#134 – The Expat Files: Uruguay’s Realities and Expat Life

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:03] Hi everybody, I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to The Expat Files, living in Latin America. The show that tells you what it's really like to live, work, play and or retire in Latin America. I tell it just like it is, not the version they give you in those glossy travel magazines, or the picture they paint for you in those international traveler websites, where they're only trying to sell you something. What's it really like for expats living in Latin America? Well, it's time to take off those rose colored glasses and find out. So let's get started. As promised, I'm finally going to talk about Uruguay, which has been coming up a lot lately in those international travel magazines. Seems like just in the last few years it's been all over the internet as a very cool place to retire. And I know if you get any of those blurbs from places like International Living, which

[00:48] I guess based on your emails most of you guys do, and I don't know if you're new to International Living or not, but I know they've been around some 20 years or so and they promote lots of different things. And it seems to me they changed their minds an awful lot about what they do recommend. For example, 20 years ago or so, when I first ran into these guys, they were really promoting Mexico. That was the place to be. Then about five years later, it was Costa Rica, everything Costa Rica. And then came Panama, everything Panama. And in the last few years it's been Uruguay. And if you've noticed, they've pulled back on Costa Rica. You don't see much on that anymore. And Mexico seems to be off their radar too. So anyway, let's talk about little Uruguay. And I do get a fair amount of emails asking me to talk about Uruguay like this one here. It says, dear Johnny, please add me to the list when you finalize your future seminar.

[01:33] And also, please do a show or two on Uruguay. I know you don't like the four season weather, but is it the place to be in a financial meltdown when the western world goes under? It looks to me to be safe, uncorrupt, with a good GDP to debt ratio, and it's the banking center of South America. And it's only a ferry ride to Buenos Aires, which is the Paris of South America. Please give us your take on Uruguay. Well, first of all, if you move to Uruguay, you're looking at a very small country with only about three million people, which poses a few problems of its own, which I'll talk about in a little while. And the biggest city month of video seems to be the one most expats talk about relocating to. And it's got about a million people or so, and it kind of reminds me of a little bit bigger version of Milwaukee. And like Milwaukee, it's kind of drab, flat, and ugly.

[02:18] It seems like no matter what kind of photographs you take of month of video, they all turn out looking kind of drab and lifeless, which is a lot like how some expats I know view that city. Again, kind of like Milwaukee. And like our emailer said, it does have the four seasons, and that means you're going to have heating and cooling bills, just like you do up in the US middle west. And like I mentioned before, most things in Latin America are much cheaper than they are in the first world, except things that are energy related, like gasoline, electricity, and propane gas. So it's very likely that if you live in Uruguay, or Chile, or Argentina, or any parts south, you're actually going to be paying more for your utilities than you do up in the states. So be prepared for that. And here's another thing I absolutely don't like about Uruguay. They got a tremendous tax on cars, new or used.

[03:05] And let me tell you, if you have a kind of a junker car up in Chicago or in New York, worth about three or four thousand bucks, down in Uruguay, a car like that goes for at least ten, maybe twelve thousand bucks, triple. And when you buy a new car, you can figure out paying at least double than the sticker price in the states. And that expats really hate, because we like our cars, that's one of the first world idiosyncrasies that we can't seem to shake. For most of us who have had cars in the states, it's a huge step backwards to take public transportation in a Latin country, because public transportation naturally is government owned and operated, so like everything that's owned and operated by the government, it sucks in almost every way possible, including ways you never thought were possible. The buses are late, they're dirty, they're rickety, they blow out big huge clouds of pollution and most of the time it's standing room only. And now for the bad news about public buses.

[03:52] Just kidding. Anyway, the maintenance on those things is either non-existent or so crappy, that I have a standing bet going that I always win. And it goes like this. If you're in my car with me driving around anywhere in a city in Latin America, I guarantee that you'll see at least one public bus, and usually not just one, dead in the water, with a bunch of guys standing around it, scratching their heads, poking at the motor or the guts of the thing, wondering just what to do to get the thing on the road again. Meanwhile, all the passengers have disborded, mulling around kind of pissed off, all waiting for another piece of junk bus to come along to rescue them from the even worse piece of junk bus that just broke down. And that next bus that comes along is going to be filled to the gills, just like the broken one, and only a handful of stranded passengers are going to be able to push their way in. But the worst thing about broken down, stranded, and abandoned public buses is that they don't

[04:40] pull off to the side of the road or on an exit ramp like you're required to do up in the first world. You're not supposed to obstruct traffic, you can get a ticket for that, but not down here. Instead they just leave it in the middle of the lane and get out and start poking around at the motor, which is reason number 246 why you don't want to ride a chicken bus. So the bottom line is, in Uruguay, expect to pay twice or even three times as much as the published first world blue book value on the car, which drives even more people than usual to that crappy public transportation. And I have to tell you that Uruguayans have a quaint little saying that they use when things go wrong or they're trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare, and it goes something like this. S lo que hay. S lo que hay. And what that means is, that's just the way it is, and that's the standard answer that

[05:25] you get after you've been waiting in line for two hours in a bank, or in a government office line, or to pay your electric bill, and if that isn't irritating enough, something like the following just might happen too, and it's no joke because it's happened to me. Anyway, you're waiting in line for more than an hour, and that clerk that's waiting on you stops to answer her cell phone. She drops everything in midstream, goes on break, and she hangs a little sign in front of her window that says, temporarily out of service please go to another cashier. Then you feel like an idiot, and you have to queue up to a completely different line, and when you complain to somebody about it, or ask what just happened, they'll always answer S lo que hay. That's the way it is. Now, one time in a Montevideo appliance store, I think it was Clubcoat. It's one of those places that has a membership like Sam's Club, where you pay 20 bucks a year and you get a plastic card with your picture on it and all that, just like Sam's

[06:13] Club, kinda. Except, I bought a plasma TV there, and of course when I checked out I had to show them my club membership, and they scanned it and punched me in, and I paid my bill and everything, but I had to bring the TV back two days later because the remote control just didn't work, it didn't work at all. Which is really nobody's fault, that can happen any time, right? Oh yeah, and by the way, I paid twice as much for that television than I would've paid for the same thing in the states, due to those crazy Uruguayan import taxes. And why do you think those Uruguayan taxes are so heavy? Well that's easy, because one in five working adult people is employed by the government. So it's like the US, Europe, and Costa Rica by the way. You have to have heavy taxes to pay the salaries of these do-nothing deadbeats, not to mention the salaries in the public sector, the government sector, are twice of what you'd pay for the

[07:01] equivalent job in the private sector. And to pay for those deadbeats, they have very high import taxes, like I mentioned with the cars. Also, they have very high import taxes on anything electronic, so you're gonna pay double or more, like I did for my TV. So anyway, I brought that TV back two days later, and they asked me for the sales receipt, and I dug around and I dug around and guess what? I couldn't find it. And I know that's happened to everyone at least once. You can't find that sales receipt when something breaks and is still under warranty. And speaking of warranties, that's why I bought that TV at that Club Co. It's one of the few places in Uruguay, because it's a transnational of course, that has a decent return policy and a nice guarantee and warranty program, usually one year. And I've taken things back to that store before, and they're actually pretty first world about

[07:47] giving you satisfaction, again because it's a transnational corporation, which I think is actually a subsidiary of Walmart. Anyway, so I didn't have my receipt and I brought it back, and they said, well I'm sorry, it's not under warranty unless you have the original receipt. And then, like any good gringo, I asked to see the manager. Oh, and by the way, if you're thinking about moving to Uruguay, forget about finding English speakers down there, unless you go to the American Embassy or hang around in the downtown hotel district where they have transnational hotels like the Marriott and the Princess. Because you see, the farther south you get in Latin America, English becomes less a factor in their culture, so you just don't find many good English speakers. And that's only natural when you consider the fact that the Latin countries closest to the United States like Mexico are going to have much more commerce and interaction with us, along with a lot more immigration and movement between borders.

[08:34] So the only place you're going to be able to practice your English in Uruguay is with the odd gringo you might meet or at expat bars, which I don't recommend, and you already know that. So I'm at this big transnational appliance and variety store in Montevideo, trying to get some warranty work on a TV that I've only had for two days. In fact, I didn't want my money back, which they won't give you anyway, they'll only give you an in-store credit. Don't expect any retail store in Latin America to actually ever hand you real money back, but an in-store credit's okay. It's better than a kick in the cajones, you know? Anyway, so the manager asks me for my receipt, and I say, look, I don't have it, but I bought this TV two days ago. Go ahead, look it up on your computer, and I gave him my membership card. He punched it in, and sure enough, it shows up on the screen with my name and my picture

[09:20] and a list of all the things that I've bought at that store in the last few months since I had a membership. And as usual, it might seem rude, but I always tip the computer screen a little bit towards me so I can read it too while he's reading it. Now you can get away with that down here in Latin America. You can put your hand over the counter and tip the screen towards you, and they won't make a move to stop you. But, you do something like that in a store in the United States, like at Best Buys or Sears, and they'll call security on you. I'm sure of it. Anyway, down here in Latin America, the people are just too polite to do that, which is another reason why I like being down here. Anyway, we were both looking at the screen, and I pointed to my account, and I said, there you go. Look at that. It's right there two days ago. I bought that TV. See? You have a record of it. It's right there in your system. But guess what? He's stuck to his guns. Because I didn't have my receipt, he pointed to the repair department and said, I'm sorry,

[10:08] but you'll have to pay for the repair if you don't have your receipt. And then he said those magic words, es lo que hay. That's just the way it is, and I wanted to strangle him. Now, at that point, I was getting pretty steamed, and I told him he was an idiot. When you say idiota, it's a nice little insult that's not exactly over the top, but it drives the point home. Anyway, after I called him an idiot in his own language, I took my broken TV in remote and stormed right out of that store, thinking that sooner or later that receipt was going to show up somewhere. Then I'd be back to shove that receipt right in that idiot's face. And here's the thing. The TV did work, it was the remote that was broken. And by the way, man, are we addicted to our remote controls or what? Try getting up off your potato boy recliner every time you want to switch to channel. That's what I had to do for the next couple weeks.

[10:55] And I can tell you, the way we men switch channels, it's pretty good exercise. And probably a good reason why there's so many obese people sitting around their TVs. I tell you, getting up and changing the channel on your TV manually, that's a lost art. Hey, now there's an idea. Johnny's surefire way to lose 20 pounds. Yank the batteries out of your remote. Anyway, when you're in Uruguay, you're going to hear that phrase at least once a day. It's lo que hay. That's just the way it is. So instead of actually solving the problem and doing something about it, people in Uruguay just shrug and say that's the way it is, which also is a sure sign that the gringo advantage is alive and well. And expats and expat wannabes could do very well down there. Because when we open a bar, restaurant, or a bed and breakfast, when something's wrong or not working or someone complains, we don't say, it's lo que hay. That's the way it is.

[11:40] We get off our dead asses, fix it, and make it right. Which reminds me of a time I was sitting in a restaurant in Montevideo and the rain was coming down pretty hard outside. And right next to my table, water drops were dripping from a seam in an overhead skylight. And the water was dripping right on the floor a few feet away from me. And when I told the waiter about it, he came back and threw a little dish towel on it and just left it there to soak up the drips that kept coming. I mean, imagine a waiter doing something like that in a nice restaurant up in the United States. And this was a nice restaurant. Anyway, I looked up and I saw that there was a little gap between the skylight and the metal grid that it was resting on. And I thought, hey, that's where the water's leaking through. It has to have been there for ages. How come someone just doesn't grab a ladder, because it was pretty high up, and run a little bead of silicone caulk? That had fixed it for good.

[12:27] So I called the waiter back and I said, look, I can see where the leak's coming from. It's obvious. Why don't you grab a ladder and caulk that? I mean, what's a tube of silicone caulk run, two or three bucks? And then he said, you guessed it, SLOKI. That's the way it is. And all the while I'm thinking, this guy's pretty lazy. And then he said, YOLO KIERO PERONO I ESCALERA. I want to do it, but we don't have a ladder. And that explained everything SLOKI. That's the way it is. Oh, and getting back to that email about Uruguay, I have to disagree with the writer who says that Uruguay is the financial center of South America. Well, it's not or it's not anymore. I'll tell you that. But, you know, it once was some years back when Argentina had one of its regular meltdowns. Back in the 90s, when Argentina went bankrupt for like the 10th time, there was huge capital

[13:13] flight into Uruguayan banks. Because not only is it a country that's right next door to Argentina, Buenos Aires, the Paris of Latin America, like our email says, is only a little over two hours to Montevideo by car. You see, Uruguay was the preferred place for capital flight from Argentina, even though Brazil is its big next door neighbor, with a ton more banks, a huge population and great stability. But it still has a huge downside. People there speak Portuguese and all the bank transactions are in Portuguese, too. But anyway, these days, Uruguay is not a banking financial center, though you could say it was a few years back. Not so long ago, it had very good banking secrecy laws, which after 9-11 put it on the international bankers blacklist, which is something little Uruguay thought it couldn't afford to do. And the government and the finance ministers thought being on that list would kill international

[14:01] investment in their country, so they voted to eliminate bank secrecy. So if you do shift any money down to Uruguay, banks down there are under an obligation to open their books to the feds and the IRS. So much for expats keeping a low profile. But back to actually living in the country, you know, it is very close to Argentina, so during the high season, their summer, you get a lot of rich Argentinos coming and spending their money, especially in the beach towns like Ponte del Este, which is a very nice cool beach town that is way too expensive, especially real estate wise, because Argentinos have bought condos and beach houses and pushed the prices way up. And by the way, it is a nice beach, though nothing compared to the Caribbean beaches, but you can only go into the water three months of the year, or it's just too damn cold because of those four seasons. It's kind of like having a nice Atlantic coast beach property in North Carolina, USA.

[14:51] It's very nice a couple months a year, but that's it. And you know, Ponte del Este, that beach town, is the one they talk about in all those international traveler magazines. But you're really not going to get much of a deal anymore there. It's near first world prices. And during the high season, the beach and the town are packed, like any busy tourist town, and the rest of the year is practically dead. And people down there have also told me that if you have a beach property there and you only use it part time of the year, like the rich Argentinos do, or if you're from Uruguay and you have your regular house in Montevideo and your beach house some hours away in Ponte del Este, well nowadays people who have their own places and use them only in the high season are finding that they have to hire guards and security services due to the fact that during the low season there's been a rash of break-ins. Because thieves and crooks know during that time there's almost no one around.

[15:38] So much for the rumors that are going around all over the internet, that Uruguay is one of the safest places in the world. It's not. But it's not really dangerous either. Nobody's going to stick a gun on your face on the street. It's not a country of violent crimes and delinquents with guns. They're the gentle kind of thieves. They prefer to rob you when you're not home. Especially like I said if you leave your property unattended for a long time without a guard. And that's why I always recommend throughout Latin America, if you're going to rent or own down here, always select a gated community or a residential tower. You know, the kind of place you have to show your pass to the guard to get in. And down here they call those little paper or plastic passes that you keep in your wallet or you hang from the rearview mirror on your car a Marbette. And you know when you're talking about security and safety down in Uruguay, I can tell you

[16:23] one thing it's a lot safer than the United States. Probably about as safe as a medium sized city in Canada. So yes, Uruguay is pretty safe. But just ask an old time Uruguayan on the street how safe or dangerous his country is and he'll tell you, oh man, is it dangerous here? And that's because he's comparing the way Uruguay is today from the Uruguay he grew up in when he was a kid. Because back in the 50s and 60s and even in the 70s, most Uruguayans never locked their doors at all. Just like leave it to Bieber in small time America in the 50s. In fact, one old timer told me that his house back in the 50s and 60s didn't even have a lock at all on the door. In fact, there wasn't a single lock in the house. And he himself when he was around 14 years old, put the very first lock they had on the bathroom because he had three sisters and you know how bathrooms are when you have teenage

[17:10] sisters. So anyway, I guess that doesn't tell you much because if you talk to any old timer up in the United States, he'll tell you just about the same thing that his town or neighborhood has gone to the dogs and that back in the day, his family never locked their doors either. And of course that they walked five miles to school back and forth every day. And of course it was uphill all the way. Yuck, yuck. So yes, definitely Uruguay is getting more dangerous, but so is every place else. So on a comparative scale, Uruguay is still a very safe place to be. But let me just mention one thing about being in a very small country like Uruguay with only 3 million people. For expats living there, it does have its drawbacks. Because of that small population and the largest city amount of video being only a million or so, there's just not a lot of competition between utility and service providers.

[17:57] And you know what that means. When there's only one game in town, they call the shots. And without a lot of decent competition with let's say telephone companies or internet providers, the level of customer service can drop down way below mediocre and into the pure crap range. And you see that in gas stations and restaurants and retail operations too. I mean if you have only one plumbing supply shop in the neighborhood, well that guy's going to want to call the shots. For example, if you want to buy a toilet seat, which by the way, should be a top priority on every expats gift giving list. Because almost everyone down here is in dire need of a new toilet seat, if not a whole new bathroom, believe me. But you know my feelings on Latin American toilets if you've been listening to my past shows. And now for the thing that irks me the most about Uruguay. It's that absolutely sinful 23% VAT tax on everything.

[18:46] Now like I said, Uruguay's got an extremely bloated government. So how do you think they pay for it? Taxes and more taxes. And sure, every Latin American country does have a value added tax. But for most of the other countries, it averages around 12%. Which is still way too much because the consumer doesn't get anything in return for it. Just more lazy, overpaid, paper pushing government workers. But as you can see, little Uruguay, with her 23% VAT tax, is abusing the taxpayers to the limit. And I'll tell you, that's why when you go to the Montevideo Airport, you see tons of people coming off planes, their arms all loaded down with boxes filled with electronic equipment. Like laptops, iPads, DVD players and flat screen TVs. Because you see, if you buy stuff out of the country, when you come in with this stuff and it's not brand new and in the box, you just tell the custom official that it's used

[19:34] or it's a gift and you don't have to pay that 23% EVA or the customs duty on it. And that's why Uruguayans who travel, buy their electronic stuff outside of the country, then they open the box up, rough it up a bit and put it in another more beat up box so it does look a little bit used. It's a regular game that Uruguayan travelers play all the time bringing stuff in and out for their selves and their families and their friends. But unfortunately, they can't do it with the big stuff like refrigerators, stoves, washers and dryers. And that's why there's a huge market for used appliances down there. And when someone buys a new refrigerator, for example, it's almost always financed on the payment plan for quite a few years and at a very high interest rate, sometimes 30, even 40%. And once they finally get them paid off, people hold on to those things for 20, even 30 years.

[20:20] Which means appliance repair is a huge business down here too. Because for example, no matter how bad or rotted out a washing machine or a refrigerator is, there's always a repair guy who can get it working again. Some people even take their old refrigerators and appliances to the car body shop and have them bundled and painted so they look like new again. And if you're an expat looking for traditional employment in Uruguay, if you plan on coming down to Uruguay to live and you think you've got some kind of a marketable skill, say you're an engineer or an accountant or an architect or whatever, and you think because you've got a first world degree, all you have to do is check the want ads to see what big companies are hiring, well let me assure you of something, even if your Spanish is perfect, which if you're an expat first coming down, it certainly isn't. And even if you've been in Latin America a long time like me, I know that my Spanish

[21:07] isn't even good enough to get a corporate job down here, even if I had exactly the right skills. The thing is, you can just forget about being hired down here by one of the local companies. Because the job market is just too small and specialized. And the fact is, they even have a big brain drain right now. The universities are pumping out professionals and career type people, and these newbie graduates can't find jobs in their careers in their own country. So they're leaving in droves. So though you have that gringo advantage going for you, what kind of chance are you going to have in a market like that with your bad Spanish? That's why I always say, it's always best to come down to the Latin American country of your choice. Look around for a couple of months, keep your eyes open and do some traveling within that country. Get a nice lay of the land, and I guarantee you that within a few months, once you've

[21:52] settled in, you'll have quite a few good business ideas distilling in your head. And then it'll just be a matter of whittling it down to one or two. That's how it happens with most expats. They might have a big idea or two up in the states, so that when they come down, they hit the pavement running. But those are people who've usually been down a few times before, and they've already formulated some good ideas in their heads. Because you see, 9 out of 10 times, you don't know what business you're going to get into till you're down here for a couple of months or so. And here's another thing about employment in Uruguay. Remember I told you in a past show that in most Latin American countries, every time they vote in a new president, all the department heads and all the hundreds if not thousands of underlings get fired, and the new president fills those spots with his friends, relatives and cronies. And that folks is just a Latin American tradition.

[22:39] And that's also a big reason why these government flunkies steal their asses off. They know they've only got 4 or 5 years on the job, and they'll never again have a chance like that to put their hand in the trough and steal. Which is why every new Latin American administration cries poverty the first day or two they get into office because they're left with nothing but red ink and debts by the old administration. Anyway, some years ago, one Uruguayan presidential candidate ran on a party platform that promised to solve that problem. And when he got elected, he pushed his plan through, and Congress passed a law that said that no government employee could get fired unless he or she committed a felony. So these days in Uruguay, government workers just don't get fired. And that's why everyone's dying for a job in government. That and the fact that a government worker gets about 6 times the minimum wage.

[23:25] And more than twice what a similar job pays in the private sector. And like what one Uruguayan old timer once told me, in order to get fired from a government job, you'd have to screw the boss's wife, kill her and then get 12 eyewitnesses to testify to it in court. Oh and here's another thing I should tell you about that old Uruguay guy. And I have to tell you, we were both sitting in a coffee shop across the street from a building that had a huge line queuing around the corner, maybe 40 or 50 people. And I found out from the old guy, people standing in that line were parents waiting to register their kids for public school, which is free in most Latin American countries. And every parent, I mean every parent, dreams of the day when they can send their kid to a private school, though for 95% of the parents, that day never comes. And when the old guy told me those were parents standing in line to register their kids, as

[24:10] a first-worlder, I thought that was absolutely ridiculous. Then the old guy told me that that line was just the beginning of the school registration process, and that that building was the National Birth Registration Office. And that those parents were waiting to get a registered copy of a birth certificate for their school-age kids, so that they could run across town with that paperwork and get in line at another building to pick up a certified copy of their kid's report card from the last school they attended. They'd wait a few hours in line over there, then they'd pick up that paperwork, then run across town to the health department building to pick up some more registered paperwork, proving that the kid had all his vaccinations, then they'd take all that paperwork, go to a specific bank, wait in line there for at least an hour, and pay three bucks for a piece of paper known as the Boletto Ornato, which is sort of a government school head tax that

[24:59] everybody pays, and by then the old man telling me all this kinda lost me. So I really can't remember how many more lines a parent has to stand in before he could get his kid registered, but there were a few more steps according to the old man, and all the while I was wondering, what kind of bureaucratic BS is this? To which the old man replied, Es lo que hay? That's the way it is. And you know, last time I was down in Uruguay, I was with my buddy ex-pat Eddie, and he told me it would be a perfect place to open up a few of his little sushi restaurants like the ones he has in Salvador. He says he's sure they'd be a big success. He was surprised no one did good sushi, considering Uruguay was on the ocean and had cheap, great fish, and Eddie's biggest complaint about the place had to do with the restaurant business because well, that's what Eddie's into. Eddie can spot the defects in a Latin American restaurant so well that he said he can walk

[25:47] into a restaurant, pick up the menu, and he'll find a half a dozen things on that menu that aren't being served, which he says is a sin that all Latin American restaurants are guilty of. If you don't serve it, it shouldn't be on the menu. Now I don't know about you, but ex-pat Eddie has his thing. If he orders off the menu and the item's not available, he gets really pissed off. He usually blames it on the poor waiter when he says, what the hell is this thing doing on the menu when you don't have it available to the customers? And you know, sometimes when Eddie's extra pissed off, when the waiter walks away, he'll take out a pen and he'll cross that item right off the menu in indelible ink. And other times I've heard him say, okay, so you don't have this on the menu. And instead of ordering something else off the menu, Eddie'll say to the poor waiter, okay, what other items on this menu can I order right now that you don't actually have?

[26:34] And most times the waiter will play along and say, well, we don't have this and this and this. And Eddie said once at a very popular Latin restaurant, he found about a third of the items just weren't available. And you know, Eddie says that every Latin American restaurant is like that. And one time I was in a restaurant with Eddie and you know, he's ultra critical in restaurants. And I said, Eddie, why don't you just offer the waiter some constructive criticism next time? You know, say something like, hey fella, next time that you do your menu, put a little disclaimer in there that says selected items are only available in season or put a little sign up on the wall somewhere to that effect, which would be a nice catch all. And the waiter could save himself some grief when gringos like Eddie come in and get all bent out of shape. But wouldn't you know it at that very restaurant, my idea backfired because guess what? When Eddie asked for some extra bread, the waiter said, sorry, we ran out.

[27:23] And after the waiter said that Eddie didn't get pissed off. He just turned to me and laughed and he said, I guess bread must be out of season this time of year. Es lo que hay. You've been listening to The Expat Files, living in Latin America, coming to you each week from somewhere south of the border. And don't forget, you can email me on anything at all about Latin America, The Expat Files at gmail.com. Once again, The Expat Files at gmail.com. See you next time. Nos vemos.