#1310 – The Expat Files: Water Contamination, Expats in El Salvador, and Car Security

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 Hey, my email stack is getting pretty big. Let's dig into it This one's from Tyrone. He says Johnny Johnny Johnny You've been harping on for years about getting a water purifier for your home even carrying a portable one with you when you're traveling

[00:51] At first I thought it was overkill, but you've convinced me Though I figured yeah, I'll get around to it. Eventually even if in the end it doesn't do much. It's good peace of mind But now just recently we've been bombarded with articles talking about how impure our water is it's sickening Sorry, I doubted you Johnny. Well, it's my wife actually who doubted you She doubts most of the things you say but not enough to stop listening to your show Aside from that, can you send me the link to the gravity water purifier you recommend on Amazon? signed Tyrone shoelaces Yeah, I guess old Tyrone's a boomer. All right Don't you guys and gals out there recognize that name Tyrone shoelaces?

[01:40] It's from an old long forgotten Cheech and Chong skit Cheech and Chong does that ring a bell? I bet today's Gen X and Y and Zers never heard of Anyway Tyrone talking about the water Contamination problem worldwide now, especially in bottled water says it's sickening Yeah, it's sickening. All right sickening the whole world and they don't even know it yet Though some people refuse to acknowledge it they'd rather be on dick cock and watching reality shows or Sports just a few days ago, you know And here we all thought buying bottled water was a good thing In Latin America, it's a huge thing

[02:26] Every day I see trucks carrying hundreds of those five-gallon bottles of water Drivers on motorcycles dropping them off at people's homes everywhere, too You just phone up one of the local private water companies or the local grocery store And they'll deliver one right to your house in five minutes and everyone thinks it's a good thing Everybody's happy Meanwhile the news gets worse and worse in a new paper published in the journal proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences chemists using a technique called Raman scattering microscopy Which can detect particles down to the size of a bacterium or virus? They measured hundreds of popular bottled water brands in the US. They discovered to their surprise yuck 240,000

[03:13] Particles of plastic and each liter of bottled water. They found a similar amount at every bottled water sample tested 90% of which were nano plastics. This is 10 to 100 times larger than previous estimates Are you getting this? 240,000 particles of plastic and each liter of bottled water Yeah, right. And why do you buy bottled water because you think it's pure right man. What a tragedy now, of course the IBWA That's the International Bottled Water Association is scrambling for answers And what do you think they fear? Well, not the damage to public health but class action lawsuits After all their marketing campaigns claim their waters as pure as the driven snow though

[04:01] Unfortunately, the driven snow is loaded with plastic nanoparticles, too Not quite false advertising anyway So in a press release just the day after that study came out an international bottled water Association press release said quote Bottled water is just one of the thousands of food and beverage products packaged in plastic containers It said that bottled water companies are at an unfair disadvantage when it comes to this study Because the National Academy of Sciences is focusing on bottled water only there should be focusing on other plastic containers the worst offenders being Ramon noodle cups put into the microwave Styrofoam cups that have warm liquids in them plastic red beer cups that continuously leak

[04:49] Nanoplastic into beer sodas and other beverages and anything hot or warm served in paper cups like Starbucks cups all are sprayed with a plastic coating If not liquids would saturate the paper cup and leak through to the other side Hmm, you know ever since I've been doing this show at least 12 or 13 years now I've been talking about this contaminated water problem Of course way back when we were simply discussing how governments lie to us about practically everything So why wouldn't they lie to us about the safety of our municipal water? Now of course in Latin America when it comes to municipal water Governments down here always advise their clients not to drink it In fact, if you've ever traveled overseas I'm sure you've seen a little sticker in the bathroom of your hotel room that says this is not potable water

[05:38] Sure, governments down here in Latin America are lazy ass slugs But they know enough to tell you not to drink the municipal water Meanwhile, I still run into the occasional gringo or expat who tells me his particular city has great water or this US City or that Canadian city has this really fantastically pure mountain water that he can drink right from the tap And you know what? Not only do I call bullshit on that. I can't believe anybody with a half a brain would even bring it up How can you believe that when they pump chlorine and fluoride and all the US water supplies worse yet? There's always been that false security when you buy bottled water when people find out their bottled water is loaded with contaminants, too They're outraged for a minute, but keep on buying and drinking the stuff

[06:24] Though I have to admit I know lots of scientific types and engineers who will not drink bottled water Of course, they'll never drink tap water either. They're filtering their own Though some seemingly outraged people go right back to drinking bottled water In fact, just yesterday I was visiting an expat gringo lady at her apartment I walked in sat on her balcony and she said You want a beer or some wine, a cup of coffee? I said black coffee, no sugar, no nothing would be just fine She said to her cleaning lady who was there at the time Can you make Johnny a cup of coffee? The cleaning lady walked to the little kitchen area I was watching, she has an open floor plan She grabbed one of those very common stovetop aluminum espresso makers You've seen those things, they're everywhere But cooking food and brewing coffee with aluminum kitchen utensils?

[07:14] Uh-uh I'm a get it She tipped the big plastic five gallon Got a phone of water she had propped up on her countertop Filled up the aluminum espresso thing With that micro and nano plastic contaminated water Packed the little reservoir with coffee Shoved it on the stove and made me a contaminated cafe Americano So did I drink it? Well I made like I drank it I went through the motions, lifted it to my lips a few times So as not to insult her Here's the thing, that expat lady of the house is living in Latin America Because of me, because of the show Well at least I had something to do with it Because my show is all about getting the hell out of dodge, right? She tells me all the time my show got her going on her plan B But hey, you know what they say

[07:59] You can lead a horse to water, contaminated or otherwise But you can't make him drink That said, I have a question for you listeners Whether you're living in Latin America or up in the States Or Canada, the UK, anywhere When you're at somebody's house and invited for dinner or lunch, whatever And you see that big five gallon jug of bottled water on the countertop Knowing there are 250,000 micro and nano plastic particles Floating around in every liter of that thing And that's what they cook with and drink And they're serving it up to you Are you okay with that? If you're not, how do you refuse and get out of it gracefully? After all, this last year, 2023, everybody found out Or anyone who reads the news anyway That plastic is everywhere in water, the air, and our food supply

[08:46] In fact, you've probably heard That the average person ingests a credit card's worth of plastic particles a week Or month, depending on which articles you read With some of the more recent studies showing that's a huge underestimate So what do you do? You can either throw in the towel and ignore it Or possibly bring your own home-filtered water with you When you go to a restaurant in a stainless steel or glass container It would be kind of strange to bring that over to your friend's house If you've been invited to dinner, let's say So then what are you supposed to do? You know, I carry a glass bottle of water in my car And when I go into a restaurant, I bring it with me You know, my girlfriend, she didn't think I was nuts But she did scald me for it Saying, they're not going to let you into a restaurant with your own bottle And I said, oh yeah, watch me

[09:33] And you know what? No one, not a waiter or waitress, has ever given me any trouble Though it still seems to be slightly embarrassing for my girlfriend It reminds me of my sister, you know, she's a dentist up in the States She carries a little vial of special toothpicks in her purse And when she's at restaurants, she'll occasionally pull it out and stealthily use it She said her boyfriend or date would give her a look As if to say, that's not cool I mean, hell, you'd expect that kind of action from clients at a truck stop But not a high-class restaurant She said, yeah, well, I'm a dentist And when it comes to the oral cavity, I have a special dispensation Anyway, it must have been tolerable enough for her last boyfriend Because she ended up marrying the guy And she still totes those things around in her purse And she whips them out when she feels like it

[10:20] I'm wondering what would happen if you brought your own water Into a restaurant up in the States, Canada, Europe, whatever I bet they'd give you shit about it Because, you know, I've noticed in some restaurants Of course, I'm talking about here in Latin America Right on the front door or in the entrance way There'll be a couple of small stickers that say No guns, no smoking, no dogs, no food or beverages I know up at the States they're really strict about that But down here in Latin America, everything's negotiable All right, speaking of listeners named Dave If you think Dave's not here, well, he is Dave, number 46, anyway He writes and says, Johnny, I'm curious about your thoughts About a plan B in Guatemala versus El Salvador As you know, Max Keiser has been promoting

[11:05] The new El Salvador visa and passport program That costs a million dollars I'm a Bitcoiner myself, but I do not have that kind of money lying around Dave says the things that are going on in El Salvador Are very exciting such that I think it could be The Singapore of the Western Hemisphere However, I wonder if too many gringo Bitcoiners pile into El Salvador If it won't turn El Salvador into another Costa Rica And ruin the gringo advantage In contrast, he says I've been to Guatemala And it does not seem as exciting as El Salvador But moving to a place where the gringo advantage Will last much longer has certain advantages Signed, Dave, number 46 from Tulsa All right, Dave, thanks for that Now, first off, let's talk about this passport for El Salvador That's supposed to cost a million bucks for Bitcoiners

[11:53] Or I guess anyone that has a million bucks Personally, I think that's outrageous Because you could buy a passport from a nice Caribbean country Like Antigua or St. Lucas for slightly over 100k By the way, for all you listeners out there Who think selling passports for money Is slightly dodgy as the Brits would say On the dark side, even criminal It just doesn't set right, does it? Well, did you know that Canada, all the countries Europe And the US do exactly the same thing Though they don't advertise it For example, if let's say you're a person from France And you want to get a US passport instantly Or practically instantly You can get ahold of the US State Department And say you're going to invest two or three million dollars

[12:39] In a business Hire X amount of people, et cetera, et cetera You just need a passport and they'll give you one You just have to give them a nice solid business plan And come through There are hundreds if not thousands of cases Of very rich foreigners who've gotten a passport instantly in the US By making a substantial investment in the country By the way, there's a name for it It's called Passport and Nationality by Investment So try to get the evil thoughts out of your head About programs that exist Where you get a passport for an investment Practically every country will do that in one way, shape or form But first world countries don't advertise it Simply because it doesn't quite sound right, does it? Sounds dodgy So then why do countries even do it? Every country these days is completely broke and wants your money Or money any way they can get it

[13:24] But you know, I personally think that El Salvador made a big mistake By jacking it up to a million bucks I say it should have been more like a hundred thousand Then they would have got a boatload of Bitcoiners Coming in right away Not that there aren't boatloads of Bitcoiners moving to El Salvador At least investing in El Salvador right now Though as to Dave's concern about Bitcoiners piling in And rooting the gringo advantage in Salvador Well, I'll tell you what I've been to Salvador many times And it seems that gringo advantage is getting stronger every day Seems counterintuitive How can that be? Well, the locals are seeing what the gringo Bitcoiners are bringing in They're investing in businesses, housing and infrastructure projects Basically a whole different kind A whole different class of gringles as compared to the ones that have piled into Costa Rica

[14:10] The fact is because the Bitcoiners are coming in and spending their money Providing jobs and developing infrastructure The locals have never had it so good Except for one thing The cost of living in the areas where the Bitcoiners are going That would be around Bitcoin Beach Most of the surfing areas on the coast Well, I can tell you in the last few years Real estate prices have really gone quite wild However, it seems to me that Bitcoiners like specific little areas So that's where they're settling and building Meaning the land elsewhere Oh, the Boonies especially is pretty damn cheap And the building costs very low Which is true of most of Latin America Now, of course, there are a lot of first world American style developers coming in Building beautiful first world style residential neighborhoods

[14:57] So if you deal with an English speaking American style builder You're going to pay at least $100 a square meter Which is like $100 a square foot for construction costs However, if you speak Spanish and hire a local contractor A lot of them are very good You could build first world style for half that $50 a square foot or even less It all depends on how hands-on you want to be The other thing that must be said is that Most of the gringles and expanse coming in and moving to Salvador Are very educated A lot of them nerdy Hyper intelligent like-minded people A cross section of the Bitcoin slash crypto crowd A big contrast to the gringles who invaded Costa Rica So many of whom are retired school teachers and government workers The towns and cities are loaded with woke libtards

[15:43] And the beaches are loaded with California surfer dude party hardy types too Exactly the kind of gringles and expats you don't want living next door Which is not true at all of El Salvador The gringles and expats you meet down there Are mostly independent, creative, educated, thoughtful types Sure, they've got their share of surfer dudes coming in and out Because El Salvador's got some special beaches It's known around the world for great waves on certain beaches But seems to me it's a different kind of surfer dude than Costa Rica In Costa Rica surfing is secondary and partying tops the list In fact, I remember my little beach cabin in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica It's about two blocks from the beach There were many, many nights when I'd hear partiers whooping it up on the beach

[16:28] All through the night, they wouldn't sleep I never saw or heard that happen once Nope, not once on the beaches in Salvador It's just a different class of people So in the end, Dave, both Guatemala and El Salvador Have a very strong gringo advantage that's not going to diminish soon But a million bucks for nationality and passport, I'd skip it Instead, I'd go for permanent residency and wait it out, I think it's five years Then you can automatically apply for citizenship Though you'll have to spend quite a bit of time in El Salvador During that five years to qualify But it will save you a million bucks Now, here's an email from Greg, he says, Johnny, I wonder what you think about this I just changed car insurance companies in Guadalajara, Mexico Where I live, from Chubb to GNP

[17:14] They offered me to install free low jack in my car Wonder if maybe they have that where you are Wonder what you think about this or you know anything about it I'm kind of thinking maybe it's kind of a trap Since most policies pay on what they call total robo or total robbery Meaning if the car is never recovered, I get paid Also, I wonder if someone can be watching my movement with the car If I have low jack Not sure what third party might be watching But who knows? What do you think, Johnny? Signed, Greg Well, Greg, thanks for that I got a lot of thoughts on the subject First of all, you know my recommendations about cars Always drive a car that's a couple years old In good condition but a couple years old You see, in Latin America, they like to steal new cars

[18:01] Or light new cars For various reasons, resale, parts, etc Now, as far as low jack I trust low jack itself But you can't trust the people running your low jack system No matter where you are They've been hacked in their client list found on the dark web To me, it's just an expensive feel good app Because, you know, you can go on Amazon right now And for around 100 bucks, even less You could buy a tiny little tracker unit You can install in your car Includes a cell phone app Then, if your car ever gets stolen, you could track it Pinpointed exactly, no matter where they take it How do I know about these things and are they any good? Well, that's because in a past life I was an engineer and I buy lots of gadgets You know, that partial nerd gene and stuff Though I'm not a complete nerd

[18:46] Because I'm missing two important nerd genes One for gaming I never played video games Never got hooked And I'm missing a gene for programming You know, writing code I can do it Or I used to be able to do it Because they taught that in engineering school But I always thought it's so damn boring I just could never get into it It makes me sleepy For me, a great cure for insomnia Anyway, not so long ago A friend asked me about those car tracking systems Because his teenage kid just got his license And of course, daddy always lets his kid use the car, right? But he wanted to make sure the kid wasn't lying to him He wanted to track where he was going So he installed one of these things in his car I helped him And the kid never knew and still doesn't That his dad tracks him everywhere he goes In fact, last time I saw my gringo buddy

[19:33] A couple months ago, he said Johnny, you just can't believe how teenagers lie I said, that's easy to solve Don't let him use the car But American dads, gringo dads included Coddled their kids To the point where it's sickening to watch I saw it with my own sister's kids You can't imagine how many times I wanted to slap the shit out of them And now that my sister's kids are whiny, wimpy 30-somethings My sister finally confessed to me That she was not such a good parent She was short on discipline And I said, short? You never ever said no to him, not once I think I might have told you this My sister's son crashed three other cars Before he was 20 years old Man, if he was my kid, I'd have kicked the shit out of him Every single day till he straightened up But that's another story Oh, and did I tell you?

[20:19] When he turned 20-somethings And still living with my sister who was now divorced He didn't want to move out And my sister didn't have the heart to kick him out Finally, my sister and her ex-husband Bought him a frickin' house just to get rid of him See what I mean? They would have been better off kicking the shit out of him Man, am I glad I'm living down here in Latin America? I can't tell you Anyway, Greg, I think I'd skip the offer To install LoJack free in your car Oh, and by the way, if you buy one of those trackers for your car from Amazon Most of them have a $5 or so monthly fee Because they're connected constantly to the internet Now, I don't have a tracker like that for my car Though I don't have any kids either And I think if I had kids and I let them use my car I'd consider getting one Though I wouldn't be stealthy about it I'd tell my kid This is the deal

[21:04] You use my car? It's my car and I'm going to track you However, if you get a job and get your own car It's all yours I won't try to track you or interfere at all Anyway, I've always put cutout switches on my cars When I buy a car, usually the next weekend I'll take a couple hours and install a cutout switch That's a little switch hidden in your driver's side compartment somewhere If it's not switched on, the car won't start Just won't turn over Or there'll be no spark to the ignition Anyway, it costs all of $10 or less for the parts And any half-assed do-it-yourselfer can install one I have a report and a diagram I could send you If you want to install one yourself So what I do is Every time I park my car, I flip the switch to off

[21:50] Making it impossible for anyone to start my car Even if they cloned a key or the key fob Though if and when you sell your car You better advise the new owner Oh, and here's a tip If you're going to park in a long-term parking lot Just go into your car's fuse panel And pull the fuse for the starter It's always highlighted right on the back of the fuse box Starter or ignition, IGN Then no one will ever be able to start your car Even if they've cloned your key or your key fob Then when you come back a day or a week or a month later Just pop that fuse back in and you're good to go Now on the same subject you may have heard lately There's been a rash of car thefts throughout the States, Canada, Europe Mostly very late model Kias and Hyundes are here

[22:39] Well, here's what you didn't know Or most people don't know anyway Thieves have perfected the artist stealing the code from the key fob Even when it's sitting on the kitchen counter Or hung on a hook by your door or sitting in your pocket You know, I was never really hot on those key fobs myself You know, where you don't even have a key attached It's just a fob with buttons What a name, huh? FOB Anyway, the tools and the little kit that makes the theft Fast and easy can be purchased right on the internet They've even got YouTube videos on it Just look up how to override or clone a key fob Where yet there's an amplifier available Very cheap too on the internet That allows criminals to amplify your key fob signal When it's sitting in the kitchen or in your pocket

[23:25] Or far away So crooks can copy your key fob signal from up to a block away So all they have to do is pick you out of a crowd Follow you to your house Park out in front while you go into your garage Or your kitchen, whatever And scan their device for your key fob signal The whole problem revolves around the smart key systems That use non-secure commercial radio waves To signal your car when you press the key fob As you know, with your key fob You can unlock your door, start your engine Even open the trunk from a great distance away That's all the signal the crooks need to clone it According to expert car thieves They can clone your device in 20 to 30 seconds So then how can you avoid that? Well, just have a cutoff switch

[24:10] Like I said, you can't start the car when the switch is off Even if you have the original key and key fob Another easy hack is when you get home While we store the key in a metal container Or one of those bags with a metal wire mesh in it Called a Faraday cage If you have one of those passport pouches that hooks onto your belt They have a hidden metal mesh in them So crooks can't scan your passport or credit cards as you walk by That'll block key fob transmissions too Though the quick and easy fix is just to have a metal can Sitting in your kitchen and you throw your key fob in there Every time you walk into the house Because I repeat Anytime your key fob is just sitting on a table or carried in your pants pocket Or in your purses, ladies and gay guys

[24:57] Oh, and artsy fartsy straight guys sometimes have purses too, right? In any event, if you're just carrying it around as usual, it can't be hacked The thing is, what people don't know is there's always communication between the key fob and the car itself By the way, crooks are stealing lots of high-end boats that way too Since it seems everything with a motor has got a key fob these days, right? Even boats I don't like them myself I prefer a key How about you? By the way, did you ever have the battery die in your key fob? That's a time for panic, right? Unless you know how to pull the little hidden key out of the key fob There's always one stealthily buried in there somewhere The trick is how to find and detach it There's always a secret little latch And if you never checked it out And I don't think 90% of the population ever has You'll be in a panic when you're stuck in a parking lot and your car door won't open

[25:45] I've been there How about you? The thing is, I don't know how many cars are stolen in Latin America But in the States, they do keep those statistics And according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau From the US, that is It says that almost a million cars were stolen in the US in 2023 Have you ever had your car stolen? You know, since I've been putting in those cutoff switches in my cars Probably like 25 years now I've never once worried about it Though there have been a couple of times when I've been in a big shopping center And I just couldn't locate my car Sometimes, for just a half a second, you think, did it get stolen? I'm thinking, I hope that I flipped that switch to the off position Yeah, well, so how many times have you lost your car in a parking lot? Only to find it like 10 minutes later

[26:31] Happens to everyone, I think But seriously, I'm really sick of everything having a remote control or a key fob these days I'm expecting to buy a new washing machine and finding it's got a key fob, too Why does everything have to be smart these days? We don't need smart We need dependable Oops, we're getting towards the end of the show So I'm gonna plug my seminar You know, I've got my March 2024 seminar coming up And as this show goes out on January 14th, 2024 That means you have just a little over two weeks to sign up for the seminar And get in on those early bird discounts Because, remember, on February 1st, we're back to regular pricing You can check out the schedule, the details, the agenda, etc. at expatplanb.com

[27:19] And remember, there's a three payment plan So if you sign up and pay the first payment before February 1st, you still get in on the early bird discount So do, by all means, go to expatplanb.com and click on the seminar link 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, theexpatfiles.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 2-5 year head start on your plan B Send me an email, theexpatfiles.gmail.com