#1304 – Episode 1304: Expat Life, Rainwater Laws, and the Hidden Dangers of Living in Mexico

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 This show today first goes out on Sunday, December 24th so Mary Krimble and Hardy ho ho ho a nice clean ho ho ho to not in the ho ho ho raggaeton or rap sense of the term

[00:50] By the way, speaking of ho ho ho's I won't tell you which kind If you can listen to the very end of this show cuz I got a very interesting boots on the ground story Hope we can get to it today. We can't we'll do it next time. I'm telling you right now You'll never hear these kind of stories anywhere else But first an email from Lester living in Portland, Oregon But he says right off the bat not for long. He plans on getting out of dodge He says in the upcoming new year 2024. He says dear Johnny You're talking about collecting rainwater on occasion and how in Latin America You can just do it. There are no restrictions. Nobody cares. Nobody bothers you about it at all I know this sounds like a little thing a picky thing to even bring up

[01:37] But in certain US states, you can get into big trouble for just collecting your own water By the way, if you're living in the States, have you looked at your water bill lately? If you look at your municipal water bill, you just might have a stormwater runoff fee Tacked to your sewer or water bill that seems to be the latest tax scam. They're laying on us Oh and in my state, I just read if you have an electric car They'll be adding an additional tax for that too because you don't buy gas and you don't pay gas tax then right? I don't know about you Johnny But to me that was one of the incentives to buying an electric car No gas no gas tax and people family members mostly wonder why I want to get the hell out of Dodge He says I get shocked at least once a year here in Portland

[02:24] Oregon when I get my bill and see my stormwater runoff fee is just over 89 bucks a year The question being what the hell's a stormwater runoff fee? And why is it 89 bucks a year who came up with that figure? Does that mean if I could stop that stormwater from running off my property? I won't have to pay the fee the irony is you can't catch it You can't use your stormwater runoff, but you get charged a fee for it every year Now you might say so what pay the 89 bucks and indulge some government idiot bureaucrats fantasy You can't fight City Hall and believe me you can't But those kinds of government fees popping up out of nowhere Will become more of a frequent occurrence now that governments are broke and bankrupt

[03:11] I promise it will piss off people like me enough to get the hell out Finally be the straw that breaks the camel's back in many cases in fact in my brother's city his town The water utility sends out a quarterly bill and thirty dollars of the sixty dollar quarterly bill fee is Their version of the stormwater runoff fee and he tells me that even if he shuts his water off That is he uses zero gallons of water He still pays a hundred and twenty bucks a year Even if he boards up his house for an entire year and turns off all the utility So my brother's about had it too and he wants out. So we're both getting the hell out of Dodge, you know Johnny I've been thinking about this a long long time this regressive tax makes it impossible for me to believe there's any kind of

[03:57] Incentive to save water, you know to be a so-called good citizen and conserve more water make an effort I keep thinking what's in it for me There's no incentive at all for me to save water when they still charge me a runoff fee if government utilities were smart Which they're definitely not if they remove that fee That fine for stormwater runoff and perhaps double the cost of water usage itself Now that would provide the incentive to conserve and save water at the tap But politicians live to increase fees create new taxes and increase their power base and as for me He says the straw has broken the camel's back in a few short months. I'll be out of here Anyhow Johnny, I didn't give you my real name

[04:42] You know why cuz I collect rainwater and it's against the law I'm a criminal an unrepentant water thief constantly stealing water from my land from my roof from my gutters It's a huge fine in many states like Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, Ohio, Utah Virginia Washington and Wisconsin with more states to be added soon. You know what Johnny? I must have criminal genes in my family in the blood because my brother's a water thief do he lives in Colorado and says The government he said he's grown to hate Colorado where he's only allowed to capture 110 gallons of what he calls the King's water per billing quarter Yep in medieval times the water you collected was considered the Kings as was the air you breathe and the food you grew on

[05:33] The land. Yes, it appears we're all serfs living in medieval times. Once again, Johnny That's why I'm not using my real name because both my brother and I are breaking the law But not for long. We both have our places up for sale and we're getting the hell out of dodge in the meantime I might as well let you know how we're doing it how we're stealing what's actually ours our own water You can make an underground cistern Connected to one of your roofs downspouts just run one of your downspouts from the roof Straight into the ground clandestinely. It must be a PVC downspout though because below the ground anything else will rot Then you can collect all the Water you want now to build the proper sized cistern and connect the downspout. Just go to YouTube

[06:18] There are dozens of cistern assembly videos there. It's just a do-it-yourselfers weekend project Put it anywhere you want underground in your backyard Just don't put one of those obvious big old cisterns on your roof or I have a bunch of 55 gallon drums Placed near the downspouts around your house. Those would be dead giveaways to the water patrol By the way, Johnny the most important reason to collect rainwater besides getting over on those a-holes in government Happens to be the fact that there is no chlorine fluorine or other chemicals added by municipal water treatment plants However, the question has come up. What about the water quality coming off your roof if you've got asphalt shingle? After all shingles are basically petroleum products. Well, my brother and I were curious about that. So we did some research and

[07:08] We're happy to find out that recently published in the academic journal water research They examine the effects of conventional and alternative roofing materials on the quality of harvested rainwater Exactly what we were looking for Then he sends me the link here I'm looking at it right now. It says a study led by civil architectural and environmental Mental engineering professors at the Institute for water research showed that of the five most common roofing materials tested That would be galvanized metal a metal called galvalume Asphalt shingles fiberglass shingles and concrete roofs the study showed that metal and concrete tile roofs produce the highest Rainwater quality in other words concrete and metal roofs produce the cleanest water runoff

[07:59] The study also showed that rainwater from asphalt and fiberglass shingle roofs increasingly popular So called green roofs contain high levels of dissolved organic carbons Not good. I wouldn't want to drink that water not coming right off the roof. Anyway, no great problem though Just filter it, you know in a recent previous show I was talking about gravity filters and why you really need to have one around the house Like one of those stainless steel Berkey filters, which I think is way too expensive around 400 bucks or so I much prefer the Dalton stainless steel gravity filter It's pretty much exactly like the Berkey filter only about half price 200 bucks Now if you're located in Central America, you could skip those stainless filters altogether and get yourself an echo filter

[08:46] They're a great little gravity feed countertop unit available at most big hardware stores in Central America for between 50 and a hundred bucks But you knew that already, right? Anyway, you use a gravity feed water filter with any water you're gonna be drinking that includes any rainwater You're collecting from the roof. They'll remove all those dissolved organic carbons dirt dust other contaminants including PSAF plastics those so-called forever plastics those disgusting contaminants You've been hearing about lately and all the media outlets as if they've just popped on the scene now Something new well, I hate to spring an idea But that's why I've been talking about water filtration ever since I started this show some 12 or 13 years ago now But yeah weren't worried then were yeah

[09:33] He didn't buy a filter because after all it was just that loudmouth Johnny guy babbling about it on his radio show After all you weren't hearing it from some official government agency or some anointed all-star media hack liar like dr Falsy, but I digress as usual by the way you longtime listeners have probably heard me talk about my own underground cistern 5,000 gallons or so in my case the rainwater was running off a painted concrete roof and the paint of course is petroleum-based It's not actually paint It's much thicker than paint when you apply it more like a paste and leaves a thin film over the concrete roofing surface Almost like a layer of rubber It's advertised as a waterproof barrier to be used over any concrete or block surface and man down here in Latin America

[10:19] We have all those flat concrete roofs. They use that stuff everywhere It's pretty good stuff too and has a guarantee of five to ten years depending on the manufacturer The problem is Latinos are very very bad about preparing surfaces before they paint them or applying that kind of waterproofing In fact I've seen Latinos who are supposed to be painting contractors paint right over mold and dirt And hell even then the paint will stick for a while By the time it starts peeling or breaking down the painting contractors are long gone Details details this is Latin America you know so when you're starting any kind of project like that you really have to keep your eyes open By the way talk about Rube Goldberg in my downspout Leading to the cistern I've got a ladies nylon attached to the end of the main downspout tube that feeds into the cistern

[11:10] So then you might ask why did I do that because it removes or collects or traps All the accumulated junk and leaves and spiders and critters that may be on your roof That tend to wash right down with it in the next downpour Oh and just think of all the birds that land on your roof and start pooping away Then again maybe it's better not to think about it Hmm still wondering if you should get one of those gravity filters sounds like a plan right Oh and by the way if you don't have the time the money or the means to dig out a big cistern in your backyard You can still you know collect all the rainwater you want here in Latin America anyway In the 55 gallon drums just set them up right next to your downspouts Which then does beg another question what about mosquitoes breeding in that thing

[12:00] Because you know that's what they do they breed in open expanses of water And as it turns out here in Latin America anyway most people who collect water and rain barrels Don't have the top cover So if you're going to use that method just go on YouTube they show ways to seal a rain barrel With the downspout tube connected to it so it's always filling Then when filled to the brim there's an overflow tube Which you can use to automatically fill another rain barrel and another and another And on and on depending on how much water you want to save and store Or you can divert the excess water to the earth again Oh just one more thing I told you Lester sent me a link to the Oregon and Colorado State water collection laws He sent me the Utah State water collection statutes too I'll read just a bit of it here because it's quite interesting

[12:46] It says Utah State law allows rain catchment storage of up to 2500 gallons a year That's Utah code 73-3-1.5 It allows a household to collect up to 2500 gallons a year with the following qualifiers A household can collect and store rainwater up to a certain amount and not register with the state Oh big favor there huh As long as you have no more than two covered storage containers And neither of them must have a maximum storage capacity of greater than 100 gallons So what does that really mean? You can collect 2500 gallons a year but you're only allowed two containers of no more than

[13:32] 100 gallons each that's 200 gallons man what kind of government retires come up with that shit By the way it says right here government officials do come and inspect that means they've actually got in Utah anyway a sort of rainwater police force which once again begs that age-old question how's your plan be coming? You know on a related issue I just got to see a mail from Dave number 26 he lives in New York City he says Johnny I'm coming to your March 2024 seminar I'm a newly retired house builder and as much as I love America and I'm a fifth generation American I can't take it anymore I'm getting the hell out of dodge for good He said when I was in the custom house building business one of the favorite things to do

[14:22] was to build a custom hearth or fireplace but as of 2022 building authorities in San Francisco New York Denver and a lot of other cities forbid the construction of new fireplaces even if you build one and no one ever uses it you're not allowed unless it's one of those cheap chintzy fake electric log jobs and in some areas he says the prohibition extends to wood stoves can't even have one in your basement or garage and wood burning is prohibited in existing stoves and fireplaces on certain days called spare the air days Johnny I'm not kidding spare the air days I've seen some of these laws Dave says they're calling for fines of 100 to 500 bucks per

[15:08] violation though Native Americans are exempt so chestnuts roasting on an open fire forget about it you'll be shamed and labeled an eco-terrorist better make sure when the fireplace police spot the plume coming out of your chimney there's a Native American in the building so again how's your plan be coming meanwhile there's so much bad news coming out of Mexico I don't know where to begin I know I know tens of thousands even millions of you guys were going to Cancun and Tulum you know the Mayan Riviera had a beautiful trouble-free vacation the problem is though when Gringo's an expert decide to live there decide to have a plan B in Mexico it seems so easy just pop right across the border and you're there now you know every since I started this show 12 years ago or so I've never recommended

[15:57] Mexico is a good place to have a plan B yeah great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there the question I have for all you guys and gals who are planning to move to Mexico have you been reading the news lately every single day it's murders kidnappings beheadings entire groups of people are getting bumped off lately we're hearing about dozens of people being killed or kidnapped even grade school kids and teachers and wedding parties you know it used to be a few years back it was always gang on gang and you thought well this is never going to happen to me though once in a while the Gringo or a local gets caught in a crossfire a rare and unlucky break problem is now Gringo's you know with your dollar sign on your head you are fair game too and occasionally become the target in fact there's so much bad news and crime coming out

[16:45] of Mexico it's not much of a big deal anymore when you see it in the first world media it's like inflation it's always there you get callous to it in fact I'm looking at the first world news that just popped up on the screen and something out of associated press it says a group of people would turn away at a Mexican Christmas party they return to the party angry and with guns and killed 11 people yeah you know that kind of news just doesn't affect people that much anymore does will that kind of news stop you from having your honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta or Cancun or Tulum nah with a disappearance of 20 school kids ruin or make you postpone that vacation to Cabo nah the question really is though if you're really serious about having a plan b when you get to your stated country most likely you'll rent for a while but you're going to want to

[17:34] buy eventually you'll scope out the real estate and see it's a lot less expensive than investing anywhere in the states or Canada or Europe so buying is a logical choice the logical move right here's the thing what most gringles and expats fail to consider is what that place where you're going to invest is going to be like in three four five even ten years it's so easy to have blinders on when you're in the tropics and you're looking at a beautiful beach all day that kind of stuff clouds your judgment you know expat eddie said it's like being married to an extremely beautiful woman who's got lots of personality defects and character flaws some of them fatal many guys will stay with a girl like that forever even with all the pain and hardship it brings because they're just suckers for a pretty face that's what mexico is like a pretty face with

[18:24] fatal flaws then again if you live directly on the gringo tourist trail you can isolate yourself and remain in a perpetual gringo expat bubble hey it's going to be first world expensive but if you got the money but then again if you're not moneybags maybe you're just straight middle class american guy or gal maybe even an older american retired on a social security check in that case it's very improbable you'll be living directly on the gringo tourist trail because it's just too damn expensive that's one of the main reasons middle class americans get the hell out of dodge in the first place they know when they retire they'll never be able to have that kind of lifestyle so they go to latin america almost always well 95 of the time anyway to mexico and let me tell you middle class americans who get the hell out of dodge move to mexico they don't

[19:12] live in cancun oh they would if they could but it's first world expensive most gringo tourist towns are so instead they locate themselves away from the gringo tourist trail where rent and food are cheap and there's more of a natural local laid-back flavor and vibe to it but let me tell you just lately i've been getting more and more emails from people frustrated even scared people from middle class gringo expats with a plan b living in mexico off the gringo tourist trail they're telling me terrible stories about the increase in crime and gangs violence extortion in the works the kinds of things that rarely happened a few years ago except in the narco border towns though now it's spreading all over mexico in other words there's a lot of pent-up regret out there from gringles and expats who moved to mexico who now are thinking about a plan c

[20:04] elsewhere whether they're going to be able to pull that off or not depends on what kind of nest egg they have what they've got left over because you know many of them have bought properties when you notice little by little things around you are getting worse and now they're getting a bit scared they saw the writing on the wall a few years back but we like to think maybe things will turn out okay in the end we all come down as optimists no one likes change remember how hard it was to get that plan b going and finally end up down here in latin america imagine going through all that spending a few years settling into your new plan b destination only to find out in the short run it was great but not the right place to be in the long run anyway like i said gringo's an expats with a plan b in mexico are sending me emails saying man this maybe was not

[20:49] the right thing to do just to drive the point home here is an email from long-time listener bob from ohaka he says johnny here's yet another indicator of mexico's slow devolution to violence and state importance the border state with guadamala has always been a problem with poverty violence etc however just recently new turf wars between rival cartel factions fighting for control of drug and human trafficking routes has spilled over in a terrible way to the local population for example recently a small army caravan was wiped out in a surprise ambush by armed men just east of komatan but there's been a new level of creepiness since that happened according to an article in the local san christobal post apparently road bandits

[21:37] kidnapped a party of four folks from a restaurant in chiapez mexico on one of the more well traveled roads and one of the victims has been found beheaded with a crude note attached bob says i've driven this road many times myself and it's given me the chills he says i'm going to put the kabash on recreational trips to chiapez for a while then he sends me the link to the article pretty depressing tell you what if i lived in mexico anywhere off the gringo tourist trail i wouldn't be sleeping well at night and how about this email from kenny living in districto federale that's mexico city he says johnny have a look at this article i've had a couple of mexican and a gringo friend who has scammed this way he sent me a link to this article

[22:23] titled mexican cartels are accessing databases used by the government to select victims and monitor them in real time and i'll paraphrase to cut out the boring parts it says if you think criminals in mexico are sharing intelligence and security software through what's up which is a platform that everyone in mexico is linked to it goes on to say cartels are using police databases along with what's up to hunt down extortion victims and their own people in real time it says cartels and criminals can now geolocate people through what's up through minute-to-minute location logs and obtain private information and documents through

[23:10] software called titan which is shared and links to what's up it says various titan services are available for purchase from 10 000 mexican pesos about 600 to 180 000 pesos about nine grand once purchased buyers can get their own login or an official user to fulfill requests on anyone in the system or anyone using what's up with the titan app you can look up anyone in mexico so then how is this system available to criminals and narcos well as it turns out mexican police forces purchase licenses to use titan themselves they then resell login and login passwords to criminals and narcos on the dark web and the black market according to an anonymous mexican cop who is involved in this he says

[23:59] they send me a payment method to acquire the licenses then i resell them to whoever wants i know that some other law enforcement people and agencies are also reselling these licenses or services to other cartel members he says every mexican police department has someone in the organization who's making money on the side selling login passwords and keys so how does the system work well once you've got login information you put in the name of the person you wish to track it obtains all the information from a large database on what's up and gps technology will track their cell phone criminals then know every single move that person makes once you're logged in you can access mexican voter id databases credit bureaus bank statements

[24:44] phone apps logs emails selfies photos and everything that's ever been posted on whatsapp most importantly they have access to all the victim's bank statements credit card data and credit bureau information they know exactly what a person makes is worth how much he's got in the bank and his credit history so they know exactly how much they could tap him for how much they can extort now according to an anonymous halasco new generation cartel member he said cartels often use the titan platform to find their own people who've gone missing and to put out a hit on another cartel member according to this source you simply enter the first and last name or phone number of the person you're looking for and you instantly receive information and addresses of not only that person but their relatives too so it's the easiest way to locate someone who's in

[25:34] hiding in fact this cartel source said that he believed the platform is being used more by criminals cartels than it is by law enforcement hmm all right me johnny here now that's a revolt and development if i ever heard one but haven't i been telling you guys for years now if you're gonna have whatsapp i know you need it if you're living down here in latin america don't post pictures or bank statements or selfies or anything on it do the smart thing just use it to set up doctors and plumbers appointments never put a contract or an id or a bill or a bank statement on it though i know that's what nearly a hundred percent of latinos do oh and by the way as for me i always make sure in my settings i never have my gps activated in my phone well i take that back i do have ways

[26:23] which needs your gps location to work the trick i use is as i never turn my gps on if i'm gonna use ways not until i'm maybe a mile or two away from where i live so if anyone was to hack into my ways travel history they'd never be able to pinpoint where i lived not within a mile or two anywhere oh and by the way i never use google either of course i have a gmail i'm stuck with but as for gmail itself i never use it ever that goes for fakebook instacrap or dickcock i don't have any of them though it is kind of funny once in a while i'll get an email from linkedin that says my name's popped up or someone's noticed me i don't know it could be a scam since i've never signed up for linkedin and never will all right we're

[27:13] perilously close to the end of the show just want to remind you once again of my upcoming march 2024 expat insider seminar it'll take place in two countries guatemala and al salvador it's the best way i can think of to fast track your plan b just go to expat plan b.com and click on the seminar link for all the info the agenda and sign up details 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 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