, which he believes works well in both Latin America and the U.S. He reflects on his experiences in the U.S., where lending money often leads to bad relationships or missed payments, and now he has a rule that if he lends money, it's a gift and not expected back. Johnny recounts his experiences with lending money to Latin men who never repaid him and shares a story about a Peruvian guitar player who stole his guitar twice and tried to scam him. He also discusses the dynamics of relationships between gringo (American) women and Latin men, highlighting the challenges and potential betrayals that can occur in such relationships. The segment recounts a story about a young Peruvian friend who had his guitar stolen by a teenager. The friend's guitar was later recovered when a man who had previously encountered the teenager confronted him and got the guitar back. Johnny reflects on the incident as part of his growing frustration with living in Costa Rica, which has led him to consider leaving the country. The incident is mentioned as one of the reasons contributing to his decision to leave, and he mentions spending $300 on the guitar, which he could have bought but decided against due to the negative experience.
Topics
Healthcare in Latin America, Dengue fever and malaria, Vaccinations and preventive measures, Expatriate experiences and health risks, Dengue risk for expats, Dengue statistics in Latin America, Comparison of dengue risk to other dangers, Personal anecdote about dengue, Cultural differences in eating habits, Unusual ingredients in Latin cuisine, Borrowing money from Latin friends and family, Lending money to friends and family in Latin America
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:44 Announcing the Healthcare Report 00:02:32 Common Vaccination Questions 00:06:39 Real Facts About Dengue Risk for Expats 00:06:41 Dengue Statistics in Latin America 00:08:38 Comparing Dengue Risk to Infant Mortality 00:08:57 Personal Anecdote About Dengue 00:11:11 The Choking Incident and Its Aftermath 00:11:34 The Cultural Shift in Eating Habits 00:12:06 The Consequences of Eating Too Fast 00:12:49 The Sit-Down Dinner Experience 00:14:24 The Quality of Latin Cuisine 00:15:03 The Gross Out Factor 00:15:27 Borrowing Money from Latin Friends 00:15:56 The Frequency of Loan Requests 00:16:33 Initial Loan Experiences in Latin America 00:17:12 Cultural Differences in Loan Behavior 00:17:53 Loan Sharking as a Common Practice 00:19:42 Polite Decline Method for Loans 00:21:43 The Debt Strategy 00:22:30 The Scam and the Car 00:24:43 The Gringo and the Latin Man 00:26:59 The Guitar Theft Story Begins 00:27:28 The Impact on Johnny's Decision to Leave Costa Rica
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 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 Once again before I get started today. I have a little announcement to make recall that for the last couple months or so I've been talking about preparing a Latin American health care report since it seems like no one else with boots on the ground down here In Latin America like me has ever even attempted to put together such a thing. Well, anyway, it's done and available on expat wisdom calm
[00:52] at least it will be there in the next couple days anyway and for all of you guys and gals who are already on the Mailing list because you signed up at expat wisdom calm for free reports and things like that in the past You already got a link in your mailbox and you just might have downloaded it already Now just a few things about this report besides the fact that you or no one else for that matter has ever seen anything Like it before I can guarantee that Anyway, it clocks in at about 85 pages and of course since I wrote it I shoved in a few jokes and photos that should make you laugh a bit and of course a few of my stories as Well, because you know if I didn't do that a health care report can be pretty dry reading and I want you to be able To get through the whole thing. There's so much good up-to-date information in there
[01:37] I don't know why I'm giving it out for free. But well when I first announced I was gonna plug away at this thing That's what I promised so it's free Just like I said and it'll give you a hell of a lot to think about So like I said, it's about 85 pages with an additional 15 or 20 page report linked in the center of it It's the only link and that part with the statistics I didn't write of course and that links to a document that's an international compilation of medical costs for various common treatments procedures and operations for the year 2012 but that's for you to use as a comparison when you're reading the rest of my report So the whole thing's over a hundred pages But don't let that scare you reports like that are supposed to have big bold letters and a lot of charts and photos So you don't fall asleep and drool on your keyboard while attempting to read it So if you didn't get a link to it in your mailbox go to expat wisdom comm and pick up a free copy while it's still
[02:27] Free okay enough said about that. Let's push on with the rest of the show You know, I still get the occasional email from people asking me if they need shots when they come down here to Latin America You know vaccinations against bugs and parasites and amoebas and bacteria that don't exist or were completely eradicated up in Cleveland a long time ago Tell you the truth. I don't know if I could survive in Cleveland either Anyway, the two most common email questions I get about Vaccinations and prophylactic treatment and stuff are concerning the two most common bug-borne diseases down here in Latin America dengue fever and malaria Now I know that dengue fever thing comes up because you see occasional Warnings about it on the internet and the World Health Organization Likes to throw fuel on the dengue fire by saying that one and a half Million people in Latin America get affected by dengue fever every year, which sounds you know horrific
[03:17] But when you consider the fact that there are over a half a billion people in Latin America That's only one in about 300 people which statistically still sounds pretty awful now, doesn't it? But here's the thing in 2013 so far and all of Latin America only 297 people have died which still sounds kind of ominous But when you consider that a hundred and fifty people a year are killed by falling coconuts So if you really want to protect yourself, you really should go out and buy a helmet, too Don't you think and even though that puts a little bit of perspective on it? I think we should talk about dengue for a second since it is on the minds of quite a few people judging by the Email I get well this I can tell you firsthand in my 20-something years down here The only people I've ever met that have had dengue are the very poor and lower middle-class latins who basically live in tin roof shacks
[04:08] Most of them living very close to polluted water and occasionally right on the edge of it like 10 or 20 feet from a polluted ditch or a river Now you see dengue like malaria is caused by a mosquito and you do get very sick and the chances of getting it from one Or two mosquito bites is about one in a million like winning the lottery and it has been estimated that the people that do get dengue And malaria are basically the people that live around stagnant water and get hundreds of mosquito bites a year And that certainly adds up because by the time a kid's let's say 10 years old if he gets a couple of hundred bites a year Well, you do the math and the funny thing one doctor in the outback told me that it's always the very young children in the age that get afflicted most because Their reflexes aren't fast enough to swat mosquitoes when they land whereas people from 10 to maybe 60 years old
[04:56] Here mosquitoes buzzing see and feel them when they land and swat and kill a good percentage of them before they ever dig in So it's really a numbers game, but you shouldn't lose any sleep over it And I'll tell you why but like I said I've never once met an expat gringo or foreigner whoever was afflicted by it either dengue Or malaria though over the years I've met a whole lot of low-rent backpackers that by rights should have picked up something malaria dengue lice crabs Judging by the fact that when you run into these guys and gals they seem to love to wear cut-off shorts which by the way I never recommend unless you're out at the beach and playing around in the sand But backpackers and hikers never seem to learn and you often notice their sweaty pink sunburned legs are just filled with bug bites
[05:42] So if there were any first-world people that should be susceptible to something like that It would be those lovable stinky backpackers packed in six to a room sharing the same bathroom and those places of course have no air conditioning So they leave the windows open and in those fleabag joints screens are either non-existent Or the ones they have are loaded with gaps and holes and I gotta tell you when I run into gringos and fresh green expats Every so often you'll notice that one of them freaks out when bit by a mosquito thinking oh, no now I'm gonna come down with something really nasty. Oh god Why did I come down here in the first place? I mean really there's an uptight high-strung anal gringo in every crowd actually more like two or three yet most of them seem to bear as much skin as possible and by day always slogging through a
[06:28] Junglera swamp chronically short of bug spray because well on their budget a can of Deet Cost about as much as one or two nights in a scumbag motel, but just to ease your mind about dengue Here's the real facts Brazil the Latin American country that had the most cases by far in 2012 had about 800,000 cases and only 100 deaths and again every one of the mortalities came from the very poorest slums and ghettos and then came Paraguay Dominican Republic in Mexico They came in at around 30 to 35 deaths a year and again not a single first world tourists counted among that group Now you might think that some of those very off-the-tourist trail Latin countries that I recommend so much Might be loaded with dengue and very high mortality rate
[07:14] Simply because 20 to 30 percent of the population are considered extremely poor thus living in tin shacks and mosquito infested areas With open doors and windows and obviously no screens Anyway, listen to this last year in 2012 in El Salvador only one person died of dengue Guatemala two people died Bolivia and Venezuela seven people died from dengue and Honduras 15 people died In Nicaragua five people died and what about those high-volume gringo tourist destinations nice places for vacations But places I don't recommend you become a permanent expat. Well, here's the breakdown on dengue in those countries Costa Rica three people died Uruguay had zero deaths from dengue and in 2011
[07:59] No one died from dengue in Panama either And again with these mortality figures not a single first world gringo tourist or expat was among the mortalities and according to statistics of the people who got sick and recovered there actually aren't any statistics on gringos and expats because they're listed as Negligible and as far as dengue the way the statistics work out only about one in five thousand people Afflicted eventually die which may or may not seem a bit higher to you if you contract the disease which you won't but I want you To compare that statistic one death for five thousand afflicted to the infant mortality rate in the US for every five thousand infants born 30 of them die So in other words, it's actually 30 times more dangerous to be born in the US then to contract dengue in some third world
[08:47] Backwater now that's something to think about huh now in my 20 something years down here I've only met one person who's actually had dengue the only one who's ever brought it up anyway She was a local girl naturally and she was sick for a couple of weeks and eventually recovered to 100% and in fact her story Is worth telling she was a model doing promotional photo shoots for a beer company in Belize on the beach in a really dumpy part Of Belize called Punta Gorda So they were romping around the beach doing this photo shoot day and night for three days with campfires going at night and such Because the beer tv commercial they were shooting was supposed to show young upscale 20-something beautiful people having fun on the beach day and night And of course the sponsors beer was the secret to all that fun and happiness, right?
[09:33] Now there were about a half a dozen young good-looking male models, too There in t-shirts windbreakers and bathing trunks mostly covered up compared to the ladies But the girls spent about 12 hours running around in skimpy bikinis That was it. No t-shirts. No cover-ups. No windbreakers for them. I mean, this is latin america, you know Anyway, she said they were on a deserted beach about 15 miles from the nearest town and the production company brought everything but bug spray So she remembers getting about 50 bug bites a night and a couple days later she came down with classic dengue symptoms Which lasted about a week or so She said a few days after the shoot she got a terrible headache hot and cold flashes Fever along with a lot of sweating and bone pain and of course since those classic symptoms show up right away
[10:19] The doctors down here know exactly what to do if it's bad enough They'll hydrate you with an iv drip put you in bed for a couple of days Manage the fever and that's about it because you see there is no one-shot cure for dengue There's no prophylactic pills or vaccines to take and when you've got it, there's no specific medicine for it It's all about electrolyte balance and maintaining your fluid levels However, if you don't get medical attention and you leave it go It could turn into the hemorrhagic type of dengue where you get red splotches all over your skin Then if you don't get medical treatment You could die within four to eight hours and that's what happens to the unlucky one in five thousand and really I don't know why i'm telling you this because down here in latin america You actually have a better chance of dying choking on a bean burrito because once believe it or not
[11:05] I was in a restaurant in costa rica where a very large guy did choke on a bean burrito a gringo, of course And some skinny young gringle lady of about 90 pounds ran over and tried to give him the heimlich But she was no match for him. She couldn't even get her arms all the way around the guy And eventually an ambulance came and hauled him off and you know, the rest of us in the restaurant figured he died But you know, he must have survived because I didn't read about it in the next couple days papers But i'll tell you what after they hauled that guy away Everyone else in a restaurant took a cue from the incident and actually started chewing their food They say it tastes better when you chew your food. That's what i've heard. Anyway, and why do I say that? Because after being down here so long I realize that every gringo I know Seems to eat his food about four times as fast as the average latin guy or gal
[11:55] And i'm talking about gringo first world men here as opposed to first world gringo women who always seem to eat a lot slower than the men And regarding that here's a little warning to all you expat wannabe males up there If you eat too fast down here in latin america, you could pay the price and I don't mean you're gonna choke or get sick and die Or anything what I mean to say is sooner or later You're gonna get invited by your latin girlfriend or latin boyfriend or husband or wife or even latin co-worker or friend To a sit down dinner or two at one of their houses and since us gringo guys always eat way too fast We'll pretty much finish way ahead of the rest of the latin folks at the table and nope You won't get scolded for eating too fast You'll get no gaff like you might have gotten from your mom up north instead for the latin lady of the house
[12:41] It's a signal that you really loved her food and that you're raring to go for seconds You'll make a great first impression However, if you're like me and so many other expats when eating a sit down dinner at the average latin family home I guarantee they'll be serving you things you've never seen before and things you're only putting into your mouth because you want to be polite company And believe me i've forced myself to eat a lot of things I've regretted later if you know what I mean and even though i've been here a long long time There are still two or three dishes that are often served at the average latin home That I even try to avoid looking at much less eating in that case I'm always looking for a diversion to slip it to the dog by now. I'm pretty sneaky about it For example, I can't stand looking at any dish that's got chicken feet or pig's ears in it for that matter
[13:29] Anything that's got tongue brains hoof stomach or eyes in it to me that stuff's pretty disgusting, too But eyes thank god so far. They've only shown up in soup. They really freak me out I don't like my food looking back up at me, you know But the worst thing the thing that really drives me nuts at a latin dinner table Is when the latin gala guy next to me or in front of me starts eating the cartilage off the turkey or the chicken carcass Crunching away on it like it was a candy cane or peanut brittle That just gives me the willies like fingers on a chalkboard Yuck, so anyway Here's my advice to you gringos and expats out there when you're at a latin's house Try to keep pace with the rest of them don't eat too fast or you'll get a great big second helping of everything That you can't refuse and if the dog's full by then you'll have to grin and bear it
[14:18] Not only that they'll load you with a plate to take home, which literally will be a doggy bag Now i'm not insinuating that latins are bad cooks at all. That's not the case. They have a lot of very tasty dishes It's just hard for us expats and gringos to take some of the traditional foods stuff that we're not used to at all That makes you pause for a moment when there's a slab of it staring at you on the plate Anyway, who am I to say there's no accounting for taste? Who knows you might like a nice toasted chicken foot once in a while But the thing is you've got to try one first and that's something I just can't seem to bring myself to do But i'll tell you a little secret dogs love them Oh, and by the way all you listeners out there who totally agree with my sentiments on being grossed out when people eat tongue Brains stomach hoofs cartilage and eyes i've got just one question for you. Have you had a hot dog lately?
[15:10] All right enough said about that probably too much as a matter of fact Okay Now it's a must that we talk about something that you really have to keep your eyes open for So expats and expat want to be sooner or later whether you're on or off the tourist trail You're going to be confronted with it. So listen up As you make friends and hook up with latin families It's a 100 certainty that some of your new latin friends and family Are going to try to borrow money from you and I know I mentioned a little bit about this on my last show And right after that I got some emails from you guys and gals talking about your own problems up in boston and cleveland With people friends and family trying to borrow money from you So i'd like to go into just a little bit more detail on the subject right now I'd like to give you some tips that I think you'll really appreciate if you ever come down here
[15:56] Now the fact is i've lost count of how many times latin have tried to hit me up for a loan And i've learned a great deal about latin and gringo human nature in the process In fact just this week the body man who fixes my car Asked me for 150 loan so he could buy a new compressor and you know since i've been down here I probably lent money to maybe five latin guys that I know though. I estimate i've been hit up over 50 times Since i've been down here still like I said i've only lent money to about five And of course, they weren't big amounts I'd never do that because I know chances are i'm not going to get paid back and even if they do make an effort at payments In the beginning you'll get a little back But after that they'll come in late or never and since they are such small amounts ranging from maybe 20 bucks to
[16:42] Maximum in my case. Anyway about 600 bucks. I figure if I don't get paid back It's not going to kill me by the way much as it goes against my grain to lend out even 600 bucks That I know i'm not going to get back The only reason I did it was because it was my girlfriend's father that asked me for the loan Which puts a guy in a hell of a spot because if you don't lend the guy the money For a while there'll be a cloud hanging over you every time you walk through the front door and every time you get invited for sunday Dinner what i'm saying is it's not simple when that happens It's an awful tough spot to be in and of course up in the states the same thing might be happening to you However up there you generally hang with people of the same Socioeconomic class and everybody's kind of in the same boat So chances our friends and family might never hit you up for a loan or do so very infrequently
[17:30] Whereas when you're down here in latin america, you're the gringo So you're mr. Moneybags and you know what compared to them you really are of course That doesn't mean you have any loose cash to spread around or give away But they figure you're the closest thing they're going to get to a bank And of course they'd never be asking you for a loan if they had any credit Or any collateral to go to the bank and normally like I said They try to hit you up for very small amounts like from five to 25 bucks Which to me reinforces the fact that about 80 percent of latins live from day to day or paycheck to paycheck And you know, that's not to say they can't get some money from the local neighborhood loan shark Every single latin neighborhood has one or two of those guys around I take it back in a very high-end neighborhood You won't have any of that because in high-end neighborhoods people already have money
[18:15] And by the way in latin america loan sharking is completely legal And even if it wasn't they wouldn't be able to enforce it. Anyway, in fact, you'll even see loan sharks advertising in the yellow pages And the rates well, they're all over the map depending what kind of risk they think you are Some people get lucky and pay only 10 a month While others will pay 30 to 50 percent a month depends on who you are who you know What kind of risk you are and how much money you want? And sure latin governments are pissed off about these local loan shark businesses and not because they're gouging the public which they are It's simply because governments have no way of monitoring them and squeezing them for taxes and here's something i'm sure you didn't know remember last week I was talking about those big central markets that gringos love going to where we could get
[19:02] Everything in anything so rock bottom cheap. It's amazing Anyway, what you didn't know is that there's a huge loan sharking business going down in every one of those markets In fact, I just heard this from a friend a couple of weeks ago He said that if you're a long time well-known vendor down at one of those markets if everything fell in place You could actually get a hundred thousand us dollar loan within about a half an hour Cash in fact in the really big markets that kind of stuff's done all the time That's one place where loan sharking is big business Generally when some latino I know tries to hit me up for cash I use a fallback position that i've developed over the years that works out very well for me What it is is a diplomatic way of turning a guy down for a loan where neither of you walk away pissed off
[19:48] And neither party loses face either which is an important consideration With latin men and that macho streak that they all have by the way I'm sure you could use this method up in the states. It would go down just as well I wish I would have used it way back when it would have saved me a lot of grief back in chicago But yeah live and learn anyway, I see over the years i've lent money to friends and family up in the states I'm talking about now and you know, it never really works out You always either make enemies of them or they miss the payout date or the payment plan and they try to avoid you And in the end you're the bad guy and the relationship's never the same So since I left the states i've had this hard and fast rule that if I do lend somebody money I actually tell them it's a gift and I don't expect it back and if they do pay me back, that would be nice But it's not necessary and of course along with that i'll never lend anybody real substantial amounts of money
[20:37] Because if I told the person I didn't expect the money back i'd really be an idiot, right? So once in a while i'll lend somebody five ten or maybe 20 bucks latin guys That is down here. Oh and another thing in my experience with latin trying to borrow money from me I find it's men nine out of ten times that'll ask you for the money though Sometimes they'll have their wife or girlfriend approach you for the loan first And out of the maybe 50 latins over the years that have tried to borrow money from me only two Have been women and if I am an occasional soft touch for small amounts I almost never get it back, but it's not gonna kill me, you know But get this the two ladies I lent money to they paid me back late, which is normal But they did pay up. So like I said, my latest episode involving that was my car body man
[21:24] And he asked me about a week ago when I dropped off a car for some body work if I could lend him 150 bucks So he could buy a compressor And since he wasn't asking for 5 10 or 20 bucks like they normally do I gave him my knee jerk response which nearly always works and allows everyone to save face including me. I said look amelio That's his name amelio. I'd be glad to give you the 150 bucks In fact, here's what i'm gonna do I'm gonna give you the names and phone numbers of five latin guys that I lent money to Who never paid me back or started paying me back and stopped each one of them owes me over 150 bucks So here's their names and phone numbers And if you can collect 150 bucks from any one of these guys you can have it and you won't even have to pay me back How's that basically free money if you can get it if you can collect it you can have it and you know what?
[22:12] It works every time. Well almost every time because they get the point They realize that you've been through this already a number of times and you're not a soft touch anymore And you know what? I end up using that line once or twice a year when someone tries to borrow money from me You know anything over 20 bucks or so you guys up in the first world. Go ahead and use that line It's a freebie and it works almost every time but I got to tell you just today when I went to go pick up that car He had the balls to ask me again to lend him 150 bucks Even though I went through that deadbeat spiel a week ago with him and I thought he understood my point perfectly well So today when he asked me instead of going through that spiel again, I said amelio How did you paint my car without a compressor? Because obviously he just did some bodywork and painted my car And he hemmed in hard and fumbled around with his words a bit and said
[22:59] Well, the old one still kind of works a bit, but it's on its last leg and I got to get me a new one He kept saying casi morto casi morto, which means Almost dead. It's almost dead Oh, and by the way some years ago before I figured out that standard answer I give about the five deadbeats when someone else tries to borrow money from me I tried a different technique that didn't work at all. It was one guy in costa rica I played in a band with a very very excellent guitar player who didn't work a day job So he was always broke. Well one day he asked me to lend him 300 bucks because his guitar got stolen and Naturally without a guitar he couldn't play in the band, right? And the rest of us guys in the group depended on him. He was the lead player So I lent him the money on the condition that the guitar was collateral and he was supposed to pay me back in six months
[23:46] Well that six months went by and he didn't pay me and I figured that's normal And he promised to pay me in two more months I mean after all he was making money playing gigs So he had somewhat of an income then two months later his guitar was stolen again My collateral right and sure enough He's not gonna pay for a dead horse and even me who was out to 300 bucks felt a little sorry for the guy Now you might wonder why this guy's guitar keeps getting stolen Well, that's because he didn't actually have his own apartment or house to live in He was a peruvian guy living in costa rica with get this his gringa girlfriend A lady who was about 20 years his senior. She was about 45 and he may be 25 now. She was doing all right She had a rental car business with about 10 cars that she'd rented tourists after all this was costa rica
[24:34] And he was a guitar playing peruvian a young handsome guy with not a pot to pee in Now to me This is a very good example Of what happens to some gringa ladies that come down to latin america to live like I said before Every latin guy wants to hook up with a gringa and at first she thought she hit the jackpot This guy is handsome good looking and he's 20 years younger And by the way, she had a couple of young teenage daughters living in the house, too And unbeknownst to her that little peruvian guitar player was in love with one of them He even admitted it to me and the rest of the band members His real plan was working his way from mother to daughter An all-around bad situation for the gringo lady, right now on the tourist trail like in costa rica That happens a lot with divorced middle-aged or even younger gringo ladies that come down looking to start a new life
[25:24] And they come down with some baggage maybe some kids like that and they get involved with a young handsome latin guy like that A surfer dude a guitar player a young antonio banderes selling hot dogs or renting beach chairs You know the type long hair five o'clock shadow muscles jesus sandals wife beater t-shirt So I figure this guy got his guitar stolen two times Because he's just kind of shiftless and crashing at this gringo lady's house all the time You know young shiftless no responsibilities. Now. You might wonder why this gringo lady didn't buy him a new guitar Well, that's because after about six or eight months She was feeling the strain of having this guy around leeching off her and personally, I think she was figuring out He had the hots for her daughter. So anyway, it looked like she was slowly but surely easing him out of her life
[26:13] Now get this the following saturday We had a beach party gig and he shows up with a guitar. We figured he borrowed it, right? But when I got a bit closer to it, I realized it was the first guitar He said was stolen when he first asked me for the 300 bucks So he scammed me as well had me convinced that guitar was stolen and if he didn't have 300 bucks Well, we wouldn't have a lead player So I walked up to him looking for an explanation and I knew I wasn't gonna get a good one and I said aha guitar number one reappears And then he said half convincingly even you know costa rica is a small place and I knew it was going to show up somewhere Then he said the weekend before he was at a block party
[26:59] And there were a couple of bands playing made up of young teenage kids and he spotted one playing his guitar He walked up to the guy told him it was his guitar and he was going to kick the crap out of him If he didn't give it back and the young kid gave it back to him reluctantly And now the original owner just got it back. That was my young peruvian friend's story Anyway, I could almost buy it but knowing this guy Bottom line. I was out 300 bucks though It did add more weight to my list of reasons to get the hell out of costa rica 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
[27:47] And don't forget to check out expatwisdom.com to sign up for your free reports on latin america See you next time. Nos vemos