Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller explores a range of topics that highlight the complexities of living and navigating life in Latin America and the U.S. He begins by discussing the political situation in the U.S., specifically the potential presidency of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. While he acknowledges that DeSantis may slow down the worsening issues in the country, he argues that there is no hope for a sudden improvement in governance. Johnny also delves into the concept of the 'gringo advantage' in Latin America, noting how it often manifests in subtle ways, such as the treatment of gringos at places like Costco. He contrasts the cultural attitudes of legal and illegal immigrants in the U.S., highlighting a significant class divide. Johnny concludes by emphasizing that the gringo advantage is often overlooked and that it is a subtle but real phenomenon.
Next, Johnny discusses his experiences with racial and gender dynamics in Latin America, particularly in settings like Costco and upscale malls. He notes that while men are often scrutinized in stores, Latino and Latina customers receive more attention. He also highlights the presence of maids, nannies, and bodyguards in affluent areas, which can be misleading for expats and gringos, as the perception of danger is often exaggerated. Johnny clarifies that while kidnappings do occur in Mexico, they are rare and often go unreported, with victims typically paying ransoms and keeping the incidents private. He also touches on the fear among potential female expats, attributing it to misinformation and the perception that women are more vulnerable to crime.
In another segment, Johnny discusses an incident involving his friend, who was the target of a kidnapping attempt. He reveals that the incident was an inside job, likely involving one of the bodyguards. Johnny criticizes the culture of wealth and entitlement among some Latin American elites, highlighting the disparity between those who have money and those who don't. He contrasts the behavior of wealthy gringos with that of Latin American elites, noting that the latter often have unnecessary luxuries like bodyguards and cleaning staff. Johnny also comments on the entitled behavior of some wealthy Latino children, who often lack drive and curiosity. He mentions a conversation with a rich Latino kid who was on his phone all the time, and the kid's response to Johnny's critique. Johnny concludes by discussing the cultural divide that arises when mixed-race families, particularly those involving gringos and Latin Americans, have children who are often raised in expensive schools and become embarrassed by their poorer relatives.
Johnny then shifts focus to the classist and racist nature of Latin American societies, particularly in Ecuador. He critiques the behavior of expats and gringos who often complain about the country's issues without understanding its complexities. He references a letter from an Ecuadorian anthropology professor who describes how expats, especially older American men, often believe they know how to fix problems in Ecuador without having a proper understanding of the country's systems. Johnny highlights the irony that these expats, who have moved to Latin America for retirement, often fail to assimilate culturally or learn Spanish, yet they expect to change the country to fit their American expectations. He also notes that many expats have similar complaints about the United States and Canada, such as high costs, strict rules, and cold weather, suggesting that these complaints are common among expats regardless of their destination.
Finally, Johnny discusses the expat experience in Latin America, highlighting the initial excitement and challenges that come with living in a new country. He describes the initial phase of moving to a new place as full of novelty and energy, but also notes the frustrations that come with bureaucratic hurdles, language barriers, and the slow pace of life. He explains that after a few months, expats often enter a 'complaint phase' where they compare their situation to their home country and express dissatisfaction. However, he argues that this phase is temporary and that expats eventually adapt to their new environment, developing their own systems and comforts. He also touches on the irony that expats often end up creating a more organized and comfortable living space than their local neighbors, but may also fall into the trap of buying too much and neglecting cleanliness, especially if they live alone.
Episode Notes
Johnny Mueller unpacks the political situation in the U.S., the 'gringo advantage' in Latin America, and the challenges expats face in adapting to new cultures. He also touches on class divides, perceptions of danger, and the irony of expat complaints about Latin America.
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Topics
Political situation in the U.S., Gringo advantage in Latin America, Cultural attitudes of legal and illegal immigrants in the U.S., Class divide among Latinos in the U.S., Racial and gender dynamics in Latin America, Perception of danger and crime in expat communities, Experiences of expats and gringos in Latin America, Inside job and kidnapping, Entitlement and wealth disparity, Behavior of wealthy Latino children, Cultural divide in mixed-race families, Classism and racism in Latin America
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:38 DeSantis and the Political Situation in the U.S. 00:01:40 The Gringo Advantage in Latin America 00:04:45 The Gringo Advantage at Costco 00:05:49 Observations on Gender and Racial Scrutiny in Stores 00:06:04 The Presence of Maids and Bodyguards in Affluent Areas 00:07:07 Perception of Danger and Kidnappings in Mexico 00:08:48 Fear Among Female Expats and Misinformation 00:11:22 The Incident and Inside Job Revelation 00:11:56 Contrast Between Wealthy Gringos and Latin American Elites 00:13:17 Entitled Behavior of Wealthy Latino Children 00:17:01 Cultural Divide in Mixed-Race Families 00:17:24 What Do Latinos Think About Expats? It Depends on Where You Live 00:17:41 A Letter from an Ecuadorian Anthropology Professor 00:21:03 Expats Want to Change Things, But They Often Don't Understand the System 00:22:30 Initial Excitement and Challenges of Moving to a New Country 00:23:08 The Complaint Phase and Social Interaction with Other Expats 00:25:31 Adaptation and Creating a Comfort Zone in a New Environment 00:26:43 The Disarray of Some Expat Homes and the Role of Cleaning Services
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 out to play and now as I wonder Hello there all you ex-pad 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 Here's a question for you and people are asking me this all the time. They say Johnny There's a good chance that Florida governor DeSantis is gonna run for president and actually get elected if that happens. Will it help will the situation get better? Well, here's my take on it for all you optimistic dreamers
[00:47] If you think that if you vote in DeSantis or some other so-called political savior that there will be a sudden Epidemic of good government. Well, that's a total impossibility these days. There's no such thing as a good government It's all corrupt and malignant All you can hope for is that he can slow down the seepage of sewage into the national water supply Since the national water supply so to speak is already permanently contaminated and polluted in other words the trains out of control It's going off the cliff, but maybe DeSantis will slow it down a bit So then what's the public supposed to think the public's on that train and go along with any way the sewage flows Shepherds will change but sheep remain sheep. Hey now, there's a catchy phrase. Somebody should make t-shirts out of that. I'd wear one Hmm. I don't know if I made that one up Shakespeare said it or it's in the Bible
[01:36] It sounds way too clever for me to have thought of it Anyway, you know sometimes I forget to mention on the show here obvious cases of the gringo advantage though Like I said the farther you are off the gringo tourist trail The more that advantage kicks in though sometimes when you're on or very near the gringo tourist trail You'll think you've got the gringo advantage, but all it really is is some Latino guy or gal patronizing you Hoping to gain some advantage or get over on you You know like that old song the backstabbers they smile in your face all the time. They want to take your place You see that all the time with upper middle class and wealthy Latinos who tries so hard to prove They're not like the common rabble. You know the type Well, if you're down here long enough, you'll know the type those extreme gringo wannabes that are not competing with us
[02:23] No way, we just think they're laughable. They don't impress us in the least. In fact, sometimes we're embarrassed for them in actuality They're competing with other gringo wannabes It's funny and sometimes sad to watch like for example when you get invited to an upscale Latino party and the Latinos there Try to out my jammy each other always name-dropping people in places. They've visited in the States Making it known they buy a lot of junk on Amazon always Managing to cue up English language gringo songs on the stereo stuff like that. I call it trying to out my jammy each other Oh, yeah, and there's social media pages like fake book are absurd Just loaded with photos and references to everything American and gringo So they're suddenly or not so subtly telling the world if you want to analyze it that they'd much rather be a first world
[03:13] Gringo than a Latino. In fact, any analyst worth his salt will tell you they're practically Broadcasting that their own culture is second-rate now get this one Latina friend of mine who is a psychologist Here in Latin America. She says it's funny or rather odd that Latinos who enter the u.s. Illegally, they hold on to their Latino culture the foods the dress their attitudes and customs Meanwhile upscale Latinos educated Latinos who enter the US legally They're the ones that tend to reject their own culture and habits. They want nothing to do with and what no Association with the sweaty masses that sneak in in fact They are truly embarrassed if you bring it up as if they come from a different planet Even if some of their own family members are a lower class and snuck into the states illegally
[03:59] They distance themselves from those relatives as if they were untouchables Now if you think I'm exaggerating and don't believe it come on down and talk to the locals yourself But they're not gonna fess up to you unless you speak pretty good Spanish The fact is there's a big personal and cultural division between Latinos who go back and forth to the states legally and those Who have to sneak in there's a quite a big social and educational gap there, too Funny thing too there have been polls of Latinos who go back and forth legally to the states They all want the u.s. To build a wall and the ones who don't qualify to come in legally They all want the wall torn down. They love Biden too because they think he's for open borders There is a big class division there, but I digress as usual
[04:45] We're talking about the gringo advantage and how it often shows up and yet never gets commented on for example Every time I go to Costco, which is price mark down here in Latin America. There's something subtle that happens You know when you're pushing your cart out the door with a basket full of goodies And there's someone always standing there checking your receipt before you can head out to the parking lot You know making sure you don't have a case of sticky fingers now Here's something you'll notice if you bother paying attention when the person checking your receipts easier a gringo He'll barely give you a once-over. He'll just check your receipt and give you a smile and you're off In fact, I've had situations where I've had boxes full of stuff and the guy or gal checking receipts didn't even give it a look Just pass me on through even though the Latino customer in front and behind me got a TSA style shakedown
[05:33] Stranger yet, and it does make some sense a guy like me or any gringo male gringo gets treated to an even lighter hand When it's a lady checking out your receipt that as opposed to a Latino guy Checking out a male gringos receipt as he passes through I noticed sometimes the ladies won't even look in my basket at all and just pass me on through and the guys They might check out your receipt a couple seconds longer, but they won't poke through your bags and boxes to make a tally But man, like I said, they'll give Latino and Latina customers the once-over By the way, if you ever want to see a conglomeration of upscale gringo wannabes go to Costco, which is again price mark down here for example I don't think I've ever been in one of those places where I have not seen a short dark skinned maid cleaning lady or nanny
[06:19] Pushing a shopping cart alongside her taller lighter skinned perfectly manicured blinged out Latina boss lady head of the house and The mama Rica the rich mama often does double-duty Gabbing on the phone and pointing at items for her maid or cleaning lady to retrieve Oh, and if you keep your eyes open, you'll notice in the parking lot Plenty of late-model SUVs and the occasional bodyguard in a cheap suit Trying to appear as up to the task as their room temperature IQs will allow The task being to get noticed to put on a show for the other upscale Latinos It's all about the show The problem is when new fresh green gringos get down here and they go to an upscale mall a restaurant or a Costco When they see a couple of bodyguards helping someone into a big black Tahoe with black tinted windows
[07:07] It scares them a bit. The first thing they think is it sure must be dangerous down here in Latin America Funny thing though in all my years down here I've never met a single gringo or even heard of one that's ever been kidnapped and I don't know a single Gringo or expat who's ever had a bodyguard? I'm talking about south of south of the border now There are kidnappings and attempted kidnappings of gringos and expats in Mexico and most of that stuff goes unreported They just pay the ransom and get the kid or the wife back That's part of the deal to keep your mouth shut and don't go to the press and never broadcast it on anti-social media funny thing too because Anti-social media is exactly how the bad guys home in on their potential victims So once again, let me repeat. I know of no gringo or expat who's ever been kidnapped south of south of the border
[07:56] That means south of Mexico and don't you think after 30 plus years down here in Latin America and all the gringos and expats I've met and have spoken to On and off the record and all the thousands of emails have gotten from expats and gringos Still not a hint of any kidnappings except in one particular case and it wasn't even successful in any event It was my gringo friend's own fault. I'll get to that story in a sec Anyway, even though all the time I've been down here in Latin America. There's only that one case and it was unsuccessful I still get emails from people every so often Especially emails from gonna be and want to be female expats They're worried about coming down because they've heard on the internet or and fake news media that gringos and expats get kidnapped They do in Mexico, but that's about it. In fact, I just got an email from a worried expat gonna be wanna be yesterday
[08:47] From a female, of course 99% of those kind of emails come from females, which is perfectly logical. Of course. They are the weaker sex, right? Oh No, I just blasphemed cancel me. Why don't ya wait a minute Johnny. You've gone too far Well, sorry, I won't take it back. I don't know about you But I try to think logically at least most of the time especially going to engineering school, you know Just the facts ma'am and the facts are as follows bad guys and no-good nicks would rather pick on a woman than a man any Day in any culture or society ask any criminal They'd rather rob or assault a woman over a man for a lot of reasons Not the least of which being on average women are physically weaker than men
[09:32] You knew that already, right? But you can't see it in public or on the net where you come from or you'd get canceled. Maybe even lose your job You anti-vax Nazi Trump, are you? Now where were we? Oh, yeah, as far as that foiled the kidnap attempt The only one I know about my American buddy an expat gringo who's been down here 20 something years now He's a geologist who struck it big in the oil business Came down here in his early 40s after a bad divorce up in the States Wasn't rich at all when he first came down just working for the man Anyway, a few years later when he did strike at which he ended up marrying his young Latina secretary and it didn't take long for her to turn into an extreme gringo wannabe and they had the money to do it now Beach houses sports cars shopping trips back and forth to my jammy every season
[10:23] Anyway, like so many wealthy expat gringo seemed to do when they hook up with a young Latina They give her everything and thus create a monster He turned a poor beautiful girl who grew up barefoot in a barrio into a woman I last saw in an upscale shopping mall with two bodyguards each one carrying her most recent purchases Now that was a couple of years ago before the covidia thing In fact, the whole situation seemed so ridiculous and rubbed me the wrong way He and I who used to be pretty good buddies fell out of touch for about four or five years That happens, you know Sometimes when you get invited to parties and you don't show up eventually they don't invite you anymore story of my life Anyway, they had a daughter and sent her to the most expensive helicopter schools in Guatemala And as it turns out when she was 12 or 13 years old
[11:08] She was in one of the big black SUVs with the bodyguard Gassing up at a shell station when a car with a couple of bad guys in it pulled up and tried to yank her Out of the SUV. There was a scuffle and the confusion she got away after that My buddy hired some firm to investigate the incident They found out after polygraphing the help and the bodyguards. It was an inside job Surprise surprise who to thunk? In fact, he said it was obvious since one of the bodyguards never showed up for his polygraph He disappeared all I could think of while all that was going down was that my buddy created that situation made himself and his family A target now get this he's the only gringo I ever knew who had his own bodyguards and the only one to suffer a near kidnapping incident
[11:54] He's one of those smart guys who's also an idiot Fact is I know gringos here in Latin America who are worth millions and don't have bodyguards Meanwhile, you've got hundreds of pretentious show-off Latin American guys who have nice cars houses Send their kids to helicopter schools, but don't have a dime in the bank. All they have is debts Yet they've got cleaning ladies maintenance guys and bodyguards and the cops down here Not that you'd ever want to go to the cops for anything because they're totally ineffective Even so they'll admit when there's a robbery in an upscale person's house or an attempted kidnapping Whatever 90% of the time it's an inside job. And when it comes to pure kidnapping It's almost always Somehow connected to one or two of the underpaid bodyguards who know the boss and the boss's family's every move
[12:39] Oh, and did I tell you that my buddy did not have a personal bodyguard himself He had one for his wife and his kid. He didn't want one He told me the only reason he did get bodyguards for the family was that his wife Nag them and begged him for one and then another for the daughter After all many of the kids at the most expensive helicopter school She went to had their own bodyguards if the family was rich and the kid didn't have one What what the neighbors think? Yeah, but I know it's pretty sickening But that's life in the extreme gringo wannabe wealthy classes here in Latin America though I repeat once again, there are some good kids that come out of those families Quite a few actually, but they seem to have no drive or ambition worse yet. No curiosity I mean about how the world works how things work in general
[13:26] In fact one entitled rich kid I called out for being on his phone all the time I said don't you ever read an article or a book? He said when he was on his phone He's learning things all the time to which I said is that right? How about let's bet on it because that you'll have to prove to me I Said something like 95% of the crap you see on instacrap dick cock and fake book are people doing crazy funny Entertaining things to get their 15 minutes of fame. I said I sure as hell don't use that stuff, but I know it's an addiction It's all about showing off to your friends one upping them. I Said you're addicted to the dopamine hit so you get from likes not your fault It's just part of big text plan and his reply to me. He called me a faded russet out old dinosaur of a baby boomer
[14:11] Could be he wasn't as dumb as he looked I was actually pretty surprised He had those words in his vocabulary Maybe to give credit where credit is due being online all day does increase your vocabulary if anything the exception being rappers and ragathon arrows The thing is during that whole conversation. He did not look up once from his screen Bottom line it really is a brave new world that ain't so brave But where were we oh, yeah talking about those entitled Latino children of the rich as for me I know quite a few from not so many teenagers, but a lot of 20-somethings I've been in some rock and roll bands with some very talented children of the rich They did have enough drive and ambition to learn their instrument really well But only one of those guys of the maybe 10 or so Latino musicians
[14:57] I've played with over the years would I ever personally hire if I had a business looking for employees the other guys though They were nice guys were just the type that were waiting for people to do things for them because hell They all had cleaning ladies and nannies picking up after them all the time Man when you grow up like that and you're confronted with the real world and well these guys are never Confronted with the real world because there's always daddy's connections and daddy's money safety net though. Oddly enough I know lots of wealthy gringo expats some who came down with pretty much nothing But their drive and their brains and when they made it they sent their kids to those expensive helicopter schools to and their kids Turned out pretty well though I have seen a disturbing trend when my gringo friends marry a latina or vice versa when a gringa friend marries a Latino
[15:43] When they have a kid or kids they always end up going to an expensive helicopter bilingual school After all everyone wants their kid to have a leg up The thing is when an American and a Latino or Latina couple up There's always a very high probability that the Latino or Latina half comes from the bari or the lower classes and just by luck Won the marriage lottery the problematic and disturbing thing. I'm referring to is that let's say the mother was lower-class latina from a bario Well compared to the kids on her side of the family her half gringo kid will be super entitled and all her family members We'll know that Latino families are very tight and social So yes, the couple and the kid of course will get invited to all the family get-togethers Sunday dinners at grandma's house, etc
[16:28] And when that half gringo cousin of theirs shows up with his $800 iPhone nice new brand label clothes And his or her stories about their latest trip to my jammy or Disney World There'll be a noticeably large cultural divide soon enough It won't take long that half gringo kid will balk at those visits to grandma and the poor folk relatives I've seen it happen that side of the family will sooner or later become an embarrassment to him Not because they're Latino the kids they hang around with that their helicopter school are all Latinos, but because they're poor Latinos In fact, it's a very prominent theme in TV soap operas here The longer you're down here the more you'll pick up on the fact that it's a very classist society very racist, too But you won't get far with that argument if you ever bring it up to a first world person
[17:15] Since we all know and the woke people tell us over and over again that the only culture that can be racist Are those nasty white people? All right moving on Did you ever wonder what latinos intelligent latinos living down here in Latin America really think about us? Well, I can tell you this it all depends on if you live on or off the gringo trail Since it's a given the more we pile in the more we wear out our welcome and destroy our own gringo advantage That said here's part of a letter written by a Latino who lived in America for quite a while It was an anthropology professor up there and retired and moved back down to where he was born in Cuenca, Ecuador Once again, I'll paraphrase this cut out the boring parts He says a couple of years ago a recently arrived expat who I had only met a few days earlier
[18:02] Asked if I could arrange a meeting for him with the president of the country No less back then the president was Rafael Correa who today is a fugitive on the lamp The gringo thought because I was bilingual and working on a government project that I knew the president somehow But I didn't though. I was curious and asked the gringo why Well, he said he wanted to talk to him about the Cuenca Ecuador bus system that it was being run all wrong That the buses were not properly maintained and needed to use propane gas or battery power instead of stinky diesel He wanted to tell the president that the drivers were not well skilled or cautious and they were trained to low standards They had terrible customer service skills and that the routes and schedules of the buses were not logically planned at all He said he wanted to tell the president just how to properly integrate the new tram system with the buses
[18:55] He wanted to tell him about how they ran the system back in his hometown in massachusetts Then he says in talking to this expat a bit more He discovered that the guy had no idea how governments in Ecuador are organized turns out He didn't know much about Ecuador's government at all It didn't know the difference between a parish a canton or a province Or even who owned or operated the bus system then he says there is a certain cross-cultural phenomena I've observed frequently in Ecuador's expat community He says i'm amazed how quickly newcomers size up things in Ecuador They make judgments in no uncertain terms all the things that need to be fixed It's become a major topic at gringo gatherings. They talk about it on all the gringo expat fake book sites, too
[19:41] They always seem to start out something like this i'm appalled Something needs to be done about the graffiti the potholes late night concerts fireworks crime chicken buses parking dogs Car alarms traffic gringo prices construction practices. You name it gringos complain about it and have a fix for it No matter how things are done It's an irritant to gringos and expats and there's an expat with an answer even though he usually cannot explain it in spanish Then he says on the rare occasion when I have time to waste and I tune in on gringo internet expat forums I find them just overflowing with the righteous indignation of those who know how things should work in Ecuador But for some reason don't Then he says I know that these so-called expat fixers are
[20:30] Overwhelmingly older men from the u.s. Most of them arrogant angry and egotistical He says I think they're just in-your-face loud mouths who I make a point to ignore It seems ironic to me. He says that people whose dream retirement has finally arrived They're unable to put aside the impulse to run other people's lives and simply relax And then at the point when they finally find themselves living in the so-called promised land They can't wait to remake it according to their own u.s. Expectations Anyway, that's the gist of it. It continues for a while you get the idea So then what's my take on it? Well, you have to remember the guy wrote. This is an educated latino Watching his country getting over run by gringos And you know gringos and expats who come on down permanently always try to put their stamp on things
[21:20] We want to change things. All right, but we're not big on cultural assimilation nor learning the spanish language So I think he's right about that. We've got no right to complain until we learn the language It is funny though when I talk to latinos who've been up in the states and deported most of them are Though not all you know upscale latinos go back and forth. Anyway, it seems to me They've only got two real complaints about the states Maybe three, can you guess? Number one, it's too expensive number two There are too many rules and they're way too strict about them and number three and this only applies to the northern states in canada It's too cold Then again, it seems like every gringo and expat with a plan b here in latin america Has those same three complaints in their top 10 of complaints about the united states and canada That's not all though. They've got a ton of other complaints to boot. Let's face it
[22:08] You don't ditch your life for a plan b in latin america Just because it's a little too cold up there We all have a nice big list of reasons why we got the hell out of that The thing is though most gringos and expats go through stages and one of those stages is the complaint stage When we first get that plan b going in land, we've got the rose colored glasses on and within that first six months Everything's new different exciting and energizing Sure, you end up in lots of lines spinning your wheels getting stuck in manana time and all that But the newness and excitement of the experience pretty much cancels it out Then after six months or so a new kind of reality sets in a lot of things just aren't going right You gotta file new papers for residency because the old ones timed out Or could be your lawyer dropped the ball or missed a few signatures in that giant rima paperwork at 17 different government offices
[22:59] Suddenly those quaint chicken buses blowing their horns and laying down a smokescreen at 6 a.m Right out in front of your door aren't so picturesque and charming anymore And it's at that time about six months in when you end up at gringo gatherings and people ask you how's it going? Out comes that litany of complaints You'll find no shortage of gringos and expats to chime in with you, too That gringle complaint phase can be short or very long and pretty much dissipates completely Once a person's learned to spanish well enough. I don't know why that correlates Maybe it's because we just settle in and get used to that stuff However, i've seen the complaint stage get reactivated completely Even long after they've settled into that live and let live phase It's usually triggered when returning from a long trip back in the states where suddenly they're thrown back into first world efficiency again
[23:52] And and once back in the third world they're wound up again by what they see and get back into that complaint stage Believe me. I'm not an exception either. I went through that complaint stage in a big way I even had logical engineering type solutions to all those problems In fact in the early days before I learned my spanish I spent way too much time thinking about all the things that weren't quite right And just how easy it would be to turn things around wondering why normally intelligent latinos were so thick headed They couldn't organize or see the solutions staring them right in the face Well, it took a couple of years for me and the learning of spanish But I figured it out. It's simple, too You have to first believe there's a problem before you can come up with a fix for it For example a long time ago when I was living in costa rica, the power would go off about three or four times a day
[24:38] Sometimes maybe for just five or ten minutes of time, but it was terrifically annoying Worse yet on friday nights practically every friday night at around seven to eight o'clock at night the power throughout san jose That's the capital city would die and there'd be a blackout for three or four hours Thing is it was only the gringos who complained the costa ricas never did because they were so used to it to them It was normal. It wasn't a problem Same way I guess for farmers in the 30s 40s and 50s in the united states. They had outhouses That's just the way it was and if a city boy came to visit It could be a pretty uncomfortable experience, especially in the winter, but the farmers they didn't complain They didn't realize any other way. They didn't know it was a problem Till some city boy told him it was that there was an easier more comfortable way
[25:25] Anyway after you've been down here for a while six months a year two years, whatever things that used to irritate You just won't bother you anymore besides that you'll have created your own little island of comfort in your house apartment or yard Believe me your apartment or home will be a lot different inside and out than even your upscale latino neighbors I guarantee it'll be cleaner more organized. You'll have better more natural lighting your own water purifier You won't have water stains on the ceilings. There will be a noticeable absence of critters and kookarotches If you have a dog, it'll be house trained and trained not to jump on people or furniture In short, you'll have transferred a lot of your good first world habits to your own living conditions Though that's not always the case. It's pretty common But unfortunately, you'll probably also have accumulated way too much junk because like so many other gringos
[26:13] You're addicted to buying shit on amazon now. That's not to say I haven't been in some gringo expat homes that are disasters pure pig pens Oh, they're around. All right I've been in some gringo bachelor pads where you had to hold your nose to use the bathroom Though i've mostly only seen that with gringos living alone who don't Have a maid or cleaning lady and I don't know why because they're only something like 12 to 20 a day Go figure, huh gringo bachelor pads can be a disaster and I find older geezer gringo bachelor pads The worst and I always wonder when I walk into a place like that Why in latin america the land of giant creepy crawlers and kookarotches? Do you have three days worth of dishes stacked up in the sink? Why in the hell don't you get a cleaning lady just one day a week?
[26:59] But some of these guys especially ogas are so stuck in their ways They just don't ever pull the trigger then again older gringos, especially lovelorn older gringos can be pretty weak I know of more than a few cases where a gringos cleaning lady ends up as his girlfriend or wife Then you might ask what about single lady gringas? They've got no such lonely hard opportunities Because there are only cleaning ladies no cleaning boys or men. Wait a minute. How unequal and sexist is that? Hmm come to think of it sounds like yet another gringo business opportunity 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
[27:46] 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