#1122 – The Expat Files: Belize, Medical Emergencies, and Water Contamination

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 ex-pat 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 All right first a few emails and then we'll get to the stuff That's guaranteed to piss off the woke stirs in the toxic malignant Twitter mob first this from Patty. She says Johnny Let me start by saying I really love the podcast I'm also politically incorrect and out-of-the-box thinking libertarian so it's great to listen to someone who speaks my language

[00:49] I also appreciate how much I've learned by listening over the past six months or so Anyway last year I listened to a book by Kathleen pedicord entitled how to retire overseas Which was a pretty exhaustive book covering pretty much everything you might need to consider before moving out of the states after listening to that book I'm considering my own situation and I really am leaning towards moving to Belize I know Belize is north of Guatemala, but I've never heard you say anything about it on your podcast Would you be willing to share your thoughts about it? Thanks in advance sign Patty Well, Patty, thanks for that But since you've only been listening to the show about six months if you go back a year or two or three or five or seven Back into the archives. You'll see I've mentioned Belize many times I've also been there many times

[01:35] In fact, the very first bad taste I got in my mouth about Belize was the very first time I crossed the border in a car. I was going from Guatemala to the Mexican Mayan Riviera You know Tulum play at all Carmen Cancun all those vacation spots And the easiest way if you're driving from Guatemala is take a shortcut through Belize It's about four hours. At least I thought it was gonna be smooth sailing You swing through Belize City, which is a dump then swing north to the Mexican border And then you're in the Mayan Riviera. It sounds so easy. Huh four hours on the road Oh and once you get Mexico It's a beautiful ride because the highway goes right along the ocean for at least a couple hundred kilometers So anyway soon as I got across the border to Belize from Guatemala They made you stop at a little hut of an insurance office

[02:22] Well, it turns out they instantly gouge you for close to a hundred bucks because you see they've got a swindle going That you have to buy Belizean insurance to drive in that country Even if you're gonna drive for two minutes in and out doesn't matter how much insurance you have on your car from some other country It's not legal in Belize even though Belizeans with cars practically none of them have insurance You have to get it as a foreigner driving in and you can't just buy it for three or four hours or a day You got to buy it for the whole month oh, and by the way They won't let you take a rental car from Guatemala to Belize or for that matter from Belize if you run a car there to Guatemala It's all about border and land disputes that have been going on for years. You see traditionally Guatemala's think they own Belize

[03:09] That is that Belize is Guatemalan territory because it used to be a long time ago And the Belizeans think they own a chunk of Guatemala It's an age-old discussion even though the borders are sound and we're drawn over 50 years ago Oh, and I should tell you that every single gringo I've ever known who's lived in Belize or have gone on vacation in Belize have a robbery theft or extortion story Except in those little islands off Belize called the Cays That's where most wealthy Americans and Europeans live though few live there year-round What you've got there is mostly turnkey condos for people who only come down Week or a month or during certain seasons of the year They've got first world marinas there to where wealthy gringos dock their boats Oh, and if you want to live there, it's more than first world expensive

[03:56] And though most of your neighbors will be first world doctors and lawyers and such you might never see your neighbors because for them It's a second or third vacation home Believe me the only way to live a first-world life on a Belize K is to make first-world money or have a first-world pension You won't be able to do it on a social security check Sure, you can live on the Belize mainland easily on a social security check, but believe me It's a young person's game You don't want to grow old in Belize because they got very poor health care facilities In fact the last time I checked they've only got one board certified on colleges living permanently in the whole country Thing is their medical system is very basic very rudimentary Why because they don't have a medical school in Belize that means they don't turn out their own doctors

[04:44] They got to import them all and because it's such a poor country I believe it's the fourth poorest amongst Latin American countries number one being Venezuela to Haiti three Cuba and then Belize and for that reason it's very difficult to get doctors and medical professionals to want to move there So what they do is import a lot of them from Cuba nothing wrong with that But the hospitals and clinics in Belize are very short on the latest technology Which brings us back to the statement I made earlier Living in Belize is a young person's game because once you hit around 50 years old you start thinking about your health Ask anyone who's half a century old. That's when things start going wrong Let me tell you if you have a heart attack in Belize Even if your next-door neighbors a New York heart specialist remember

[05:29] He's not going to be down there visiting but one or two weeks a year not to mention He's a thousand miles away from his first world hospital or clinic So then what happens if there's an emergency well if you've got dough and good insurance They'll airlift you to a hospital in Mexico or Guatemala and hopefully you'll survive the trip So I don't really care how many positive write-ups or blogs you've been reading about Belize If you're over 50 and you've got any kind of chronic or serious medical condition at all well You're taking a chance. The thing is Belize says less than a half million people in the whole country And that means the whole infrastructure in the country basically sucks They haven't got the money the machines attack or the qualified manpower to bring the country into the 21st century Now, of course, if you're a backpacker have a really laid-back lifestyle Belize can be just fine and really cheap

[06:19] As long as you don't live on the case Then again, you're sure to be SOL if you have a stroke or heart attack You can dial 9-1-1 and if you're in the city the ambulance will come but if you're out in the boonies It might not come till tomorrow The next reason Belize is a plan B is not a very good idea for modern Americans is that there's almost no Variety in the local stores sure. They've got all the essentials, but there are no big chain stores No, Walmart's Costco's Sam's clubs or Ace Hardware's. I know I know some of us hate those places But sometimes we have to go there to get what we want So you can get what you need the basics, but what you want That's another story on if you're into theater concerts art galleries and great restaurants and cultural experiences forget about it and believe as Mentioned with less than a half million people in the whole country

[07:06] Cultural events for first world people as we know them are pretty much non-existent though There are plenty of annual festivals with local music and carnival style traditions Most gringles and expats get bored of that stuff pretty fast So if you're looking for cultural diversions and distractions forget about Belize So add that to the poor infrastructure and limited services you'll find if you do select Belize as your plan B, you'll be rough in it a lot of the time and The upscale amenities they have are basically for tourists just pop it in for a week or two However, if you're a backpacker or laid-back beachcomber or just want to retire into the sunset Belize could be for you though. I have to admit every gringo on expat I know who simply retires into the sunset with nothing to do soon enough

[07:52] He starts drinking way too much. No lie It's happened to quite a few of my gringo expat buddies and one last thing patty that article you referenced by Kathleen pedicord You know her background She's been a charter member and backbone of international living for some 20 or 30 years now and for ages now International living's been pushing Costa Rica Belize and Ecuador So you've definitely missed out on any early opportunities in other words forget about getting in on the ground floor of anything Now if you heard last week's show you remember what I said about international living, right? They always tried to lead newbie green gringos into their hand-picked land and real estate projects They're not in business to be your friend or hold your hand through the plan B process unless they get paid They've got a big staff. So they've got big overhead. Oh and one last thing about beliefs

[08:40] Here's a close-to-home story a gringo acquaintance of mine a world traveler He must have been to 50 countries Well, he was coming down to one of my expat insider seminars flying in from the UK And he decided to first stop in Belize before the seminar because he'd never been there before wanted to check it out Well, he landed at the airport checked into his beach hotel and not a cheap one either He dropped his bags at the check-in desk took a walk out back by the pool and kept walking till he got to the sand In the ocean. That's what a lot of people do when they first land in their hotel before they even check in sometimes Well within minutes two guys walked up to him assaulted him and took his iPhone. Maybe it's a record I don't know But he said that he'd only been in the country one hour before he got robbed in broad daylight, too So just remember this I know some gringos and expats who live in Belize and every last one of them has been extorted

[09:31] One of those guys explained it like this He thinks it's because gringos and expats instantly let their guard down because the locals speak English In fact, when you talk to gringos and expats who live there That's the big draw the primary reason they moved there because it's the only Latin American country where English is their first language It's a big draw for lots of gringos and expats Especially older gringos and expats who don't think they'll ever be able to learn decent enough Spanish to move to a country like Guatemala Panama Colombia, etc, etc But if you ask me, I think moving to a country just because the locals speak English that could be a factor But shouldn't be your main reason. It's not a very sound basis for a plan B Though at least the expats and Belize did pull the trigger and got the hell out of Dodge They got that going for him However, I've met enough gringos and expats who moved to Belize and stayed there a while and decided to go back to the states

[10:21] That makes you wonder Proving the point that you have to live at least six months in a given Latin American country before you should ever consider Buying land or real estate because if you decide to go back to the states or move You have to remember most of the real estate market here in Latin America is cash So if you own a place and decide to put it up for sale It could take you a year or two to sell the place and it's not because you won't have lots of interest You will but buyers with cash very difficult to find in fact the last house I sold I think was two years ago now It was up for sale for over a year and I had offers the first five in fact Offered cash with some farmland or cash with a couple of cars or some cash in a beachfront lot Or they had some cash and wanted you to give them a mortgage for the rest

[11:08] But those are not clean deals So remember that if you buy some land or real estate in Latin America and you feel like you have to dump it For whatever reason it's not at all like up in the states where everyone could get a mortgage with five or ten percent down So just know if you buy a place you should be thinking about staying in it for the long haul because flipping properties down here is Almost unheard of be patient. It'll sell but it might take a year or two and now an email from Dave Yeah, another Dave. He says Johnny. I don't know if you're bringing your seminar this time to Lake Atit land Guatemala, you know the first or maybe second most beautiful lake in the world if you are bringing them there Johnny I can make a plea as to why they should start the Guatemalan residency process immediately. I'm certain that's the way to go I'm also renting an entire house and I can show them what six hundred and fifty bucks a month. We'll get them

[11:57] Now I think I'm paying a little more than some for the size only because it has an enclosed garage I have a car a motorcycle a scooter and a bicycle which I like to keep clean and protected That's why the garage and why I rent this place Anyway, Johnny says let me know if you want me to talk to your group if you bring them to Lake Atit land I'm in panachella in the lake, but technically who Kanye right outside of it If you're gonna take them to the barbecue in San Pedro, I'll shoot over there for sure sign Dave Well, Dave, thanks for the offer. But the seminar group is not going to Lake Atit land Simply because it's a two and a half to three hour ride off our planned route, but because I highly recommend the area It's a must-see and for some people a great plan B destination

[12:43] Anyway, Dave some of our attendees have plans to go there and check it out Those are people though who are staying on extra days after the seminar so they can fit it into the schedule Talk about getting off the radar if that's what you had in mind if you live in one of the little towns around Lake Atit land There's 12 or so of them You could pretty much restructure your life and get way under the radar. You can virtually blend in and disappear I can't think of very many places in the world where you can still do that and still have access to Everything you need to live like a first world person. Anyway, Dave, thanks again for the offer But you know in all the 18 seminars have done so far We've never gone to Lake Atit land for the seminar itself though after every seminar There's always a group that stays on to check it out

[13:28] And the fact is you really have to spend at least three days there and do some town hopping Utilizing those little boat taxis. It's a real eye-opener and tons of fun There is a surprise around every corner and as we're real estate there you have to see it to believe it And now an email from he calls himself the six-foot pole You know being from Chicago. I get it I have lots of Polish friends up there and they all to a person called each other pollocks Kind of like black people call each other the n-word as they seem to love to do in some ways It's like the word gringo. It could be a friendly greeting or a nasty insult It's all in how Latinos say it if for example some Latino on the street says how you doing gringo? Nothing wrong with that, but if he says how you doing gringo. There's a slightly toxic edge to that

[14:14] Oh, and one thing I've noticed in my many years down here in Latin America Latinas the local ladies almost never use the word gringo not to your face anyway Until they get to know you a bit and when they do they're very careful about not making it sound offensive But Latino men they use it all the time So then how do latinas refer to us they call us a maricanos even though they're Americans to South or Central Americans? And as gringos and Canadians are North Americans. It doesn't matter. They'll call us a maricanos That means gringos born in the USA. Oh, and there's another sort of odd Linguistic convention I've noticed when you're sitting with a bunch of Latinos or Latinas And they're talking about a friend of theirs that may have married a North American and moved to the states

[15:00] If they say he or she married a gringo or gringa, that means they married a white North American However, if they say so-and-so family member married in Estados uni dense That most likely means they married a Latino or Latina living up in the states It doesn't matter how many generations a Latino family has lived up in the states They'll never be considered gringos by Latinos living in Central and South America There'll be Estados uni denses American citizens, but they'll never be gringos or gringas So the terms gringo and gringa imply homegrown Caucasian Americans and black Americans They're Americanos Negros, but I digress man Did I digress back to this email from our six-foot pole by the way here in Latin America?

[15:45] Polish people are called Polakos. Anyway, our emailer says Engineer Johnny, you're busy with the seminar coming up for sure. So I'll keep it quick I need some advice from Johnny the engineer this time You see we have very hard water where we live here in Mexico So much so that sometimes it's easier to thrash bash and trash my dishes rather than clean them the usual way So I was wondering if you have any suggestion for water treatment systems other than water softeners like the ones the collagen man installs What is your take on those for example? Capacitive electronic descalers Then he gives me a link to one of these on Amazon The good ones are around 300 bucks and if you're a do-it-yourself or you could install it yourself Though if you call a plumber a Latin plumber, of course, you're talking about Latin America here

[16:32] They'll install it and maybe do it right, but they won't know what the hell it is They'll most certainly have never seen one before though. They will have seen the usual suspect collagen water softeners I'm sure you've seen those or one or two big steel tanks that sit in your basement or garage They're basically loaded with a bunch of pellets kind of salt pellets Some upscale Latino families have them installed down here, but very few They are available at pool supply places You'll find if you wash your hands with salt water from one of those collagen units or similar ones The water can feel kind of slippery and slimy But the worst thing for me is that it puts salt into the water and add a lot and you won't notice it if you're used To eating a lot of salty things But if you don't put salt on anything you'll notice because you know, it's an ion exchange system

[17:18] It's taking out the calcium and magnesium and putting salt into the water You know what that can do to your health and blood pressure Anyway, I've lived many many years in Central America and it's volcano country. So the water is pretty hard So yes, you do get some hard scum buildup in the pipes and on dishes and sinks bathtubs and shower stalls So in some houses, especially older houses Boyce lens sinks toilets and faucets can start looking pretty nasty and when it builds up but can be murdered or clean It's nasty work and it takes a harsh acid like muratic acid Which is why 99% of Latinos threw in the towel a long time ago and they don't bother They just live with it now You might think I'm a little anal about this But I hate looking at scum called saro down here that builds up on pipes and sinks

[18:05] So in the last couple of houses I've built I installed black porcelain fixtures and toilets Of course, they're a little more expensive But not only do they look pretty classy that is if there ever could be a situation where you could call it toilet classy Anyway, it's just cosmetic. The hard water stains are there, but you can't see them. They're invisible I want to complete that anal picture. I'm paying for you All the dishes cups and saucers in my house are either dark gray or black So any mineral stains just never show up Of course, if you use things like clear wine glasses, you'll get some mineral spotting on those if they're air dried So of course that will happen if you put them in the dishwasher in that case you just tell your cleaning lady to towel dry them then you'll never have any stains and After every shower you should wipe down the shower stall too and you'll never have those stains

[18:53] If you have a cleaning lady, you can let her do all that and if you don't maybe you'll get over it Maybe you won't though I've spoken to a few gringo ladies here living in Latin America who really do fret a bit and get slightly embarrassed when company comes Over and have a look at the sink in the toilet though I haven't met too many male gringo expats who cared about it either way for sure They're not gonna towel dry their dishes So my advice if you're anal about such things get a cleaning lady or you might consider getting one of those Capacitive electronic water descaler systems as our six-foot pole emailer pointed out My take on those things there are fairly new technology and don't actually soften the water or remove any of the hardness or minerals They just change the electric charge on the minerals flowing through so they don't stick to your pipes fixtures plates and utensils

[19:41] But here's a problem if you're living in an older house and switch to that system It probably won't do any good because your pipes in the walls are all scaled up already and those systems won't remove the scale That's already built up in your pipes Minerals will keep leeching out best bet is to install one of those systems in a brand new house That's got brand new pipes and fixtures, then you'll probably be quite satisfied I know some people have done that and it's worked fine And as for dropping 300 bucks on the unit Like I said forget about it if it's an older house if it's new try it if I ever build another house I'll install one for sure by the way after being down here in Latin America 30 plus years now. I've seen so many horrifically stained toilets and sinks that I thought to myself many times There's got to be a way to coat a toilet or a sink in the manufacturing process with something like Teflon

[20:30] White or red or black whatever color your sinks and fixtures are so it's not noticeable and blends right in it the obvious Reasoning being to repel those hard water minerals well. I talked to one of my engineering buddies. He said materials engineer He said I think we could do it patented and would be a great success half the world has hard water Not just Latin America parts of Europe have it really bad So a few years back we discussed the Teflon and or another kind of coating for porcelain fixtures But as these things go when the engineers and techies get together We're always thinking of great new ideas But no matter how excited we get in the moment by the next morning 99% of those ideas have faded away But back to our six-foot poles email. He says Johnny while on the topic of water I'd love your own water filtration set of plants ideally with some tips for dealing with heavy arsenic and fluoride contamination

[21:22] We have very high levels here in Guaratero and Guananito Mexico then he sends me a link pointing out just how Contaminated more than half of the wells in Mexico are let me read a couple scary excerpts here for you It starts out with a quote from a doctor talking to a mother He says lady your daughter is too young to be urinating arsenic Turns out Fernanda Gonzalez was only 15 years old and an analysis reported heavy concentrations of arsenic in her urine Twice what is considered internationally safe as a level of risk Then it says researchers soon analyzed the urine of 275 people in the region and found Levels of arsenic 10 to 30 times that WHO's recognized limit

[22:08] With one mother and son exceeding the limit by 47 times. That's an excess of 4,700% Researchers are reporting the source of arsenic to be hundreds of abandoned mines The studies have also shown that high levels of arsenic and fluoride have reached wells in most of Mexico In amounts much higher than the maximum allowable levels set by the WHO Me Johnny here. Yeah, like we trust the WHO who are more than partially to blame for the Covid it disaster Anyway, then it says even back in 2018 four years ago 41% of all well sampled in Mexico exceeded international risk levels for arsenic and fluoride by

[22:54] 2018 the majority of Mexican states Reported drinking water with excessive levels of fluoride putting the population at high risk for dental Fluorosis and the weakening of bones by the way, it says there are 1256 water treatment plants in Mexico But only one in ten remove arsenic and fluoride and from tap water Arsenic passes into food that's cooked with it and everyone cooks with tap water That's why researchers are discovering it in beans salsa and even in soup even worse. There are wells with fluoride concentrations that are 6400 percent more than the agreed upon international safe limits if you're wondering about excessive fluoride It makes people docile and stupid then it says because Mexico has so much arsenic in the water

[23:42] They've lowered their standards and allow more than double the limit of the WHO International risk standards with the international limit point zero one milligrams per liter of arsenic in Mexico It's point zero zero two five And the fact is it should be zero because metals accumulate in your body It will do damage with by the way one of the first signs of exposure to too much arsenic the appearance of large moles on your skin Yeah, and according to the Center for research and advanced materials with slow arsenic poisoning symptoms of the disease do not appear for 10 15 or even 20 years then it says this is very scary much of the arsenic laid in Water that's drunk in Mexico exceeds 70 times the permissible limit by the WHO It was first detected in 17 Mexican states in 2012 and by 2018 had progressed to 24

[24:33] Mexican states and remember Mexico has got 31 states That means more than three quarters of the country's contaminated with researchers saying even that's not a complete picture The estimates are based on only a few wells sampled not from the thousands and thousands of wells operating in the country It's a huge underestimation of the real burden of exposure and diseases for the country as a whole Said the spokesman for the research team Then it says in recently testing the water supply for Guadalajara One of the most populated and upscale cities in Mexico It turns out the plant that supplies most of the domestic water network for the city Has between one and a half and two and a half times the maximum permissible level set for arsenic by the WHO And five times the permissible level for fluoride and now for the topper the scariest part of all it turns out

[25:24] Independent studies have already taken samples from water bottlers and concluded that the population is also ingesting high levels of arsenic in their bottled water In an analysis done by the national polytechnic institute testing 30 different bottled water suppliers They found with all the bottled water companies the international norms for fluoride were exceeded and six out of ten That's 60 of all the bottled water suppliers had arsenic levels beyond the WHO international limit Oh and get this it says crops are irrigated with arsenic and fluoride laden water, too Despite the fact that those chemicals mostly remain in the root and the stem of the crop such as lettuce Jalapenos, etc, etc

[26:11] Chemicals do reach other parts of the plant And finally it says that samples were taken from 600 bottles of a popular mineral water called penafil Obtained from grocery stores in helasco and mexico city all showed excessive levels of arsenic Because of that it was removed from the shelves in the united states in 2019 though still on the shelves to this day in mexico Hmm like we really need 20 more reasons not to set up our plan b in mexico, huh? What a tragedy, but if you live in mexico, what do you do? Well, you can capture rain water with your own big old cistern. I do that in my house You could buy a nice under-the-counter water purification system or build the one that I recommend Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com and i'll send you the plans

[26:57] Of course, that means never cooking with tap water. Well, what about restaurants? They always cook with tap water Oh, and you probably figured this out already make your own bottled water Oh and before I forget one more comment from our six-foot poll He says johnny speaking of the seminar do attendees get to meet you personally and shake your hand or do you only appear? Remotely as a shadow or on a screen Well, mr. P I'm at the seminar the entire time stay at the same hotel and even sometimes pick up people at the airport Though if I catch a recording the seminar or filming me you'll be restricted to a mexican bottled water diet You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america If you need some help with your own plan b we can schedule a one-on-one phone or skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com

[27:44] And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week-long expat insider seminar in central america Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan b send me an email the expat files at gmail.com No spamos