#1171 – The Expat Files: Navigating Expat Life in Latin America

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. Let's see how many people we can offend today I'm sure we will by the way the show might be a little noisy here and there you might hear some hissing and clicks and Pops and stuff because I'm on the road bear with me on that next show will be back to normal Let's start out with this email from Kurt. It's a long one. So we'll cut out the parts that seem boring

[00:49] He starts dear. Mr. J Expat Kurt K here don't use my real last name, please He says I took your advice and got my plan be going a couple years back I've been living in Mexico three years and counting now and ready to ditch San Miguel alliende Mexico and Mexico in general though. I'll never go back to the US I don't want to live on the gringo tourist trail anymore either It was a nice to soft landing in the beginning, but it does wear on you He says first things first lately, you've been talking about Venezuelans escaping their country Well, I've noticed a great and growing community of Venezuelans here in San Miguel, too He says I know a few of them now and most of them are professionals who are fleeing personally I've noticed they are more cultured educated and well-spoken than the local native middle and lower class Mexicans

[01:36] I see on a daily basis He says I even hear local Mexicans especially uber and Lyft drivers come right out and say it too They look at Venezuelans as sort of higher class Latino citizens who've had a streak of terrible luck to me It's very obvious Even though many Venezuelans are struggling and working at crap jobs here well below their abilities in education They maintain their dignity and put on no errors of superiority Even though they have every right to do so based on their higher education in good manners Part of the reason I think why they seem so humble is because they're so embarrassed about their failed country They'll come right out and tell you the country was destroyed by socialism But they can't figure out how it happened so fast in a country so rich even the smartest ones will admit that they too fell Hook line and sinker for what Chavez was telling him back around the year

[02:24] 2000 when he preached how the big foreign oil companies with their big refineries in Venezuela like British Petroleum Texaco, etc. Etc. We're taking too much of the oil profits It's about time to kick them out. He said and put our own guys in we all went along with that at first What a horrible mistake now one in four Venezuelans have left the country one in four are Refugees many of whom were middle even upper-class and have lost everything Alright, then Kurt continues Venezuelans are very entrepreneurial too much more so than the local Mexicans I know I've met quite a few Venezuelans that have their own thriving little businesses Restaurants clothing outlets delivery guys their real estate rental agents. They have beauty salons driving Ubers lifts, etc Every Venezuelan you meet seems to have some kind of job

[03:12] You wonder how that happens after only arriving in Mexico just a few months earlier They are a positive net effect to the region for sure The locals would do well to pay attention and learn a few lessons in business and culture from them But they won't in time I suppose there'll even be some backlash just like there is in the u.s Where the locals resent Asians owning most of the businesses and big city ghettos and Johnny It's the same thing here in Mexico Asian stores and businesses dominate many of the poorest barrios makes us expats wonder too How does that happen? Asians come knowing zero Spanish and in a few years they have a store and are driving a decent car and their Spanish is still Awful ironically the local Latinos laugh and make fun of Asians behind their backs yet

[03:58] They're all doing better often vastly better sometimes than the average Mexican Sniggering behind his back at them the locals could do well to pay attention and learn a few lessons in business from them, too But they won't I hear Latinos talk. I know my Spanish. I took four years in high school They make fun of Asians behind their backs But at the same time they resent the hell out of them and Latino guys will tell you under no Circumstances where they ever date an Asian girl, but that's the story for another time Anyway, Johnny three years ago when I first came down to Mexico I was looking for a soft landing not necessarily the latest greatest expat destination That's been recently quote discovered by international living. By the way, I quit reading international living years ago I just wanted to get a start dip my toes in the water. So I left for a soft landing and figured that would be Mexico

[04:46] I'm in a very good position financially as compared to lots of other expats. I'm 55 Retired and have a company pension of 4,000 bucks a month So I can live like a king in any Latin American country really but lately inflation is kicking in and prices are moving up fast Especially with real estate and rentals. I was warned not to have my plan B on the gringo tourist trail But that's where most soft landings are for a plan B destination They're on the gringo tourist trail The problem is Johnny when you select a Latin American soft landing plan B You're usually stuck with lots of gringos there everywhere, but obviously some people like that So then are the expats really ruining things? Well, if you're a freedom-loving person who minds his own business They certainly are the woke ones for sure. Love those soft landing destinations

[05:34] Where else will you find other woke people to hang with they want to find each other and create mutual admiration societies And you can't really do that when you're off the gringo tourist trail Like you said so many times Johnny when you're off the trail You could walk around for hours and hours and never see a single gringo How the hell you're supposed to find a like-minded woke person under those circumstances you also mentioned previously Johnny It's very hard to describe to a local what woke actually means When you try to explain it to them in the way they might understand they look at you and disbelieve for just not But you know, they don't get it If you want to single out where the woke gringos and expats hang out at any particular Latino town if you want the gringo gossip cheese maze as they're called Just keep up with the local English news websites there Check out the local English newspapers and local expat blogs on Facebook pages and email forums as well

[06:25] Even better if you want to catch up on the gringo gossip Just have a walk through the popular cafes and breakfast joints that cater to gringos expat gringos Especially retired ones are very gossipy for some it's a perverse hobby Some of them can coffee clutch for hours on and especially the gray-haired retired ones Oh, and if you're paying attention There's always one or two dominant jerks at any given gossip table who put on the ears of an expert expat Know-it-all just because they've been down here two months longer than the next guy There's sort of a seniority system amongst expats We all find that out once we get here the one that's been down the longest He's the old man in the sea the old sage often He's the most cynical to the glow is gone The honeymoon's been over for a long long time, but still he'll never go back to the States or wherever he came from

[07:14] Then he says as far as gringo coffee clutch gossips in tourist areas like Tulum Cancun Allende Costa Rica they get together wine and carry on about the old standard complaints Always the same when gringos get together It's always the government changes the rules to go just gringos the cops have two standards one for locals one for gringos Anti-gringo sentiment is on the increase Criminals are moving in to target gringos gringo pricing's getting out of hand Yada, yada, yada Gringos are so damn predictable On top of that the more gringos in the area the more pushback you get from locals You hear and read about tales of woe from supposed protectors of local culture They get together sometimes even make flyers and signs

[08:00] To attack expats for changing the nature of their city for being rude to locals and for driving up prices This from locals who never lifted a finger to preserve their own culture before the gringos arrived This from indignant locals who talk about the bad gringo influence behind our backs and yet still They leave garbage in their front yards and toss fast food wrappers and gutters This from indignant locals who can't afford to coffee clutch at Starbucks every morning like gringos can their resentment sometimes shows Then Kurt says having lived three years myself on the gringo tourist trail I see ironies that are universal amongst expat communities There are truths to the complaints on both sides from both gringos and latinos who complain about each other

[08:48] But they seem to be mostly a reflection of gringo arrogance then he says I know what gringos are thinking I'm one myself. We're thinking like gringos with a savior complex. I know what goes through gringos minds We're thinking they just don't appreciate what we're doing for them. They're lucky. We showed up to save them from themselves Think of the great first world values and culture. We're personally handing to him Beyonce Johnny Depp fast food Twitter tick-tock Starbucks BLM LGBT and the Kardashians think of it without us they'd be stuck with sorrow lucha libre bad soap operas and homemade tacos There it is. That's my rant Johnny. I'll be at your next seminar. I need to get the hell off the tourist trail I need some hand-holding a little help to get me out of here

[09:34] It seemed like a good idea at the time a soft landing and all that I was one of those people who clung on every word Of international living I quit reading and believing in their marketing crap after my very first real estate deal went sour The topper was two weeks later. I had lesson number two I got my phone stolen by a taxi driver That and other lessons have proven the point that where gringos gather so do thieves It's only logical if I was a crook I had moved to a gringo tourist area too. Why steal from a broke local population when there are so many gullible gringos around All right, kurt. Thanks for that and keep on telling it like it is Oh, and you're definitely right If you're getting a $4,000 a month pension you are living like a king pretty much anywhere in latin america except certain tourist traps speaking of my upcoming november 2022 seminar

[10:23] The one kurt mentioned he's going to sign up for once again It'll be a week long starting saturday november 5th ending on friday november 11th Just go to expat plan b.com and click on the 2022 seminar link for all the info and sign up details And remember if you sign up by september 15th, that's about a month away from when this show first goes out You'll take advantage of the early bird discounts after september 15th. We're back to the regular price Oh, and when you check out the sign up sheet You'll see you could pay for it all or in three equal installments So if you're interested in drinking from the fire hose and getting a two to five year head start on your plan b, man You can't do better than to come to the seminar It'll be a small group as usual. I don't like to have any more than 20 or 25 people

[11:09] That means lots and lots of individual facetime. Oh, and we'll be hanging together day and night It'll be a tremendous networking opportunity because you know That's the most important part of having a plan b being able to come down and have a network You can lean on because you see the people who end up striking out When they come down on that plan b they end up going back to the states They're the ones that did not have the proper network If you come down and try to do it all by yourself, sometimes you can feel completely lost Well, you could do that and sometimes it works out But it's a good way to spin your wheels for a long long time and drop a lot of extra dough needlessly In fact, I occasionally run into a gringo who's been down here a while who says johnny You know what when I first got down here? I got ripped off for five or ten thousand dollars by my own lawyer or a real estate guy or sleazy business partner Whatever and I always shock him when I say, you know, you got off easy

[11:55] Look at it as a cheap lesson. I tell him I have a friend a really good friend who got nicked for 800,000 dollars Come to think of it. It may have been 600 doesn't matter It was a huge amount on a deal initiated by his own lawyer in Costa Rica Where else that's what can happen if you don't have a reliable local network, but you knew that already right over the years I've known quite a few gringos who've lost anywhere from thirty to fifty thousand dollars on usually real estate deals gone bad again Because they didn't have a knowledgeable network It hurts. All right, you get over it, but it's a hell of an introduction to latin america And personally over the years, I've probably gotten nicked for a five or ten grand myself But that was a long long time ago and since then i've learned my lessons. I like to think i'm smarter now

[12:42] And that's the kind of knowledge you'll gain when you come down to the seminar You'll get wised up so it doesn't happen to you. Of course, that's not the only thing we'll talk about We'll talk about a million other things all in the name of transitioning. No, not that kind of transitioning transitioning to your plan b So go to expat plan b.com click on the seminar link and mark off the dates November 4th through 11th 2022 this time the seminar will be in the dominican republic the dr And for those of you who've been asking me if you could kill two birds with one stone that has come to the seminar Stay on for an extra week and get the stem cell treatments at that very clinic My brother and I and some of my friends have been to with great results Yep, that can be arranged just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com If you have any questions

[13:27] Which reminds me of a story about two weeks ago. I was with a wealthy latin american friend of mine He has a couple of businesses He's 50 something and we were hanging out at an all-inclusive resort And as he was getting more wasted After all drinks are free at those all inclusives, you know, he was getting more and more emotional that happens with latinos, you know Anyway, we're sitting there in our bathing suits, you know me and my gringo long style trunks and him and his speedo Hmm ain't nothing worse than a guy with a pot belly and a speedo That's one thing us american guys have going for us as casual and uncouth as we might seem we don't wear speedos That's a european and on occasion latino thing Anyway, we're sitting at one of those bars. That's in the pool You know the seats are underwater and the bars got a little thatched roof

[14:14] Well, we're sitting there drinking he points to the far end of the pool and he says that is what i'm worried about That's why sometimes I get depressed. He said look johnny. I'm a successful businessman Look, I can take my whole family out to a resort like this But when I see a group of first world people, I know what they're thinking deep down They're very nice to your face, but they're thinking why can't you fix your country? Why does it remain third world? Why is your country so There's two reasons really half of it's the government they bog us down with so many rules and regulations It's impossible to do business legally without paying bribes The other 50 of the problem is our fault successful guys like me He pointed to the far end of the pool and said look at my kid with his designer speedo

[15:01] waterproof expensive swiss watch Three hundred dollar ray-banned sunglasses the real thing Anyway, the kid's dad said to me my kid nice guy, but he never broke a sweat in his life Doesn't even know how to change a tire or do a load of laundry He said i'll tell you why our country's so screwed up and first world businesses kick the shit out of us And why your franchise has wiped the floor with us too because we let our kids run our companies when we retire That's how you destroy a business over a generation or two or three You hire your relatives your cousins, etc And when you retire you pass the reins on then he pointed into the pool again To your kids I said, yeah, you're right. It's a pretty well-known fact in the business world The easiest way to wreck it is to pass it on to your kids though. That's common It doesn't always work that way

[15:47] But usually by the third or fourth generation if it lasts that long it proves itself out Then he started telling me the story about how he had to hire his uncles and his cousins His mother and father would push the issue to get calls from his aunts and uncles He said that might work pretty well if you're the mafia where it's all about the family and loyalty or they cut your dick off But my relatives especially my shirt tail relatives. I don't even know all their names Their only loyalty is to money not the business So he finished by saying don't let anyone ever tell you we are third world countries because our governments perpetually mire us in the muck That's half of it. But the other half is nepotism and our terrible hiring policies All right, it's me johnny again. I never would pick up insights like that if I didn't speak spanish Of course this guy this business guy spoke some english not real well

[16:34] But he spoke english the thing is though no matter where you are as soon as a latino or latina Sees that you speak some spanish, man They throw the door open. They welcome you right into their world I know if I only spoke english to that guy. He never would have opened up like that All right, since we're talking about mexico. Here's another crazy email from the mexican email file Yeah, you know I gather up the emails and file them under various latin american countries. They pertain to all 20 of them How about this one coming from mr. M? He says johnny earlier this summer I came across a flyer posted in colonia roman mexico city that read like this In both english and spanish quote are you new here in mexico city? Are you working remotely? Then you're a Plague and the locals hate you leave now

[17:20] Wow, that's really welcoming, huh Anyway, it goes on to say that kind of language took me aback, but it wasn't anything new I've been receiving comments just like those on social media for over the last year Even posting simple videos of me having lunch with my mexican girlfriend sparks accusations of being called a colonizer parasite and worse My story goes like this and i'll paraphrase this is a long one in the summer of 2020 I fell in love with a mexican girl from mexico city via one of those dating apps And I moved down there to pursue a relationship We spent the first year mostly in lockdown in the self-contained very nice tranquil neighborhood of condesa It felt like our relative bubble of safety in an unpredictable pandemic world For me mexico city seemed like the perfect place to reduce my expenses and focus on immersing myself in a new culture

[18:10] Then sadly after a year and a half together we broke up I won't go into the details but Suffice it to say on top of the heartbreak. I suffered a jolt as my life in mexico was suddenly turned upside down I lost my connection and my anchor to the place he says my direct connection was severed He says the relationship that brought me here no longer existed and after a year and a half of socializing mostly with mexicans I no longer had a community I felt unwelcome and seriously thought of going home, but I decided to stay there were practical reasons I had already registered as a temporary resident rented a furnished apartment and created A sort of nice distressed lifestyle, but something happened within my next year and a half here The city has changed dramatically since I first arrived here in september 2020 back then two years ago

[18:55] I felt like I was one of the only foreigners around every other building on avenida amsterdam Had a se rento or sevendes sign meaning things for for rent of her sale landlords were desperate to fill vacant buildings and it was a buyer's and a renter's market and now just two years later The same neighborhoods are absolutely filled with gringos housing is scarce and rents are rising english is now spoken So widely it's possible to bounce around between gringo friendly establishments without ever having to speak words of spanish All right, me john here sounds like just the opposite of what's happening in my jammy, huh where you don't need english anymore Then he says well i've always been an enthusiastic promoter of mexico I now see the wave of visitors is bigger than most people ever realized It's having real life negative consequences that are altering the hopes and dreams of average mexicans

[19:43] So what happened in those two short years the covet lockdown years? Well previous to that a guy named tim ferris who has a podcast started out at the digital nomad revolution with a book The four-hour work week he talked about working at home Or in a third world country earning income and a strong currency like the dollar while living in a country with a much cheaper currency like mexico And at first before covet came only the brave and resourceful attempted this so-called digital nomad lifestyle They congregated where wi-fi was strong in a lifestyle Laid back and much cheaper than back in the states At first only brave young and single people tried this digital nomad lifestyle and it was mostly in southeastern asia Like thailand or indonesia then came covet the pandemic changed everything

[20:30] Corporate america went remote overnight suddenly millions of people with salaries pegged to the cost of living in san francisco or new york were free to work anywhere Coincidentally mexico was one of the only places us citizens could travel during lockdowns They had very loose and liberal vaccine and testing norms, too So initially two plus years ago when the lockdown started most escaped to the beaches of talum Cancun playa del carmin Sayulita and porto escondido But the wi-fi is not quite stable enough to work from some of those beach side towns Especially the smaller one horse towns for good solid stable internet. You had to go to mexico city And many did and were pleasantly surprised and mexico city districto federal as it's called as many advantages

[21:16] It sits squarely within the us time zones Making it easy to continue working for us companies and when the companies do require workers to return to the physical office or plant It's only two hours to the southern us or four hours to la new york or chicago Though technically this is very good for the growth of mexico and the tech sector etc That sudden influx of well-paid remote workers dramatically altered the landscape of the city effectively crowding out middle-class locals Thoroughly pissing them off in the process just like tech companies did in san francisco The main factor is now we have a housing bubble Most foreigners stay in just a few adjacent neighborhoods in mexico city condesa roma Juarez and others in short these neighborhoods that are trendy for wealthy mexicans, too This also attracts tourists for the safety and nightlife

[22:01] The problem is social media is pumping the shit out of just a few neighborhoods romanticizing their appeal of living in mexico city To the exclusion of much less sexy neighborhoods nearby to be clear He says this process was already happening before the pandemic struck But during that initial moment of a shot many locals living there returned home and failed to make rent So when locals left or sold out the housing market took off and went into a big bubble Where she had a positive feedback loop occurred many landlords had empty buildings They decided to turn into airbnbs to cash in on the gringo digital nomad boom This in turn reduced the stock of available housing pushing prices even higher making these once attainable neighborhoods Completely out of reach for countless middle and working class mexicans

[22:46] Then he says all of this plays out against the backdrop of mexico's vast inequality Exasperation with the impunity of abuse from elites and centuries old divisions along ethnic and class and social lines In a place where wealth buys power and the lighter skin affords preferential treatment The sudden arrival of thousands and thousands of wealthy foreign predominantly gringo white people pours fuel on that fire Then he ends by saying thousands of americans set off on their mexico city adventure each day But if you realize what a shit storm they're walking into All right, me johnny here. Yeah shit storms. I've heard of those If that doesn't swear you off having a plan b in mexico city Don't forget to bring a couple cases of toilet paper with you if you do Shit storms aren't good when your plumbing can't handle the tp

[23:33] By the way that wealthy area in mexico city where the gringles and expats like to hang Roma condessa corridor it's called the rent for a flat One or two bedroom ranges between 700 and three thousand dollars a month cheaper than new york san francisco and jacago by about half Now you might be wondering when they talk about how middle class and working class mexicans can't afford to live there I think you'll understand that situation much better based on the fact that just this week The volkswagen plant in the state of puebla mexico went on strike for higher wages There's 7000 people working at that plant almost all of them unionized and they're asking for a 9 across the board wage increase The union salaries at the puebla plant range from 15 to 48

[24:22] Not an hour a day. That means workers there make from 300 a month to 960 a month So figure it out Not one of the 7000 union workers at that plant could ever afford to live in the roma condessa mexico city district Not even in the cheapest one-bedroom apartment where a rent starts at 700 bucks a month Meanwhile last week you may have heard of this drug cartel members attacked a series of convenience stores in the north They torched taxis and buses along with 20 branches of latin america's largest convenience store chain called oxxo Wait, there's more then we've got that battle you might have heard about in tijuana on saturday august 12th 2022 began at a prison a fight between two rival cartels that left 11 people dead

[25:10] Then the chaos spread outside into the streets of the city Where vehicles and houses were torched and the cartels set up roadblocks on public streets I know what you're thinking tijuana is a shithole It always has been but it's a tourist haven for americans want to pop over the border and they still can't keep it safe Organized crime specialists are saying that the cartels not the government are in charge Here's another little thing about mexico. That's both sad and amusing Did you know that every drug cartel has clandestine workshops set up to create what are called narco tanks? Armored up to plow through streets with impunity What they do is buy new suvs and trucks like the fort f350 and the dodge ram tahoe, etc They add internal panels with a special kind of very light bulletproof steel made by swedish manufacturers

[25:58] Now here's the real scary and unbelievable part since 2018 630 of these armored narco tanks have been confiscated by mexico's national ministry of defense You can see on the internet photos released by authorities showing heavily modified pickup trucks and suvs fitted with armored plating bulletproof glass Machine gun turrets among other military style features These trucks are seen often by the local public rolling down the streets commonly referred to as narco tanks or donkeys Monstros monster tanks. They even have cartel and gang logos etched into them So everyone knows exactly which cartel owns those streets. Isn't that nice? Munitions experts who've tested them out say they can absorb repeated volleys of 50 caliber machine gun blasts. All right. All right

[26:48] I get it. There are some very nice places in mexico little islands of gringo prosperity But here's the question and it's a very serious question Is the new side of mexico at least in the last 11 or 12 years i've been doing this show getting better or worse? Need I answer that is there any doubt whatsoever? So what does that portend for the future? I wonder I say go ahead move there. It's always your decision The thing is only someone who's got something wrong with his synapses would move to a place where the news is continually getting worse and worse However, if the news out of mexico was getting better or even staying neutral, that would be a different story But it ain't I know I know i'm gonna get emails, but johnny. I love mexico You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america

[27:36] 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 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 nos famos