#163 – The Expat Files: Argentina’s Economic Shifts, Cost of Living, and Cultural Insights

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. Before we get started I'd like to talk a little about some news that's coming out of Argentina. Well it turns out Argentina as of July 1st is gonna get even more expensive than it is and it's heading towards first world country status in that respect every day.

[00:50] Because you see as of July 1st they're putting a 14% excise tax on all imports that come from countries that aren't involved in their South American trade group called Mercosaur. Which means that the members that are trading amongst themselves don't have to pay that 14%. But any other products that are coming in do. And those full member countries are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela I think. Because I still think the Venezuelan Congress hasn't ratified the agreement yet. And you know Mercosaur has some associate members too. The other ones I mentioned were full members. The associate members are Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. And that's why good old Hugo Chavez doesn't like to sign agreements with Mercosaur even though Venezuela is technically in the group. What Hugo doesn't like is the fact that Colombia is in Mercosaur too and they're always at

[01:38] each other's throats. In fact, they've got a decades old dispute going right now about land, borders and property. It's kinda like the England vs France thing, that'll never end either. And the Nicaragua vs Costa Rica land dispute and the Guatemala vs Belize land dispute, that stuff never ends. But as far as that new 14% import tax, what that means is that all imports coming from the rest of the world into Argentina, including those big producers like China, India, Indonesia, Europe and South Korea which produce about 70-80% of the world's durable goods, well they're gonna go up 14% starting July 1st in Argentina. So all you people who have been thinking that Argentina is a good deal because it's a Latin American country, well you should know a couple of additional things before you decide to go there.

[02:24] Real estates about at first world levels, taxes 30-40% below first world levels but creeping up all the time and Argentina's president and congress have said their ultimate goal is to copy high tax first world taxation schemes like France, Germany, England and the other parts of western Europe. Though I guess you could say that the UK is not in western Europe, at least they claim they're not. Anyway, what else is expensive in Argentina? Well everything that's electronic is more expensive because that comes from South Korea and China. And cars, even though they have manufacturing plants in South America, they're also more expensive than in the first world, about 30% more expensive. So go figure on that one. And rents? Well they're really first world expensive. Now listen to this. A friend of mine is renting a 50 meter that's a 500 square foot flat in Buenos Aires and

[03:11] it's in a nice section of town but not the best and he's paying 900 bucks a month. Now anywhere else in a big city in Latin America besides maybe Panama, Costa Rica and Chile, you can get the same thing in a nice section of town for about 300-350 bucks a month. And 500 square feet, man that's small. Seems like in Argentina you have to keep moving farther and farther out of big cities to get any kind of reasonable rents at all or you got to locate in a crappier area of town. Then even if you fix up your apartment and make it really nice, when you walk out the door it looks pretty tattered gray and scummy. And here's the thing that always strikes me strange about Argentina. They have a huge country. They've got all kinds of agriculture there but they import a ton of food from Germany, Holland and France. And you know what that means, when you go to the supermarket the food's just as expensive

[03:58] if not more so than up in Cleveland. And of course Argentina is Latin America so all the cities have their little town markets, outdoor markets that sell fresh food and produce but they just don't have the variety that so many other Latin American cities have. And an Argentine restaurant owner told me why. He said because 90% of the farmland in Argentina is cattle grazing land because Argentina is one of the top three cattle exporters in the world. And in Argentina raising cattle is a lot cheaper and more efficient than buying or renting the huge machinery necessary for a big agricultural crop growing spread. Besides you're completely dependent on the climate and if you have a bad year climate wise it could wipe out your crop, easy. Whereas if you own or rent a huge piece of land, the cattle business isn't natural.

[04:47] You don't have to plant anything, you just let your cattle graze. With cattle you don't have bad crops and cattle farmers can count on a steady income from year to year because of that. So bottom line, they import a lot of food so it's first world expensive. And here's another thing you might not have known about Argentina, the beaches are pretty much crap. That is compared to the famous ones you hear about in Brazil. And that's why so many wealthy Argentinos head for Uruguay because they have nice beaches there, nicer than anything in Argentina anyway. They're not terribly great, not like Caribbean beaches and they don't have that nice pure crystal clear water where you can see down to the coral and watch the tropical fish. You'll never have that experience with Argentine beaches or even the ones in Uruguay. But if you're not rich and you're a common man, you take what you can get, right? I mean when I lived back in Chicago as a kid, the beaches there sucked too but they were

[05:34] always packed on weekends, in summer of course that is. But then again, everybody I know who goes to Argentina has a great old time when they go there. And I don't mean the ones that go down there to live permanently, the expats that took off and made Argentina their home, I'm talking about people who go there on vacation. It seems like a lot of permanent expats down there have a lot of complaints. But tourists, well, they love it. But when you're talking tourists versus residents, you're talking about apples and oranges. They have different mindsets, you know? But if you think living in a big city in Argentina is first world expensive, you ought to check out Santiago, Chile. Because by all accounts there, it's about 20% more to live and do business there than in Buenos Aires. And it seems like the more organized these Latin American countries become, that is the more the government tries to do everything first world-like, the more expensive everything

[06:21] becomes. Which just goes to show you what parasites governments really are now, doesn't it? They're a net drain on an economy and everything they do they screw up. Bottom line? You can't expect to live a first world lifestyle in Chile or Argentina on half or less of what you're paying in the first world now. And although in most every other respect you will have the gringo advantage because there's not too many gringos down there at all. So anyway, you'll get all those other great gringo advantages like those business advantages I always talk about. But you'll pay first world food prices and rents and nearly first world taxes. And by the way, did I mention that Argentina has four seasons just like you have up north? And you know what that means. First world style heating and air conditioning bills. So be prepared for that if you go down there. Now here's something I'd like to mention for all you guys who like to travel around Latin

[07:08] America on your own, or as a couple or in a small group. Now I'm talking about not only backpackers here and people who like to do things on a cheap budget, but these are good tips for almost anyone who finds themselves out in the boonies, out in the hinterlands, and your at-a-law says what to eat or drink. And for example, you haven't got a little personal water purifier and you don't trust the local water and you don't trust the food. Now over the years I've talked to a lot of backpackers, sometimes from a distance because a lot of these guys aren't big on taking showers. And the subject does often come around to food and water because these guys are always looking for the cheapest way to fill their faces and they don't like to pay the usual sit down restaurant prices. Now there are some occasions when I run into backpackers, long term backpackers that have been out of their country for a long time. And every so often I run into one who says he's never been sick, never head mod to

[07:55] Zumba's Revenge at all. And of course I want to know their secret, in fact everybody'd like to know their secret. We want to know if they were born with a cast iron stomach, just have exemplary genes, or if they got a definite sequence they follow before they eat or drink. And here's what I've found, it seems like the people that never get sick, well guess what they drink when they're out in the boonies or their elbow to butthole with the sweaty masses and they're thirsty or dehydrated. They don't drink the local water, even if it's bottled water, because if you remember from my last show you can't trust that either. So what do they do? They drink agua de coco, coconut water, which is available almost everywhere down here in Latin America, even in the higher elevations where coco trees don't grow. The local campesin was on the coast, cut them off the trees and gather them, and haul them

[08:41] up to the higher elevations in trucks every single day. In fact, when you're walking around in the poorer, more crowded, seedier sections of Latin America, practically on every 3rd or 4th street corner there's someone there selling agua de coco, and about 80% of the time there's actually a stack of cocos there, and when you order your agua de coco a guy will take his machete, cut the top off of one of those big coconuts, with a single whack. Down to where you first see the white meat of the coconut, but not into the hollow part of the coconut itself, and at that point you can just see a half dollar sized circle of white meat, and inside the hollow of the coconut where the water is, it's still sterile. Then you'll stab that meat with the point of his machete, stick a straw into it and hand it to you. And now you've got a completely natural container, and about 8 to 12 ounces of what health experts

[09:28] recognize as one of the best natural hydrating drinks in the world. In fact it's really catching on with long distance runners and professional athletes too, pure coco water right out of the coconut. Not energy drinks, Gatorade or Red Bull, pure coco water. And I don't know if you've ever tasted it, but it's like water but a little sweet, not terribly sweet, but really refreshing. Anyway, on these street corners down here in Latin America, they sell coconuts like that, often sitting on a bed of ice in a cooler so it's cold coco water. And you know what? If you don't have the guy punch a hole in the top of it and stick a straw in himself, like I said at that point, the water is completely sterile. So what I suggest is this, you get that coconut, you get the guy to whack the end off with a machete down to the meat, but not into the coco water itself, take your little Swiss

[10:15] army knife or whatever you've got, punch your own little hole through that white meat, which is only about maybe an eighth to a quarter of an inch deep, and you're cooking with gas because you've got the best most refreshing drink in the world, and it's completely sterile. Unless you let the guy with the machete put in the straw. Now a coconut like that will cost you anywhere from $0.40 to maybe a buck down here. But you can also get cocos like that at tourist destinations where they'll sell them to you for like a buck and a half. Because you know, at all those tourist destinations down at the beach, you can pay five or six bucks and get your daiquiri in a coconut like that too, and of course your traditional piña colada. And here's another thing, what the locals do after they cut the top off the coco and drink the water themselves, is they peel out the white meat and chew on that all day. And that's terrifically nutritious too, and that's where all the coconut oil is.

[11:03] You know, coconut oil, which has been rediscovered by nutritionists and the healthcare industry these days. And now coconut oil itself has been rechristened the absolute best cooking oil there is. Because of the abundance in coconut oil of medium chain fats, which you don't see in a lot of the other oils at all. So if you look that up on Google, you'll find that the two most preferable vegetable oils to eat are coconut oil and olive oil. However, cold pressed natural coconut oil is about four times as expensive as extra virgin olive oil. Which is why you almost never find it on the regular supermarket shelves up in the states. And besides, when it cools down below 70 degrees, it looks like lard. Which is a pretty awful sight if you ask me. But down here in the warmer climates, it almost never solidifies like that. Down here it just looks and smells like Hawaiian Tropic Suntan Oil.

[11:49] And by the way, Hawaiian Tropic Suntan Oil is one of the most expensive brands. Guess why? Because coconut oil itself is very expensive. And about that white coconut meat. As for me, I've tried to scrape it out and eat it, and it's just hard work. I can't do it. The little kids down here in Latin America, they've got a knack for it, they've been doing it all their lives. But as far as us expats and tourists, well, we'll just stick to the cocoa water, please. And by the way, I use the word cocoa and coconut interchangeably, even though cocoa sounds like chocolate. You know, cocoa beans which also come from down here. Anyway, Latin's called coconuts cocos, not coconuts. And they call the chocolate pods or beans that we call cocoa beans cacao. So anyway, don't be confused by that. And by the way, down here, cocoa water is so popular that in some of the supermarkets,

[12:34] they actually sell this stuff 100% pure in plastic bottles with an expiration date stamped on them, in the milk and orange juice section of the store, in the cooler. And yes, it is pure 100% coconut water because you can see if you look in the back room of those stores, stacks of coconuts on the floor, and an actual machine that's designed to drill a hole in the coconut and suck out the water. No machete action there. And by the way, women and men down here in Latin America, the people from the Boonies and the Fincas and the Farms, the Camposinos from the Campo, they all know how to use a machete like an expert by the time they're 10 years old. And that's why you'll see on these street corners in the poorer sections of town, the places where the masses of people congregate, women chopping away at things with their machete, including cutting just the right part of that coconut with one fell swoop. And by the way, the Camposinos are very proud of their machete, and they carry a little

[13:23] metal file around with them called a lima, which allows them to sharpen the thing up anytime they feel like it. And man, those things are sharp as razor blades, believe me. And to tell you the truth, they scare the hell out of me because I cut myself with one of those ones just trying to use it to cut down an overgrown bush. And here's what I found out. No cut with a machete is a small cut, and they actually should have a law against stupid gringos like me using them. But the locals, even the 10 year old locals, make it look so easy, and you got that gringo curiosity and you just gotta give it a try. Anyway, I suggest you resist the temptation. In fact, if you ever run into expat Eddie, ask him to show you his left leg. He's got about 20 stitches in there from the first time he used a machete. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Anyway, like I said, these guys in the Campo, they all have machetes. And the older guys, they have beautiful tulle leather sheaths that they keep them in, often

[14:13] embroidered with rhinestones and jade, and sometimes their names even on them. And of course, sometimes their wife and girlfriend's name too, kinda like Johnny Depp and his tattoos. And by the way, for all these two and three foot long extra sharp machetes you see everybody carrying around here, even though they're really lethal weapons, there's a remarkable lack of violence considering how many of these things there are, and how many of these guys hit the cantina at night and get blasted drunk. These guys must have some kind of built in restraint, because they use it simply as a tool. I mean imagine giving every 10 year old kid up in Cleveland a razor sharp 2 foot long machete and say here, happy birthday, enjoy yourself, just don't put your eye out. Man, I can't even begin to imagine the consequences of that. I think I'd want to move out of that neighborhood. Oh and by the way, when I'm talking about cocos and coconut water, you gotta remember

[15:01] that there's about a dozen or so different types of coconuts themselves. Some are bone dry inside, some are loaded with that white meat very thick, like an inch thick, some coconuts have only a very thin layer of white meat and a lot of water, and the locals know just what trees produce what. In fact if you've ever been to Jamaica or the English speaking Caribbean islands, you'll hear the local people talking about cutting down the tender nuts. In fact the first time I heard someone talking about cutting tender nuts, I certainly wasn't smiling. Anyway, that's what they call them, tender nuts, when they're ready to cut and the drink in agua, the cocoa from green coconuts, orange ones, yellow ones, spotted ones, you name it. And the cocoa water itself tastes different from each variety and from nut to nut. So when you buy one, you get a little bit of a taste surprise each time.

[15:49] Anyway now that coconut water's catching on as a health drink up in the States, a sports drink basically, you can get stale old coconut water up there in a can and in a bottle for, I've been told, two maybe three bucks for an eight ounce can or bottle, and I've heard some brands cost four or five bucks for eight ounces. And remember, that's been shipped and processed. And down here I've been told many times by the locals, that once you open a coconut, that water's only good for about three days. And down here nobody ever cuts the cocoa, dumps it in a can or a bottle and sticks it in the refrigerator. They just cut it and drink the cocoa water right then and there. So whatever coconut water you get up in the States as a sports drink is way past its prime. And here's another little tip I can give you when you're traveling around Latin America and you don't know whether things are safe to eat or drink. Now there are fruit and vegetable stands everywhere in Latin America and markets galore.

[16:38] Always loaded to the gills with fruits and vegetables and a lot of odd looking fruits and vegetables that you've never seen or heard of before. And when you're traveling in Latin America, you always want to buy a whole fruit that you can peel or cut yourself with your own little Swiss army knife. And by the way, when you are traveling down here, I suggest you carry a nice Swiss army knife, not the gigantic one that's as big as a bar of soap and weighs a ton. Get the one that's 25 or 30 bucks that's got a few nice little functions in it and that's all you'll need. And you'll also need to carry some napkins, some Ziploc bags, a nice travel pack of those moist handy wipes, and about a half a dozen or so medium to large sized rubber bands. So let's talk about fruit. Now of course you can find apples down here, but the perfect ones like the ones you see up in the United States, and that goes for oranges too, come from places like Chile.

[17:26] And they look just as perfect and unblemished as the ones you find in the supermarket up in the States. And they taste just as much like a piece of cardboard too. And the cost is going to be a third to a half more than any of the local varieties. And no matter how ugly the local produce looks and how distorted, it always tastes a lot better than the nicer looking stuff that's imported. So anyway, what fruits are good for traveling? Apples of course. And since you're carrying a bottle of pure water and probably carrying that little water purifier too on you somewhere, I've mentioned those on a couple of past programs and I have one too, the most expensive one which is about 250 bucks, but it gives me absolutely pure water that I can trust. And the company says the filter's good for about 10,000 gallons which is like a half a lifetime. Which means even if you use that little thing exclusively for the rest of your life, you'll

[18:12] probably never have to change the filter. So anyway, as you're traveling you're carrying around a bottle of pure water and that little purifier, so you got plenty of water all the time. And any time you have to fill that bottle, you just go to the nearest bathroom or anybody who's got one of those pilas, those cement sinks. Everybody's got one of those outside on the patio or attached to the outside of the house somewhere and they've always got cold running water. So no matter how impure or dirty that water looks, it doesn't matter, your purifier will handle it. It'll handle anything. And because there's a little collapsible hand pump and an intake hose, you don't need any power. And so because you've got an unlimited supply of water on hand, you take that apple and any fruit you get, you wash the outside of it with water and you scrub down the outside of that fruit with one of those little green kitchen scrub pads, you know, not the ones made out of metal. I'm talking about those little square things that are very porous and kind of rough.

[18:57] They're made that way, a little rough, so you can scrub pots and pans and dishes and plates and stuff. So anyway, you have one of those things on you too and you can fold that thing into a tiny little square. It takes up almost no room at all. So like I said, anytime you've got some fruit, you want to wash the outside really good and scrub it. And that's easy to do if you're on the road and you have the stuff I just mentioned. And the reason why it's highly recommended that you scrub down fruits like apples, papayas and mangoes, fruits with a hard skin like that, is because although down here they don't use much petroleum based fertilizer at all, not the little farmers anyway with their small farm plots, instead of buying expensive nitrogen based fertilizer, they use this stuff called a bono, which is dirt cheap and costs about two bucks, a 50 pound sack. And what is a bono? Well, that's fertilizer based on chicken crap and all the chicken farmers in Latin

[19:45] So if you don't thoroughly clean those fruits and vegetables, you just might be eating some of that stuff. And while I mention it, if you buy eggs in the county in the compo, the ones not from the supermarket, you'll find they're bigger and better and more tasty because those often come from small individual farmers who use free range chickens, which I call driveway chickens. Because when you're driving around, you always see them pecking around the edge of the driveway and into the street. Anyway, you buy those eggs from the egg lady that comes around out in the county and you'll often find your eggs speckled with remnants of chicken crap. Not a lot of chicken crap, but enough to notice. And once in a while you'll find a few tiny little feather clumps stuck to an eggshell tooth. Yum, yum. So I'm not saying you shouldn't buy those eggs, they're a lot better than store-bought eggs, believe me. And you can tell real easily too, because when you crack open an egg from the supermarket,

[20:33] there's an obvious difference. And supermarkets always buy in big quantity from big chicken farms, of course. And big chicken farms feed those chickens a kind of a concentrate. They don't have the advantage of poking around in the driveway, eating a variety of worms and insects and stuff. Like free range chickens have done for millions of years. And though that might sound gross, worms and insects and things, a diet like that actually produces a lot better quality of egg. Meanwhile, with those store-bought mass-produced chicken eggs, the yolk will always be a light pale yellow. And when you crack one of these driveway chicken eggs open, that yolk is brilliant in orange. It's so obvious that when you're used to the store-bought eggs, you actually think there's something wrong when you see a brilliant orange yolk like that. But really, it's just the opposite. Those are the ones you should be eating. The quality eggs, that is if you do eat eggs.

[21:19] But back to great portable natural foods when you're trekking through Latin America. Now I mentioned gnarly looking apples. They're very good inside. But down here, my favorite happens to be the papaya. And down here, you see them all the time. You can get a bright yellow orange, that's very ripe, papaya, that's about 4 pounds, about a foot and a half long, for about a dollar to two dollars, depending on the season. Now a papaya that size is about three meals, believe me. But how do you eat it? Well, when you're traveling, I don't recommend you buy a big one like that. Buy a smaller one, a two-pounder, that's about a foot long. And if you buy it in a market or on the street, it's going to be about a dollar, even less. So now that you got it, how do you eat it? Because you know, once you cut into it, it's juicy and the seeds fall all over. It's a mess. And if you get that sticky juice on your hands, and by the way, mango juice is the worst.

[22:06] You get that on your hands, and all you're going to be thinking about for the next hour and a half, is a faucet and a sink to wash up in. And I tell you, every novice gringo traveler has made the mistake of opening up some kind of fruit while he's traveling in a bus or a car or a taxi, and because it's a new experience to him on the run like that, he often ends up saturating his clothes or his backpack with the sticky stuff. And with the clothes, it's all right, you can always wash that out. If you get that sticky papaya or mango or watermelon or whatever inside of your backpack or even on the top of it, every time you set it down, the insects are going to have a war over it. But here's how you're going to eat that papaya. After you wash it, like I said before, you cut it in half right down the middle. Not lengthwise, but in cross section, and you grab your metal spoon and you take your empty Ziploc bag and you scoop out all the seeds from both halves into the Ziploc bag.

[22:53] Now you have two nice pieces of papaya that look like two big tall soup bowls. And you can eat one now and save the other for later by putting that one into a Ziploc bag too. So how do you eat it? Well, it's obvious. You eat it like you're eating soup out of a bowl until you've eaten out all the orange colored meat, until you've got nothing but a flimsy shell of that papaya left. It's in effect its own cup. And then at your next stop, you just toss that and you toss the Ziploc bag with the seeds in it, or you can toss the seeds and clean out the bag and use that again over and over. And of course, bananas are good traveling fruits. And then there's that odd variety of fruits that you've probably never seen before. One called a lychee and one called a hokote. Now, if you can find those two things, you're in business. Because both of them are small, about as big as a ping pong ball or smaller. The lychee you can just squeeze and the juicy fruit will pop right into your mouth.

[23:43] So you never ever have to touch the part you're going to eat. And hokotes are like a ping pong size plum only tastier. And all you have to do is wash down the surface like you did with the apple. Now the reason why I always suggest you wash down the surface of this fruit with one of these pastes, you know, one of those kitchen scouring pads and a good dose of clean water is because these days, some farmers are spraying their fruits with pesticides and you never know when you buy the fruit if they've done it. Though sometimes you'll see an actual thin film of pesticide on some fruits and you'll wonder why in the hell are they doing that? Well, I got that question answered one day when I was sitting in a patio looking at an avocado tree and I watched how the birds swooped in and poked holes in the fruit. And speaking of avocados, those are great traveling fruits too. Or are they a vegetable?

[24:28] Who knows? But down here, they're in great abundance and there's five or six varieties too. But I've noticed only the ones that look really nice and symmetrical, the kind you get from California and the ones that are in US supermarkets. They're the ones they put the pesticides on. And the ones that come from Mexico too because those are almost exactly like the California avocados and often are imported into the US market. And as we all know, first world people prefer symmetrical pretty fruit over fruit that actually tastes good. And by the way, like I said, there are maybe five different kinds of avocados I've seen already and one of those types that grows on the coast of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua has a purple skin tone to it when it's ripe and it's really lopsided and ugly. However, talk about gourmet avocados, it's got a taste that's out of this world.

[25:17] But because it's so ugly, it'll never make it to the market in the States. Anyway, the two or three months that those things are in season, everybody goes nuts for them down here. And by the way, since there is no worldwide international market for ugly lopsided avocados, when those things are in season, there's so many of them on the trees and on the ground under the trees that people just start making guacamole like it's going out of style. And it's by far the tastiest guacamole you've ever had in your life. But you're never going to have a chance to try it unless you come down here. And I'm telling you, the people with these trees give sacks and sacks of that stuff away because avocados unfortunately are the kind of vegetable or fruit that mature pretty much all at the same time. So you're stuck with dozens, maybe hundreds of these things. And if you don't eat them within a three or four day period, well, they're going to be

[26:03] compost. And a couple of other good traveling fruits, pears and what they call mandarinas down here, which are really tangerines. And I'm here to tell you folks that there are at least five kinds of tangerines down here in Latin America. And they're all so damn ugly and misshapen that you'd never be able to sell them up north. But I'll tell you, there's one that's particularly ugly. That's the absolute finest tasting fruit that I've ever had in my life. And what really makes these things great traveling fruits is that they peel so damn easy and you don't have to use any tools at all. You just poke a finger into the soft end of it and start peeling down and you got yourself one of the finest tasting fruits you've ever had in your life. I guarantee you that. And in fact, the first time I ever saw one of these ugly things way back when I was opposed to eating it altogether. That tangerine looked like it was fighting a war with some kind of mold or disease.

[26:53] And the disease was winning. But inside, the edible part of the fruit was perfect looking. And it turned out to be the best tasting fruit I ever had in my life. And down here you can have that kind of fruit and that kind of variety. But you gotta get over that first world hump of having a beautiful piece of fruit in your hand before you'll eat it. Because really, you're not gonna find too much of that beautiful fruit down here. All that stuff gets exported. So let the first world have it. Because what we have down here is the best tasting stuff. So that's all that matters. And by the way, two fruits that I don't recommend as traveling fruits because they're so damn messy are mangoes and oranges. Forget about it. Unless you're in a hotel room close to a nice big sink, don't even try. 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. Nos vemos.