#138 – The Expat Files: Real Life in Latin America with Johnny Mueller

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, if you stick around a while, you'll find out, so let's get started. So before I get into the meat of the show today, I just want to mention once again that I'll be personally organizing and running a Latin American insiders seminar in an undisclosed location down here in Latin America and I guarantee we'll be meeting at a place well

[00:49] off the tourist track. So I can prove to you exactly what I talk about all the time, that the gringo advantage for all you expat wannabes is alive and well and in full bloom down here. So you can count on the fact that I'm not going to be holding my seminar at one of those usual tourist gringo places that those international travel magazines keep pushing, the places that us long term expats know you've surely missed the boat on by 10 or 15 years already, like Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama. And besides speaking at and running the upcoming seminar myself, there'll be a few other important speakers including a very special guest, an expat friend of mine who's a world class financial expert who's been living down here for 8 years or more and he has over 200 US expat clients living down here in Latin America right now, that he's completely and legally

[01:35] protected using various methods I can't really talk about on the radio. And of course since he's an expat American, he speaks perfect English. And along with my financial expert, I'm including as another special speaker in my seminar, my own personal English speaking lawyer, who's been my personal attorney down here for 18 years and not only is he a good friend of mine, but he and I have been business partners in a number of successful ventures. Because like I said, every expat needs a lawyer down here, someone you can confide in and trust and of course be a friend too. And he'll be at my seminar to explain everything you need to know about that arrangement and all the ins and outs of Latin corporations, bank accounts and bulletproofing your assets down here, including residency programs, citizenship, passports and second flags and how to fly way under the radar if you so desire. And believe me, more and more first world people are trying to do that and though it's

[02:23] nearly impossible to do up in the states, it's still very achievable down here. That is, if you get good advice and you have the right lawyer. And of course all that will be explained in great detail and much much more. And just to let you know what's happened recently, I actually did a trial run of this seminar about a month ago. When 13 high powered VIPs came in from 4 different first world countries and me and my little team of experts took these guys on a seminar experience that they'll never forget. And those are their words, not mine. And so as not to sound foolish and blow my horn about how exceedingly well it really did turn out, I'll be playing a few of their audio testimonials for you on some upcoming shows so you can get a good idea of exactly what they got out of it. And here's the thing, between those 13 people that came from the four corners of the earth just to hear what me and my little team had to offer, well these guys were certainly no

[03:11] strangers to foreign trips or strange surroundings. And all of these guys are career seminar attenders. All of them have been to dozens of seminars. And we're talking seminars of all kinds. Real estate, finance, marketing, internet business, you name the topic, they've been to a seminar on it. In fact, at least 3 of those guys are not only big seminar attenders, but they've organized and put on financial, business, publicity and marketing seminars themselves. With one of those guys alone putting on more than 150 seminars himself. And after my seminar was over, every one of those 13 guys to a man ranked my little get together on the list of the top seminars that they've ever attended. But it doesn't mean much when I say that, so that's why I'm going to put up the testimonials in the next couple weeks. So you can get it from the horse's mouth. And because the trial run was such a success, I'm tentatively arranging for the next seminar

[04:01] to come off in 2-3 months. And because I want this seminar to remain very personalized, I'm going to limit it to about 25 people. So it won't be impersonal and cold, like one of those big international traveler seminars where in the end they're really just trying to sell you some real estate. You know what I'm talking about, the ones where they haul you up in a big hotel for 3 days and all you get to see is your room, the ice machine, the dinner buffet table, the hotel gardens and the casino if it has one. Now with my seminar, we'll be hitting the road and you'll be seeing things you'll never see in any of those other seminars. Believe me, that's a promise. And I know already a lot of you listeners are interested in coming, but I like to get a little better idea of the total numbers of you guys that are interested. So do send me an email if you are and I'll keep you on a mailing list advising you of further details on the seminar.

[04:47] So go ahead and email me at the expatfiles at gmail.com. That's the expatfiles at gmail.com. And put the word seminar in the subject line if you will, okay? That's enough of that, so let's move on to something else. By the way, I ran into expat Eddie the other day. I hadn't seen him in a while and he's got a new story to tell. And all of you frequent listeners will remember who expat Eddie is. He's an old friend of mine from up in the first world who had a number of failed businesses, even bankruptcies up there. Eddie's the kind of guy that we all knew from high school that was forever living on the edge. Half the time living in his old bedroom at his mom's house. The other half the time he was crashing on people's couches like mine. And I'm not talking about a loser friend or two you knew in your high school years. I'm talking about a friend or two who hadn't changed at all into their 20s, even in their

[05:33] early 30s. And then, some 10 or 12 years ago on my recommendation and others, Eddie decided to try to come down to Latin America and try to make a go of it. Since things just weren't working out for him up north, he came down like a lot of people do with about 5 grand in his pocket and great expectations and now he's a multi-millionaire with a string of tiny sushi restaurants and kiosks amongst other businesses that he set up in Salvador. Which by the way was the second place he landed, the first being Costa Rica where he saw that he'd missed a boat by at least 10 years and there really wasn't much opportunity there anymore. And now he's living a life down here that he could never have dreamt of living up in the first world. But success hasn't changed Eddie. I still get that occasional 2 in the morning knock on my door when Eddie's partied a bit too hard and wants to crash out of my couch.

[06:19] Even though he could probably buy any hotel in the area, he'd still rather sleep on my couch and raid my refrigerator. Well, you know what the Latins say, once a tecanio, always a tecanio. And by the way, tecanio is the Spanish word for cheapskate. So anyway, Eddie's a more or less typical expat success story down here. A guy without a college degree, a string of failed first world businesses, almost always because they were under capitalized, and he'd had an equally dismal record when it came to first world love and romance. So anyway, Eddie came down with a lot of hope and 5,000 bucks and now he's sitting on top of the world, only because he discovered that gringo advantage too, just like me and so many thousands of expats. The vast majority of us will now consider ourselves citizens of Latin America and not the first world. In fact, there's no reason at all for us to even go back, though all of us eventually

[07:07] have to go back to the first world for one reason or other, if only to placate the friends and relatives who think we've gone a little bit wacky because we've abandoned them and the good ol' US of A. And occasionally you get that emergency phone call from up north, and it's always someone laying a guilt trip putting the pressure on you to come up there for some wedding or a funeral. That kind of stuff is unavoidable when you live down here, but being a couple thousand miles away from Cleveland, it doesn't take much of an excuse to get out of it. Like Eddie says, the best way to get out of a so-called first world family obligation is ask them to send you the airfare. That works almost every time. Because you see, they want to see your face up there, but they don't want to see you that much. And as for my case, I've been down here over 20 years and I've only been back to the United States for two whole weeks during that time. Because you see, I'm pretty good at avoidance techniques, though not nearly as good as Eddie.

[07:55] So anyway, that's a little background on my friend Expat Eddie. Your typical lower middle class first world failure with plenty of drive and energy but no capital. And when he comes down to Latin America with pocket change, he makes a big success of himself. Now I don't want you to think he's the rare case because that kind of stuff happens down here all the time. But let's get on with the story. Now Eddie you see is old school. He doesn't like technology all that much. Or I should say he doesn't like when technology changes all that much. Especially not right after he's just gotten used to the old technology. And I can't say that I blame him for that. But you see Eddie's a peck rat and he still has vinyl records and an old turntable. In fact in one of his bar and restaurants down in Salvador, he has a wall full of old vinyl records, his old Denon turntable, and a thousand old rock and roll cassettes sitting

[08:41] on a shelf. And not only that he's got an old TEAC reel to reel behind the bar that he actually turns on sometimes and the only reel that he's got on there is Peter Frampton comes alive. And for those of you who still remember Peter Frampton, I guess you're all on social security now. Or beta blockers or both. Anyway Eddie's resistance to technology mostly extends to surveillance cameras these days. And he'll do anything to avoid him. And if he can't avoid him he'll try to do anything he can to foul him up. And you know what? I applaud those efforts and in this instance Eddie's my hero. Now like I said in a past show, Big Brother is slowly but surely making its way down here. But compared to the first world it lags by at least 20 years. Except maybe in Costa Rica especially with their transit department where they have all those hundreds of deplorable and disgusting speed trap radar cameras like we discussed

[09:30] in a previous show. Mostly aimed at trapping gringo tourists who they know have money to pay up. Which is reason 226 why I don't recommend Costa Rica as a place to live, work, play and or retire. Though if you can get a good week or two package deal from your travel agent, it is a very good vacation spot. But as for living there, well the boat left about 15 or 20 years ago. Anyway like I said, Expat Eddie just hates surveillance cameras. And not because he isn't photogenic, and by the way he isn't. But because he just hates the idea of Big Brother and people getting him on camera without his permission. He tells me he doesn't want to end up on Facebook, passed out on the floor of a bathroom in a strip club. And that's one of his big fears. It's not that he regrets all his partying, he just doesn't want his mother to see him like that. And I can understand that, because a lot of times Eddie overdoes it a bit and calls me

[10:18] up and says, hey Johnny, tell me, did I run into you last night somewhere? And when I get a call like that I know Eddie had a bad night. So anyway, I gotta tell you that last time I was with Expat Eddie in Salvador, we were driving around and he pulled over and said, hey I gotta go into the bank. But before he went in, he reached into the back seat of his car, pulled out a Chicago Cubs baseball hat, shoved the visor way low on his head, then he put on a pair of black horned rimmed Clark Kent style glasses and went in. And when he got out of the bank and came back to the car, I said, hey Eddie, what's with that getup? And he said he knew they had four cameras in that bank, and he doesn't like anybody filming him, so he wears the hat and glasses when he goes in, but that's not all. He makes sure he walks along the left wall, and if he takes that route he claims the camera can only see the top of his head, and if he goes to the cashier at window 3, he knows

[11:05] if he tips his head down just a little bit, the camera mounted on the back wall will never get a shot of his face. And then he told me, as you're standing in line to get to the window, they have a big plasma screen TV, and it flashes pictures every 3 or 4 seconds from the cameras stationed in the parking lot. And Eddie said there are certain blind spots in the parking lot that the cameras can't see, and that's where he parks all the time. And here's something else he told me. If you're standing in line looking at that TV, every 4th frame on those surveillance cameras shows cars entering into the bank parking lot. That means every single car and its license plates are caught on camera as they come in. And when he told me that, it rang a bell, because the last time I went to the bank with Eddie, maybe 6 or 7 months earlier, Eddie entered the parking lot not through the normal entrance ramp, but through the exit driveway, and the guard in the parking lot, even though

[11:53] he saw Eddie going the wrong way, he didn't say anything. They never do. And then I got why Eddie did that. That's because there's no camera surveilling the exit ramp. Only the entrance ramp to the bank has a camera focused on it at all times. So I had to compliment Eddie on his stealthiness. He's evaded every single camera in that bank. He has a good criminal mind, doesn't he? And that's when Eddie told me that some of the branches of his bank in Salvador have cameras on both the entrance and the exit ramp. So then I said, I guess you don't use those banks then, right Eddie? And he said, oh yeah, I do. I just have somebody else drive me and it's their car that's on camera, not mine. Or I park in the McDonald's or Burger King parking lot across the street and walk over. So for a long time, camera shy Eddie had the banks all figured out. And anyway, most of the time, he'd used a drive up bank.

[12:40] That is, he said, until the drive up windows, the auto banks, started with the surveillance thing. So when you grab that little pneumatic tube to do your business, there's a camera staring you right in the kisser. And of course, that riles up Eddie to no end. But Eddie, like everyone else, has to use an auto bank every once in a while. So he's decided to fight back at those big brother cameras in his own little way. So what Eddie did was he went to Hallmark. You know the card shop? Yes, down here in Latin America, they do have Hallmark shops. That franchise, like so many others, has landed down here in Latin America and it's doing quite well since Latins love everything first world and the name Hallmark has a nice solid market presence all over US cable TV, which all the Latins get down here. Anyway, Eddie bought a big roll of Hallmark happy birthday stickers, each one about the

[13:25] size of a quarter. You know the kind with the sticky back that you peel off the roll? So now, when Eddie is in within reach of a camera and he feels his privacy is being violated, he just pulls out one of those happy birthday stickers and sticks it over the lens of the camera. And when he does it, I give him a high five all the time. And you should see Eddie and his stickers when he's on a roll. He's stealthy about that too. He doesn't make it obvious at all. We might walk into a mall elevator with six or seven other people and before you know it, there'll be a happy birthday sticker on a camera lens dome up in the corner. And my favorite is when Eddie goes into a really secure parking lot. Down here in Latin America, a lot of times, especially in a high end mall or a professional building, the entrance and the exit are completely automated. You know, you press a button, pull a ticket and the gate opens up and you drive in. Well nowadays, even down here in Latin America, some of those parking lots are equipped with

[14:14] a surveillance camera at the entrance and the exit. And Eddie always gives them his happy birthday wishes too. Unless of course there's a guard standing right there, then Eddie backs off and saves his happy birthday greetings for another day. So as you can imagine, Eddie's a lot of fun to be with. But just the other day when I ran into Eddie again and I asked him how his happy birthday greetings were going, he told me he was done with the happy birthday thing. That he's taken his little fight against cameras and big brothers to the next level. And he said, go ahead, look in the glove compartment. And in there he had a roll of stickers, but they weren't happy birthday stickers. He had a roll of stickers that were made out of reflective tape, the kind you peel off and stick on the back of bikes and motorcycles for night reflectors. Stickers that Eddie bought in an auto parts supply place. And I said, why'd you change to these Eddie? What happened to the happy birthday stickers? And he told me that the happy birthday stickers were okay for a while.

[15:02] But once they were stuck on a camera lens, a guard or some worker would soon pull it off. But as Eddie said, these reflective stickers from the auto supply store, well, those things were almost impossible to get off. And even if you could yank one off, it leaves behind a sticky film of glue that completely distorts whatever picture or video the camera is recording through the lens. Good work Eddie. And not to give anybody ideas, but I wonder if anybody's doing that up in Cleveland. So anyway, take it from Eddie. There are stealthy ways to fight big brother. Oh, and by the way, when I mentioned to Eddie that if he would have taken a different route in life, he probably could have been a master criminal. You know what he said to me? He said, Johnny, I know a cool way to rob a bank. You go through the auto drive-in at an out of the way small branch bank. You know, a small one with only five or six people working there. Then you take one of those tubes that you put your deposits and stuff in and instead

[15:50] of making a cash deposit, you put a tear gas canister in there with a wireless detonator. And when that canister gets well inside the bank, you hit the button. Everybody in the bank is knocked out. You go into the front door with a gas mask and you rob the place. And after he went through that scenario, you know what I said to Eddie? Why don't you just write the screenplay and send it to Hollywood? And actually, I think Eddie's got too much money and too much time on his hands. And that's why he can sit around and think up those kind of fantasies. And speaking of having too much time on your hands, that's what seems to happen to every single expat that comes down here. Once you get settled in with your moving and your housing and your transportation and you get yourself comfortable in your new surroundings and maybe you start a business like so many of us do, and after a while, maybe a year or two after things are going pretty good, you actually find yourself with a hell of a lot of time on your hands.

[16:35] Because unless you're in one of those businesses that takes up all your time, like the hospitality business, things like mom and pop hotels, bars and restaurants, and by the way, those are the choices of so many expats who have a dream to come down here and start a business. But I'm telling you, all of those are super labor intensive and you just have to be there all the time. And for some first worlders, a bar, a restaurant or a mom and pop bed and breakfast are actually part of their retirement scheme. Their minds are already made up. They come down here and they just have to do it. But anyway, I don't like those kind of businesses for myself. They tend to take up all your time. There's no such thing as a 40 hour work a week for the owner in that kind of business because they're cash businesses. And when the cats away, the mice will play. But anyway, if you start up a business that's not in the hospitality sector, I promise after everything gets rolling smoothly, you're going to have a lot of time on your hands.

[17:23] Now, in my case, and I'm a good example, I actually have more than one business, yet I only spend about two days, about 16 hours a week working on that stuff on that kind of schedule. First world people would say I was semi retired because look up in the first world, if you only worked two days a week and had the other five days a week free to do anything you wanted, well, you have pretty much three choices to fill that spare time. You can either sit around the house, watch TV and sports all day, camp out on the sofa and stuff Oreos and Cheetos down your throat. Or there's option number two, get a lot of hobbies and choice three. Well, that's to make a plan to do all those things in life that you couldn't do when you worked in nine to five and came home dead tired every night and lived for the weekend. So my advice to all you expat wannabes who finally do make it down here and realize your

[18:09] own little version of the gringo advantage, just remember sooner or later, you're going to have a lot of time on your hands. And if you plan right, you'll be able to do the things you never were able to do up in the first world for lack of money, time or both. Oh, and by the way, for all you expat wannabes and would be business owners, Eddie has some words of wisdom about owning a business down here. If you ask him what's the best thing about owning a business down in Latin America, besides the usual stuff about the cheap labor, the great weather, the low taxes, the tiny overhead and all that. Anyway, Eddie says for him, the best thing about owning a business in Latin America is that there's pretty much zero government interference. That is, after you get all your permits and paperwork after the first month or so. But like he said, the lawyer does all that stuff for you, so you're not too much involved. But what he means when he says there's virtually no government interference

[18:55] once you get started, he's talking about the fact that there's no government inspectors or bureaucrats poking around. And Eddie says if he wants to knock down a wall, rewire some electric or build a little addition on to any one of his places, he doesn't have to call up any government agency to get permission or hire architects to make plans and submit them to the municipality and pay fees and deal with zoning boards. You don't have to go through any of the rigmarole that you have to go through up in the first world when you want to do a simple thing like add an extra bathroom or put in an outdoor fountain or at a garage or an enclosed storage area next to your business. Because down here in Latin America, if you want to improve your property or business, as long as you're not dealing with a national historic site and even then they're only worried about the exterior, you just go ahead, hire a contractor and do it. It's as simple as that. Like Eddie says, it doesn't take two to three months of

[19:44] screwing around with seven different government agencies and boards just to get approval before you even start. And that was Eddie's answer when I asked him what's the best thing about owning a business in Latin America. And that's how he feels today. But if I asked him that same question in a month, he'd give me a completely different answer because there's a lot to like and a lot of advantages to doing business down here that just don't exist or aren't available anymore up in the first world. And guys like Eddie, business owners down here, can spout off a dozen good reasons off the top of their heads why it's so much better down here. And today, Eddie's favorite reason is because there's virtually no government interference. And next week, he's just as likely to answer that question by saying his workers are terrifically friendly and responsive to his clients. And next week, he might say he loves doing business down here because of the fact that he's got a gigantic parking lot and that he couldn't have half or a quarter

[20:31] of the size parking lot up in the first world. So anyway, you ask an expat what he likes about doing business down here and you're bound to get a different answer every time. But there's also the other side of the coin. And when you ask Eddie what the worst thing is about doing business down here, he almost always answers the same way. He says the worst thing about having your own business and being your own boss is that there's no one to pass the buck to because you're it. The final decision on anything ends up with you. But like I always remind Eddie, that's true of any business anywhere in the world. The buck always stops with the owner. And like Eddie says, it's not to say there aren't little annoyances along the way when you run a business. There always are, whether it's in Detroit or El Salvador. And one of Eddie's big pet peeves about owning a business down here is the fact that most businesses need a night guard or a night watchman hanging around outside or

[21:20] somewhere around the premises. That is, if your business location is fairly big and you can't lock it down at night with those sliding steel doors you often see in those big city commercial districts, a kind of secure lockdown you often see jewelry stores have up in the first world and with businesses that have a lot of glass display windows. You know what I'm talking about, those corrugated roll down steel doors that everybody's got, the ones that make a hell of a lot of noise when you roll them up or down. Well, down in Latin America, if you have a rolled top steel front door like that and the rest of the building is pretty secure and there's not a lot of glass on the first floor and the windows that you do have are protected by steel bars, then chances are you don't need a night guard or watchman. And just a note about those steel bars you see on almost every window down here. When a first welder first comes down on the trip and sees any part of Latin America, the

[22:06] first thing they say when they get back is, wow, every window has bars on it and so many walls have razor wire on them too. Man, those people are living in a prison society. Well, you know, I hear that too from first world people when they first come down, see the place and check it out. But you know, you see exactly the same thing up in the first world big cities now too. Steel doors, bars on windows, razor wire on walls. That's pretty common up north in any big city. But when you get to the wealthier suburbs, you don't see much of that now, do you? And the same thing goes for down here in Latin America. Here in the wealthier suburbs, there may be a nice big brick wall around the whole subdivision, which is what they call a colony down here, which might contain 100 or 200 houses. And you'll see that that wall probably does have razor wire on top of it. But inside that protected colony, the houses look just like they do up in the first world.

[22:54] No bars on windows, no steel doors or razor wire anywhere to be seen down here in Latin America. You only see that kind of protection in the business districts and on single family homes that are outside of gated communities where there is no guard station to check into when you drive up, which means, of course, that houses outside of guarded subdivisions, the ones that are loaded up with steel bars and razor wire are generally lower class, less expensive houses than the ones in the guarded subdivisions, except, of course, if you're talking about a colonial mansion of some sort, which could take up a whole block or two. And those are almost always located in historical districts. And that's a different case altogether. So anyway, if you come down to Latin America thinking you're going to rent a cheap house for three, four or five hundred dollars a month, sure, you'll be able to do that all day long,

[23:39] except you're probably not going to be in a guarded protected colony. So chances are you're going to have bars on the windows and razor wire around the perimeter walls. That's just the way it is down here. However, if you choose to live in a small Latin American town of 50,000 population or under, in many cases, the majority of houses rich and poor won't have razor wire on their perimeters or steel doors or steel bars on the windows because smaller towns are always much safer than big cities. And in those smaller towns down here, the people know and look out for each other, just like the people do in small towns up in the first world. So in many towns, there's no need for that kind of heavy security. But getting back to the fact that most medium sized businesses down here have a night watchman or a guard. Well, you know, up in the first world, if you had a small or medium sized business and you had to hire a night watchman or a guard or as most business owners do, they just

[24:28] hire an agency or a rent a cop firm. Anyway, when you do that up north in the first world, that's going to cost you anywhere from 30 to $50,000 a year. But down here to hire a full time night watchman or guard, you're going to pay about one tenth as much about three to five thousand dollars a year. So in many cases, like expat Eddie says, a lot of businesses down here will hire a night watchman or guard simply because three to five thousand dollars a year buys a lot of peace of mind. Oh, and while I'm on the subject of guards and night watchmen, here's something that you'll never see happening up in the first world. Down here in Latin America, oftentimes the night watchman actually lives on the premises. I don't mean he's got his own attached apartment and he's out there mingling with the customers. No, as happens so often down here, a business owner will build a tiny 10 by 10 foot hut, usually off the parking lot somewhere in a place where clients can't get a good

[25:17] look at it. And that'll be the guards living quarters. And he'll have his own little bathroom and a sink and electric hot plate and a little bed like a tiny little very low grade hotel room. Then he gets about half his normal salary, which is two to three thousand dollars a year because he's got a place to live. And what the owner of the business gets out of that deal, besides the fact that he's only paying him about half of what he paid a guy if he didn't offer him a room. Well, now he's got a 24 hour round the clock guard. I mean, where else is the guy going to go? That's where he lives. And like Eddie says, the only problem he sees with having a guard living on the premises is that most of these guys came to the big city looking for a job right off the farm. And these guys are considered Corriente, which means common and with little culture. So naturally, these guys can be somewhat messy, a little dirty, a little rough around the

[26:04] edges, and they have a tendency to accumulate junk like old chairs and pieces of wood and metal. These guys are real scavengers. If a guy changed a flat tire in a parking lot, well, guess where that flat's going to end up as a makeshift chair or table inside the guy's little house. So it's not that these guys aren't loyal and good workers. They are. But like Eddie says, you got to do a periodic inspection of the guy's quarters and do a spot check and a smell check on the guy's clothes because some of these guys have a tendency to wear their stuff for two or three weeks without washing it, which is pretty skanky. So what he says, even though you set rules down for these guys, you have to keep checking on them or they'll fall back into their old farm boy habits. In fact, Eddie said one time he had to leave El Salvador for about three months. And when he came back to check on one of his businesses, when he pulled into the parking

[26:50] lot, not only were there a flock of chickens roosting there, but there was a goat and a small cow tied to the little house that the guard was living in. So like Eddie says, you got to lay down some rules and check on these guys every once in a while or things will get out of hand. Oh, and by the way, a couple of days ago, I was in El Salvador and I was in the elevator at the Princess Hotel. And you know, after having that long discussion with Eddie about surveillance cameras, I couldn't help but notice the little half circle dome up in the corner of the elevator, which of course held that surveillance camera. But as I stared at it, I also noticed a little piece of red reflector tape stuck to that dome. I had to stop myself from laughing out loud because you know what that meant? That's right. Expat Eddie rides again. Or maybe it was John Galt. You've been listening to The Expat Files, living in Latin America, coming to you each

[27:42] 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.