#1104 – The Expat Files: Life, Culture, and Challenges in Mexico and Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] Alright, I didn't have time last show to talk about my encounters while traveling with those evil drugs, ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Hey I've just now been able after, what is it, 18 months now to pronounce the word hydroxychloroquine. How about you, or are you a linguistic nincompoop like me? Nincompoop. Where'd that word come from? It's got to be German, or a German root. Though it's got the word poop in it, so it more likely originated with government. Oh hey, just remembered a story, before I talk about those evil drugs, ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Since I was mostly in Mexico the last couple weeks, I ran into many many gringos, that's where most gringos are, you know, there's over a million expats and gringos living in Mexico. And I have to say, the vast majority that I ran into are woke as hell.

[00:49] You know, double masking, face shields, and most of them gray haired middle aged too. That's the reason 4,226Y have crossed Mexico off my list. Not only too many gringos, too many over the top woke gringos. Pretty disgusting, really. Anyway, you gotta hear this, I was checking into a hotel. I was right next to a couple of disgruntled gringos who were complaining about something to the manager. Gringos will do that, they're very good at complaining. They're used to the way things are in the states, and often are intolerant of other cultures and the way they do things. But you know, you gotta pick the battles you can win. Like, for example, hygiene, I always fight for good hygiene and clean water fresh, natural food, etc. But to whine and complain because a latino's late for his appointment or didn't show up to fix your refrigerator, you might as well drop your pants and sit on the traffic cone

[01:34] for all that'll get ya. Complain about things that can actually be fixed or improved, not about manana time, that's never gonna go away, it's cultural. Anyway, I was standing at the check-in counter at a hotel next to a complaining gringo, and he didn't have a mask on, though I didn't have one either. And while he was complaining about his shower and no hot water, a legitimate complaint. The manager handed him a mask or tried to hand him a mask, he wouldn't take it, and the manager said, sir, you're required to wear a mask. Now, again, I didn't have one, but he wasn't dealing with me. But I think, you know, in situations like that, masks can be used as a power play by the so-called authority figure, in this case, the manager. It's a move that's done all the time by usually powerless people in uniform, like rent-a-cops. You know, it puts you on the defensive and all that. By the way, the manager spoke pretty good English and this gringo spoke zero Spanish.

[02:23] Oh, and just to comment, all the while I was in Mexico, I kept getting complimented from Mexican ladies and guys on my Spanish, even though it's not that good, though passable. In fact, one Latina mentioned that probably only one in 100 gringos can speak passable Spanish, which sort of proves the theory that you get an extra point on the 10 scale if you speak Spanish. Meanwhile, back at the hotel check-in desk, well, that's when things started getting interesting. There were probably seven or eight people up at the counter, all gringos. Oh, and this is in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. So the complaining gringo reluctantly put the mask on and purposely pulled it down so it would droop below his nose. Good move. Then he handed the manager $100 bill and said, please change this for pesos, okay? The manager said, sure, your passport, please. And the gringo said, it's back in my room.

[03:10] You know me, I checked in. And the manager said, well, it's a protocol. You have to have your passport to change money. Then a moment of silence as the gringo fumed. He exploded, he blew up, he got really irate. Three days without hot water in his shower and then needing a passport to change 100 bucks. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. And then the gringo did something I'd never seen anyone do, even in this crazy age of covid. He took the mask up, rolled it into a ball, tossed it at the manager and it bounced right off his chest. He said, you know what, these masks are bullshit. I don't know when, but soon enough, there's gonna be proof and the whole world's gonna know that this was nothing but a show, feel good BS. And all the sheeple, the people like you, yeah, he used the word sheeple. Who bought into the stupid mask crap are gonna feel like idiots.

[03:56] And the manager, you know, he's gotta keep his cool, right? He's just listening with his mask and face shield. And this old gray haired balding pot belly gringo, he must have been 68, 70 years old. He says, and now you want me to go all the way back to my room. Six damn blocks away, get my passport to change 100 bucks into stinking pesos. Here, he said, in the land of narcos, you want my ID? Where narcos, politicians and banks launder billions of dollars each day, you want my ID to change 100 bucks when you got a copy of it already when I checked in? Then the manager keeping his cool, he said, well, it's a rule, it's government protocol, politicas, is the word he used, politicas. Then he turned to us group of gringos and said, can you believe it? They want my passport to change 100 bucks.

[04:43] That ain't right. He was fuming and me while I was enjoying the show. Then he said, they've got a damn copy of my passport. He said, you know what? If my doctor told me today, I had one more day on Earth, just one more day to live. He was talking to the manager again and he was loud. He said, you know what I do? Then he turned to us to make sure we were listening. He saw I was smiling and nodding, kind of egging him on. I like it when gringos get pissed off for the right reasons, of course. Then he said, you know what I'd do if this was my last day on Earth? I'd walk into Congress with a machine gun and I'd plug all the bastards. I'd be a hero. They'd give me a statue. I'd have my own holiday. And then another moment of silence. And I broke the tension. I said, yeah, maybe you would be a hero, but probably not right away.

[05:29] And the manager, man, he was speechless. And the other middle aged gringos and expats standing around. Well, half of them were embarrassed, especially the old ladies. The other half, I could tell they were secretly digging it. Must have been a couple of gun owners in the crowd. And I guess I don't have to tell you that nine out of 10 of them, the ones over, I'd say 30 years old anyway, were obese or noticeably overweight. And two of them I'd notice with extra large Starbucks coffee cups in their hands. Even though we were in an all inclusive hotel where you could get any kind of food or drink for nothing. They had to go across the street to Starbucks and get their fix. I bet for some of them, that little walk was the only physical exercise they got all day. You know, there was a giant gymnasium in that hotel with a hundred machines. Pop my head in a couple of times and I saw two people and a trainer.

[06:16] Both with masks and the trainer with mask and a face shield. Yep, the world has gone f***ing nuts. Anyway, I saw that pissed off guy later in the lounge. He was a pretty talkative guy and I said, I'm with you. You know, I admire you for taking a stand like that, but it's not worth the effort to debate these guys. Did I say snot? Sorry about that. Anyway, I was thinking that it's obvious after a year and a half of this COVID crap, some people refuse to be Lemmings and they're at the end of their ropes. But really, it's not worth the effort to convince people who bought into it. The only legit solution? Vote with your feet. Get that plan B going to get the hell out of Dodge. Let's see, I've been saying that for 11 plus years now. And if you're still on the fence, well, if you want to know what a Lemming looks like,

[07:02] pick up a mirror. Oh, I forgot to tell you that guy had a wife with him. She was sitting in the lounge later too and she told me, the older he gets, the more he embarrasses her. She said for Christmas, she's going to get him a punching bag. And I said, if they've got one with Dr. Falsy's face on it, get me one too. She said it's Fauci, Dr. Fauci. Obviously, she never heard this show. Nuff said about that, but on a related theme. About ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. I understand it's very difficult to get up in the States. There are ways in certain doctors that will prescribe it, but you got to jump through a ton of hoops. And even if you can get it online, we've talked about that before. There are long delays and it's not that cheap. But down here in Latin America, it's everywhere. Practically every pharmacy has both of them without a prescription too. However, I noticed that the pharmacies in Mexico, they gouge you,

[07:49] especially at the airport pharmacies. Yeah, it seems they realize lots of traveling gringos are snuffing up the stuff. So why not nail them with gringo prices? Which still seem reasonable to us. Yep, in Mexico. They've got pharmacies right at the airport. In fact, in the airport at Mexico City, you're walking down the causeway and there's two or three different pharmacies you can choose from. And if you think that people down here in Latin America are not tuned in to ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, well, the pharmacies sure are. And it seems like they're targeting gringos. Right on the windows where they've got their specials and offers. They're promoting them both. With big lettered signs in both Spanish, ivermectina, and English, ivermectin. But get this, when you're at a neighborhood pharmacy in Mexico, not on the tourist trail, they still gouge you.

[08:36] They sell a box of four, six milligram ivermectins for around 13 bucks. Now, why they sell them in such small quantities? Box of four, I don't understand. Because a full treatment for Covidia symptoms is five days. That's two or three six milligram pills a day. So a box of four is two days at the most. So to do the full treatment, you have to buy three boxes, around 40 bucks worth. Now, that's not bad, really, when you think about it. A full treatment for 40 bucks. Meanwhile, in Panama, I bought a hundred of those pills for 40 bucks. So think of it, for the price of 12 six milligram ivermectin in Mexico, you can get a hundred of them in Panama, as well as in a lot of other Latin countries like Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia. They don't come in boxes of four, they come in boxes of 10 or 100.

[09:22] And if you buy a box of 100, which I just did, that'll give you around eight complete five-day treatments. So in Mexico, they're three dollars and 25 cents a pill, and in Panama and elsewhere, around 40 cents a pill. Talk about getting gouged in Mexico, but at least it's available. So in Mexico, off the gringo tourist trail, they're eight times as expensive as in the rest of most of the other Central American countries. But it gets worse. Remember, I said you could buy a pack of four off the tourist trail in Mexico for 13 bucks? Well, at the airport, that very same box of four, 20 bucks, five bucks a pill. Though, obviously, everything is much more expensive at the airport. But hey, as a last-minute purchase on your way back to the States, why not? And if you take two a day, three is better. It'll cost you 10 bucks a day, or for five-day treatment, 50 bucks.

[10:10] Still pretty cheap considering, because as said in a previous show, it'll probably cost you around 150 bucks for one treatment if you got it somehow in the States. In the States, half of that cost or more would be for the doctor's consultation to get the prescription, but in the rest of Latin America. In Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, and elsewhere here in Latin America, not including Mexico, where you get gouged. A full five-day course will cost you only four bucks. That's four bucks versus 50 bucks. That is, if you get stuck buying them at the airport in Mexico. But again, the good news is that you can get them down here over the counter at practically any pharmacy, whether you get gouged in Mexico or buy them at a tenth of the price in Honduras, Colombia, practically any other Latin country. And the same thing goes with hydroxychloroquine.

[10:58] For some reason, a full five-day treatment is even much cheaper than ivermectin, if you can believe that. And the most common presentation for hydroxychloroquine is 200 milligram tablets. And to prevent or diminish covidic symptoms, you take 200 milligrams a day for five days. So one a day for five days is considered one treatment. And those things generally come in boxes of 20 that'd be four full covidic treatments. About 40 bucks over the counter in Mexico and 10 bucks or less over the counter everywhere else in Latin America. It really is astonishing why the prices are so high in Mexico, but it certainly points to the gringo effect. The only thing i can think is that there are so many gringos coming down buying this stuff and heading back to the states, they're basically just charging what the traffic will bear. And so far, every gringo and expat i know who bought this stuff,

[11:45] whether in Mexico or Guatemala or wherever, and have taken it back to the states, they've never been stopped and never had any problem getting it past customs, though no one i know has taken back more than a box of 100 at a time. In fact, i know of some gringos and expats down here who've bought this stuff, packaged it up, send it through their courier company back to their friends, family, and folks up north. Doing it that way might cost 10 or 15 bucks to ship. So then how successful is that? Well i've heard it gets through at least half the time. I imagine a lot depends on the number you send and the way you package it. So think of it, if you've got a 50-50 chance of getting it through, then for ivermectin, if one would just buy up a box of 100, split it into two packs of 50, they come in nice flat blister packs, 10 to a pack. So they're easy to pack. If you send two packages each at a different time,

[12:32] one's bound to get through. As Clint Eastwood would say, are you feeling lucky? So then is that illegal? Well, probably. Up in the states, both ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine are scheduled drugs prescription only. And i'm not suggesting you do anything illegal, but this show is all about how gringos live, love, play, and do business here in Latin America. And all the little tricks and hacks they pull too. You know, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the great. So anyway, what you've just heard is for informational purposes only. Just so you know, the ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine thing are on the minds of many gringos and expats today. The smart ones are stocking up. All right, now let's talk about gringo, expat, wannabes, and gonabes. How sometimes their desires and wishes don't pan out once they're down here in Latin America. This is all about real estate in Latin America

[13:19] and how you can't always get what you want. You know, over the years, I've heard from dozens of gringo expats and wannabes who tell me about the dream home they hope to find in Latin America. Whichever country they'll end it. For example, one newly retired gringo asked how much he would have to pay for a house with a detached garage connected by a breezeway with an apartment above it set in the middle of a two-acre manicured lawn. Because he really enjoys spending a couple days a week on his riding mower taking care of his grass and his lawn. And that's how he wants to live when he gets to Latin America. Another picky person, this time a gringo wannabe, said she needed a place where she can ride her bicycle to the nearest Starbucks. Pick up the paper, sit by the ocean, read the paper to the sounds of the pounding surf, Starbucks coffee in hand.

[14:05] With a nearby health club and Starbucks being a must for her. And then you've got gringo real estate agents in Latin America. They're everywhere, mostly in tourist areas. If you talk to them, they'll tell you stories about gringo wannabes and gonabes, some with lots of money, sending hundreds of pictures down of their own deluxe neighborhoods, big lawns and estates, pictures of custom pools, fountains, even waterfalls in the backyard. These are people with dough, people accustomed to a certain kind of luxury that will accept nothing less than what they have up in the States only they want it in the tropics. So they tell the real estate agent down there, please find me a comparable property like this. They'll tell you stories of expat gonabes and wannabes looking for two or three acre hobby farms that must be close to a freeway within 15 or 20 minutes from a Walmart,

[14:52] Costco, Health Glove and Big Mall. All that on a budget of two grand or 2,500 a month. Oh, and gringo realtors down here in Latin America will tell you that many, many expat wannabes and gonabes will have on their wish list that the people in the malls must speak English because their Spanish sucks and they don't believe they'll be able to pick it up. Well, needless to say, people with bucket lists like that are not gonna find what they're looking for in Latin America unless they live directly on the gringo tourist trail. Then they're gonna pay gringo prices for everything because with few exceptions, big lawns surrounding a suburban house do not exist in Latin America, not like you see them up in the States. And even if those things did exist, it would be scandalous for a homeowner to be seen tooling around on a riding lawnmower. In fact, I don't think in the 30 plus years

[15:38] I've been down here, I've ever seen anyone on a riding lawnmower except a worker at a golf course. Latinos would be stumped as to buy a rich gringo. I mean, we're all rich gringos, right? Especially those who have nice houses in big yards. That's how they stereotype us. They'd be stumped as to why a rich gringo would wanna spend hours of their time mowing a lawn or in fact, doing any yard work or gardening at all. Since down here in Latin America, the wealthy classes have gardeners and maintenance guys. For Latinos, gardening and yard work is a job. They only do it because they have to. In fact, I've never met a Latino whose hobby was gardening. Though I haven't met a few upper-class Latinas whose hobby was growing orchids. But they had a maintenance guy or a gardener doing the dirty work. The ladies, they'd tell you they grew orchids but they'd never get their hands dirty.

[16:24] Now, as for bike riding on designated paths and stopping at Starbucks and hanging out, well, you're only gonna find that kind of action in heavily gringoized areas. Though there are places especially on or very near the Pan-American Highway through Central America, where it's possible to drive from your hobby farm to a mall within a few minutes. In fact, I lived and had a house in that kind of place myself in Guatemala. But you're not gonna be able to find those places without a lot of help. And the truth is, the only way you're gonna get absolutely first-world style housing exactly the way you want it. Who knows, you might be in the door and want a funky custom pool, perhaps a waterfall or two, a sauna maybe, bidets in the bathroom. Maybe you're hot on fountains, ponds, koi fish, rock gardens, and all that kind of stuff. Those kind of properties need to be built from scratch.

[17:11] Those kind of places don't exist in Latin American real estate listings. And you're most likely gonna have to bring the plans down yourself and work it out with a local architect. Since local Latinos, even local Latino architects and builders, don't build with the idea of that kind of luxury. Bottom line, don't expect to find the same types of properties and neighborhoods in Latin America that you're used to seeing in Milwaukee, Cleveland, and upstate New York. Though many of the newer condos, townhouses, and residential towers have similar floor plans and furnishings as their counterparts up in the States. Still, as you heard me say many times before, Latinos are short on the details. Though the more you are on the gringo tourist trail, the more closely architects and builders copy first world styles and furnishings. Some are pretty good at it too,

[17:57] because the more gringos and expats, the more demand for that kind of stuff. For example, and you've heard me say this before, practically every house, apartment, and suite in a residential tower has a tiny little maid's quarter built in, sometimes with a separate entrance. They're generally full, but tiny one bedroom apartments with a bathroom, a closet, and a sitting area. And since gringos and expats are totally unaccustomed to having something like that in their own homes and apartments up in the States, nearly all of us end up using that little apartment as a storage space, ends up being a place for tools, buckets, and paint canes. In fact, I don't know of a single gringo or expat who uses that place for what it was intended for, a live-in maid. Though I know plenty of Latino families who use it for just that. The crazy thing is, even Latinos with apartments under a thousand square feet often have live-in maids.

[18:44] In fact, I've known Latinos making only a thousand or twelve hundred bucks a month that have a live-in maid. Whereas practically all of us gringos and expats, even the very wealthy ones. We have maids all right, but they're not live-ins. They come in a couple days a week or maybe every day. But it seems none of us can get used to the idea of having one live-in with us 24-7. It really takes some getting used to. The exception being gringos and expats that I've known who've married upscale Latinas. And since the new Latina wife has always been used to having live-in maids, they kind of forced the issue. In fact, one of my good buddies who was in that situation, he married an upscale Latina. She was a child of the rich helicopter schools all her life and all that. He told me when they got married and first moved into their new place,

[19:30] one of the live-in cleaning ladies from her parents' house came along with the deal. So basically my buddy inherited one. My friend told me it was a tough thing to get used to. Not being able to walk around your own house in your birthday suit or even your underwear. He said he even felt a bit self-conscious while cursing, even though she didn't understand any of his English curse words. Think about it. Having a personal live-in maid looks pretty cool in the movies, but it's quite an adjustment for the average gringo and involves a loss of privacy. You won't know until it happens to you. So watch what you wish for. And as for me, in my 30-plus years down here, I've always had maids. But only once did I have a live-in maid that was on a trial basis and only lasted two months, thank God. It was a relief when she told me she was moving back to her Pueblo to get married. All right, now let's talk a little bit

[20:15] about inflation here in Latin America. Yep, it's hitting and hitting hard. I don't have to tell you about inflation up where you are right now. You know it's not what the government says it is. They're lying as usual. We've talked in a past show how the U.S. government has rearranged the stats to calculate inflation to their benefit, not ours. And how if you click back 30 years or so ago and recalculate inflation stats the way they used to do it for so many years. It's not really four or five percent, as the government tells us. It's more like 20 or 25. And of course, they don't blame the increase on bad malignant government. They blame it on COVID and supply chain disruptions. Anyway, according to the International Monetary Fund, who also pad their statistics, all those big quasi-government organizations are malignant and corrupt. But you got to go by something. Anyway, they're saying that Brazil, Chile,

[21:02] Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, the so-called LA5, Latin American big five, are wavering between 8 and 10.5 percent inflation year over year, with food prices in the big five having risen more than 18 percent on average. And that really hits the average Latin American family hard because they spend about a quarter of their incomes on food. Now, we're not talking about the upper 10 or 15 percent of Latin Americans who make a lot more than the minimum wage of three to 400 bucks a month. Middle class in Latin America would be the working poor up in the States. For example, just the other day, I was talking to a dermatologist married to a dentist, both of them 32 or 33 years old. The dermatologist makes around 20,000 bucks a year. That's a dermatologist specialist. And the dentist, around 15 grand a year.

[21:48] So between them, they make around 35 grand a year. That's poverty wages up in the States, but upper middle class here in Latin America. And part of the reason they're considered upper middle class is because they're in such a low tax bracket. They were telling me how together they pay less than 10 percent in income taxes. And when I told them and tried to explain that the average American is in the 50 percent tax bracket. You heard me talk about that before. We pay over 100 different kinds of taxes. These licenses, surcharges, tolls, doesn't matter what they name it. Any money you pay to the government is a tax no matter what they call it. So look at it this way. If the dentist and the dermatologist make 35 grand a year together, it's like making 60 or 65 grand up in the States. Still no great shakes, but by first world standards, solidly middle class. So then what about the really poor people in Latin America?

[22:36] You'll find the poorest of Latin Americans are indigenous. The indigenous population in Latin America, that's 30 to 40 percent of Latin Americans, most of them work off the books. That means they don't pay income taxes. They spend from 30 to 40 percent of their income on food. Whereas the average American spends around six and a half percent of his income on food. That is when they buy food at grocery stores. And about four percent of his income on fast food and restaurants. That means North Americans spend about 10 percent of their income on food. That of course includes those ridiculous eight dollar cafe mocha de java frat pay almond milk super sized lattes. That might perpetually broke Chicago based sisters drink. No thanks, I'll take the locally grown Guatemalan highland coffee at a buck and a half a cup. Same stuff, Starbucks sells for eight and much pressure.

[23:23] Don't believe it? Come on down, get some boots on the ground and see for yourself. So yes, due to terrible government mismanagement, the world is being hit by a big wave of inflation and it's not going to stop. There's nothing transitory or temporary about it. No matter what Tweety Bird Yellen says. What does a real inflation rate of 15, 20, even 25 percent mean to a bunch of sociopathic, parasitic, power-hungry crooks like her and Jerome Powell? Look, when you get 300,000 bucks for a speaking engagement and all that comes out of your mouth is halitosis, vomit, and dribble. You have to realize the cancer is terminal and to the bone. We're in the ninth inning of the American empire. There's two strikes, two outs, no one on base, jerk off Joe Biden is up and he thinks he's at a football game. But I digress as usual. Where were we? Oh yeah, inflation.

[24:10] So Latin Americans are feeling the crunch of the prices going up at the grocery store. So then what are they doing about it? Well, the only thing they can, they're eating less and less junk food. Time will tell though if the people are actually getting any slimmer. Meanwhile, Latino mothers are still making home cooked meals. Visit any Latin American kitchen and you'll see pots on the stove, rice, pollo, beans, soups, the basics, simmering away. People aren't starving, not even the odd vagabond on the street. Speaking of running into street people, you know, I power walk about five miles a day when it's raining, I get on the treadmill. Been doing that at least 25 years now, except when I'm traveling around vacation. And even with all this COVID-8 crap and inflation, I haven't noticed any kind of increase in vagabonds or street people. I mean, look, in any city or town there's always going to be street people. Even in the Bible, Jesus says the poor will always be with us.

[24:58] You know, somebody ought to read that passage to Representative Occasional Cortex. But back to vagabonds, bums, and street people. You can still call them bums, can't you? Well, I do. Well, you know, I get emails from gringo wannabes and gonabes asking me about the situation with bums in Latin America. They're thinking there's got to be tons of them, right? With so many people considered poor. Well, it's the strangest thing. There's so few street people off the gringo tourist trail and so many. The more the gringo is congregating a place. Street people may be shiftless, but they ain't dumb. And you know, I don't know if this is happening up in the States, but every medium, small, and large town has their street corners where you get those windshield washers and wipers, as well as street performers like machete jugglers and people hawking stuff. Have you got those up there?

[25:44] Now, at first glance, and if it's your first time down, you might think they're bums or vagabonds, but they're not. They don't take handouts. They're working for a living. They're making money. Sure, they're just scraping by. They're living low, but they've got their pride and you'd be making a big mistake confusing them for common street people. Bums. There's a difference. Bums are guys who pick through garbage and ask for handouts. Speaking of handouts, you know, Latinos are very generous, especially older ladies. Even lower middle class and poor Latinas will often hand a plate of rice and beans or a juice to a local bum that's walking by. Hell, every neighborhood has a local bum or two. They're institutions, right? In my neighborhood up in Chicago, when I was a kid, we had John the bum and Bing. And Bing, he was toothless, but he had talent. He could sing like Bing Crosby, hence the name Bing. He was a happy guy. If you bought him a hot dog

[26:29] or gave him something off your plate, he'd belt out a number. But as for the neighborhood bums here in Latin America, I can't tell you how many times I've seen a bum propped up against a building eaten from a plastic takeaway container. Obviously, some nice guy or guy who'd just been to a restaurant gave him their doggy bag or even bought a meal for him. Latinos are big on that. They're big on help and the poor. Now, they don't give money like gringos would do. They give him food. Latinos seem to instinctively know if you give a bum some money, he'll go buy some booze. But if you give him food, he'll eat it. Man, us gringos could learn a lesson there.