Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller shares his experiences living in Latin America, including the challenges of dealing with an abundance of animals, the dangers of driving at night, and the cultural significance of horses. He also delves into the medical landscape, discussing how expats navigate healthcare, pharmacy practices, and the availability of drugs. With a mix of personal stories and insightful observations, Johnny provides a comprehensive look at life as an expat in Latin America.
Johnny begins by discussing the high number of animals encountered in Latin America, which can be 10 to 100 times more than in the first world. He shares personal experiences of driving at night and encountering various animals, including turkeys, goats, chickens, bulls, cows, deer, cats, dogs, pigs, snakes, frogs, sloths, horses, mules, donkeys, and vultures. He describes a unique encounter with thousands of crabs on the road, which he splattered on his car.
He also talks about the cultural significance of horses in Latin America, noting that they are often used for transportation and work, especially by poor farmers. Johnny describes the conditions of horses in rural areas, including those that are underfed and tied to fence posts, and contrasts them with horses that have better living conditions and roam freely. He warns expats about the potential issues with free-roaming horses, including the risk of them damaging property and the difficulty in identifying their owners.
Johnny then shifts to discussing the treatment of show horses in Latin America, highlighting the abuse these animals face, including forced performances that cause pain. He introduces the concept of agropequarias, which are stores that sell feed, fertilizers, and veterinary supplies for livestock, emphasizing their importance for expats living in rural areas.
He recounts a story about his friend Eddie's dog, who had a persistent skin problem that led to a year of ineffective treatments by multiple veterinarians. The problem was eventually solved by a local remedy from an agua piquaria, a place where animals and humans receive similar treatments. Johnny reflects on the broader implications of this, noting that many people in Latin America rely on pharmacists for medical advice rather than doctors, especially the poor and middle class.
Johnny discusses the common practice in Latin America where people often rely on local pharmacists for medical advice and prescriptions, even though many of these pharmacists are not actual pharmacists. He highlights that while some drugs can be obtained without a prescription, others like psychotropic medications are less commonly available. He also mentions the prevalence of tourists, especially young men, seeking drugs like Viagra and Xanax, and the existence of scams involving fake prescriptions to obtain controlled substances.
Finally, Johnny discusses the availability and regulation of scheduled drugs and narcotics in Latin America, contrasting it with the United States. He highlights that pharmacists rarely call doctors for prescriptions and there is no monitoring agency like the DEA or FDA. He also mentions the decriminalization of marijuana in many Latin American countries and the varying penalties for possession, including bribes for tourists. He reminds listeners about the date format difference when filling out forms in Latin America.
Topics
Animals in Latin America, Cultural aspects of horse ownership, Challenges of living in rural Latin America, Personal anecdotes and experiences, Driving in rural Latin America, Horse ownership and accessibility, Abuse of show horses, Agropequarias and their role in livestock care, The story of Eddie's dog and the treatment at the agua piquaria, The reliance on pharmacists for medical advice in Latin America, The cost-effectiveness of animal drugs for human use, Pharmaceutical practices in Latin America
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:58 Introduction to the Animal Encounters Segment 00:02:03 The Abundance of Animals in Latin America 00:02:15 Horses in Latin America 00:03:17 Conditions of Horses in Rural Areas 00:05:19 Free-Roaming Horses and Their Impact 00:06:33 Encounters with Livestock at Night 00:07:40 Affordable Horse Ownership in Latin America 00:09:47 Abuse of Show Horses in Latin America 00:10:49 Introduction to Agropequarias 00:11:39 Introduction to the Problem with Eddie's Dog 00:11:55 Eddie's Dog and the Skin Problem 00:13:22 The Solution from the Agua Piquaria 00:17:15 The Cost-Effectiveness of Animal Drugs 00:17:48 Pharmaceutical Practices in Latin America 00:19:15 Access to Prescription Drugs Without a Prescription 00:19:30 Psychotropic Drugs and Suspicion 00:21:00 Tourist Drug-Seeking Behavior 00:22:18 Scams Involving Fake Prescriptions 00:23:25 Pharmacists and Prescription Practices in Latin America 00:23:41 Drug Regulation and Monitoring in the U.S. vs. Latin America 00:24:59 Availability and Use of Scheduled Drugs in Latin America 00:25:51 Marijuana Decriminalization in Latin America 00:26:55 Date Format Differences in Latin America
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.
[00:14] Hello there all you expat wannabes, I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the Expat Files, living in Latin America. The show that tells you just what it's like to live, work, play and or retire down here in Latin America. It's a mix of the good, the bad, the ugly and the great and it's all right here so let's get started. Hey you know the last time I was talking about pets and pet issues and I never did quite get the finish so let me do that right now. Don't worry it'll be quick for all you folks bored by animal talk out there but you know this issue concerns you too because when you get down here to Latin America you're looking at about 10 to 100 times as many animals or critters than you're used to seeing on any given day up in Cleveland. So, be prepared they'll be everywhere not so much in the cities but out in the boonies for sure. And again another reason why I advise against driving at night.
[01:01] So far in my Latin American driving history I've run over or nearly run over or was nearly plastered myself by such critters as turkeys, goats, chickens, bulls, cows, deer and cats and dogs of course and pigs and snakes and frogs and sloths, horses, mules, donkeys and believe it or not vultures just to name a few. But my weirdest critter encounter evolved besides the scorpion that hit in my pants leg overnight and stung me in the morning ruining a nice vacation of course. Anyway my weirdest encounter was with thousands of crabs nope not the ones you're thinking of I'm talking about crabs running across the road and me splattering about 10 or 20 of my car. Now don't think I kill innocent creatures indiscriminately in this case I was just coming
[01:50] around a blind curve at night and the damn things were all over the road I mean come on who would think I would be stuck in the middle of a mass migration of crabs to the ocean you just can't plan for stuff like that you know. So like I said you're gonna see 10 20 maybe a hundred times as many critters down here in Latin America than you'll ever see on a given day up in the first world not counting cockroaches of course political or otherwise. Anyway let's talk for a second about horses because Latin Americans you know do love their horses now I'm not talking about medium to large sized cities you'll rarely see a horse there but out in the countryside oh you'll see them alright since poor latins who own or farm a spot of land often have a horse or maybe a donkey or a mule for transportation
[02:37] believe it or not. Now personally I've never seen a horse down here pulling a plow that would really be old school now wouldn't it but I've seen mules pulling plows and a few times I've even seen gigantic oxen hauling huge carts full of lumber and rocks and things and I've never seen anything like that up in the states only in cartoons and Disney movies. Now about those horses there are classes of horses down here just like there are classes of people you've got for example on the low end plenty of those sad looking horses that belong to poor farmers you see them eating grass or whatever they can reach on the side of the road tied on a short rope to a stake or a post and they look pretty miserable actually. Now remember they're owners the guys with the cowboy hats and the machetes don't have cars because they simply can't afford them and by the way a horse is infinitely cheaper
[03:26] since it uses no gas and the owner doesn't have to buy any feed they just tie him to a stake or pull somewhere and let him graze so the horse is basically a substitute for a family car and the horse does get to ride to town once in a while but they're often pushed to the limit with two or three passengers as well as a sack of beans or a bundle of firewood unfortunately these family workhorses are in pretty pathetic shape most of them are a bit puny and bony and you can see their rib cages which is not a good sign believe me but I have to admit in the Altiplano region you know above 3500 feet where the weather is always spring like the horses are in much better condition than the ones you'll see on little farms in the boonies at sea level are slightly higher I mean when I'm at sea level I can't take five minutes standing in the sun and yet these guys post their horses
[04:13] out on the sides of roads in direct sunlight all day that's got to be miserable the local small-time farmer does not look at his horse like a pet or a buddy I guess they never heard of Roy Rogers and trigger the lone ranger and silver or even Mr. Ed and that's why these horses look so underfed and mangy not to mention most of these horses only eat what they can find or scavenge and I was told by one machete wielding guy out in the boonies that those horses aren't stupid you have to tie those horses up because if you let them go they'll just escape the area and go scavenging the countryside for food then the owner might never get them back which as far as I'm concerned would be a good thing so in fact about half of the horses in the boonies are those mangy looking ones that are tied to fence posts
[04:59] and scavenged for themselves but I must say that the other half of the horses out in the boonies are in pretty good condition and sometimes even excellent looking and those are horses that have big fields to wander around in and often roam freely but gringos and expats beware good-looking free wandering horses can be a problem if they end up in your yard munching on your bushes and fruit trees and worse yet those free roaming horses and god knows who their owners are are oftentimes just standing in the middle of a country road just hanging with one or two of their buddies now I gotta tell you since I drive in the boonies a lot I have a Mexican standoff with a horse or two at least once a month and it's always good to give the horse the right away since they normally just stand their ground no matter what anyway so
[05:45] I keep my eye out for that eventuality and you should too but that doesn't mean other drivers I mean Latin drivers are so cautious in fact about three or four months ago I was driving in the boonies in Honduras and I came across a little bottleneck gapers block in the road where a couple of cars and a half a dozen people were standing around because a horse had been hit and obviously a couple of legs were broken but that wasn't the worst of it sadder yet there was a little cult standing there whining watching his mother die that's why I don't recommend driving at night especially in the boonies since huge stretches of not so well traveled road often don't have streetlights only moonlight to guide you by if the moon's out at all and I'll tell you these roads are the same ones that the cows and the horses and the bulls use to find their way back to the
[06:33] homestead at night and I have to say at least a dozen times a year I end up staring down a horse a cow or even a bull at 11 o'clock at night on a lonely road somewhere and worse yet sometimes they decide since I'm the guy with the headlights to run alongside of me so I'll show him the path for a while and so far I've lost two of my side view mirrors that way try explaining that to your insurance adjuster up in Cleveland which is yet another reason you shouldn't be driving a very nice car down here either so the question is for all you horse lovers out there how much could you buy one of these horses for if you decided to save one of them from that fate well if you remember in a past show I mentioned that one of the great desires and thrills of a first world young lady
[07:18] is to have her own horse you know what Freud and Jung would say about that don't you something about female domination over the savage beast right maybe anyway owning a horse has been a traditional female adolescence dream up in the first world but a dream almost never realized because of the heavy expenses anywhere like I said in that past show it's easily affordable down here now you can pick up one of these bony malnourished but awful friendly little horses for only about 500 bucks and then with a little care and feeding you can bring them back to excellent condition in no time so they're dirt cheap and they can be rescued and I know you expat ladies and daughters of expats can do it and I don't want to be sexist here but I don't know any guys who would take on a case like that though I know plenty of women who are known for taking on lost causes
[08:08] that goes for horses husbands and boyfriends now there's another group of horses in Latin America I haven't talked about yet and at first glance they look very well taken care of they seem in beautiful perfect condition all the time yet from what people tell me they're the most abused of all now as it turns out every Latin American town with a population of 500 or more has a few wealthy landowners in the area who kind of control things they own the big sugar and pineapple and coffee and pine nut plantations and it's tradition in a wealthy agricultural family like that to have a horse hobby note I didn't say hobby horse I said horse hobby but I'm sure the kids have hobby horses too anyway they have beautiful show horses that do tricks and these horses are nicely stabled and
[08:54] housed and seem to be taken well care of but in fact the ASPCA which doesn't exist down here by the way would take these guys to court in a second if they actually knew what was going on behind the scenes these horses are trained to walk and basically dance in a very unnatural way for a horse that is in fact it can be quite painful but they do it anyway because that's the way they were trained and you'll see these beautiful horses and they're generally pompous pot-bellied macho male owners decked out in the best most expensive cowboy hats and silver studded saddles and velvet blinders and gaudy sparkly glittery cowboy paraphernalia that's all part of the show and these horses and their owners will show up and get a big round of applause in practically every event and parade
[09:42] in the local area and those horses though they look and sound amazing doing their funky staccato dances and steps competing with the other horses for ribbons the truth is it's torture for the horses to do that now if you notice when these horses are doing their thing they're raising their front legs off the ground sometimes a whole meter that's three feet and then they snap them down on the ground to make that rhythmic click which is what the whole thing's all about so however amazing and cool it looks those horses are in pain and don't think you're gonna buy one of those and take them out of his misery unless you got five or ten grand those are specially trained horses that go for a lot of money down here and i understand they're very high strung and neurotic wouldn't you be too if there was a fat guy on your back and your hoofs were in pain all the time
[10:29] now before i move on to other things here's something important i think you should file away for future reference this is not something you're going to find out on your own unless your spanish is really good and you've spent some time down here maybe years so listen up now throughout latin america in the big city small cities and in the smallest little booney town you'll see these little stores called agropequarias agro as in agriculture and agropequarias are basically little stores that carry feed fertilizer and livestock products like a farm and feed store in the states and they carry all the medicines necessary to take care of whatever farm animal you might happen to have be it goat cow pig chicken bull horse dog or whatever and yes i said dog
[11:18] now if you walk into one of these places and by the way it will be odiferous in there so get ready for that you'll see hundred pound sacks of dog food and animal feed stacked practically everywhere and usually a couple of big shelves and display cases filled with all kinds of medications and large animal veterinary supplies now let me tell you that the first few years that i was down here in latin america i'd see these places everywhere but i never had a reason to step foot in there why would i i didn't have any cows goats chickens or turkeys but you see thinking that way was where i made my mistake that's how i lost a couple of years of very good free advice about animals all kinds of animals so here's what happened a while back i was at expat eddie's house in salvador and it turned out his dog got razorback something or another a really big guy about 130
[12:08] pounds had this persistent skin problem kind of a rash that he habitually would lick until he had a few spots as big as a half dollar that had no fur left on him at all so the dog definitely had a problem but what was it and finally eddie said to me you know johnny i don't know what to do i went to the vet in fact i went to three different vets and got about nine different medicines cost me about 120 bucks and all that took place over a year with no results but eddie knew it would have probably cost him 10 times as much up in the states anyway on the advice of those three vets he visited he'd bought soap and lotion and pills and nasty tasting sprays so the dog wouldn't continue to lick but he did lick even more and eventually eddie tested a few things himself
[12:54] including lemon and chili powder mixed together so the dog would hate licking it and eddie said it worked for a day or two but the dog learned to love those peppers then one of the vets even took a biopsy of one of the areas and said it's a fungus and proceeded to give eddie three more bottles of sprays and lotions and junk and of course none of that worked either and for eddie the end came when the last vet told him that he had to give the dog a bath once a week with a special us imported hypoallergenic all natural soap product with oregano oil honey and oatmeal hmm but you see the problem is this 135 pound dog does not like water so given this guy a bath was a major event and eddie his cleaning lady and the maintenance guy together could barely hold on to
[13:44] the dog to give him a bath not to mention they'd all get completely soaked in the process which eddie says is no big deal every month or two but every week getting a soaker like that uh-uh but that still wasn't the end of it when he went back to the vet and told them all that stuff didn't work the vet concluded that the dog had psychologic problems and sold eddie 25 bucks worth of first world chew toys which took the dog about four hours to demolish then he went back to his usual licking so after all that eddie was resigned to let his dog lick himself to death and go bald in the process pretty sad but what was he gonna do oh and by the way being that eddie's a gringo don't think he didn't check out a dozen internet sites describing that very problem he did now remember eddie lives in the city and his maintenance guy and cleaning lady come from
[14:32] the city too now as luck would have it my maintenance guy slash gardener is a good old country boy from way out in the boonies and one day we were talking about dogs how latins are afraid of rottweilers and dobermans especially that's when i happened to mention to him that my friend eddie had even a scarier looking dog i think it's called an australian ridgeback i mentioned that a rottweiler wouldn't even mess with a dog like that then my maintenance guy's eyes lit up and he said i wonder if i can get one of those around here and i said nah forget it there's hardly any of them around and they're purebred so they're going to be way too expensive and besides that they don't seem to be well adapted to the climate or something based on the skin problem that eddie's dog had which i explained to the guy in some detail since he
[15:20] was interested then my maintenance guy blurted out did your friend eddie ever visit the agua piquaria then he said sounds just like something my dog had a few years ago two injections two weeks apart and in a month my dog was cured and all the while i'm thinking yeah right this horse doctor at a feedlot place has a five dollar miracle shot after eddie went through three vets dropped a couple hundred bucks and wasted a year so the conversation moved on and we left it at that anyway about a week later my maintenance guy hands me a little package with a syringe in it and a little vial of liquid he said give it to eddie and have him inject one cc into the dog two times 15 days apart and you guessed it i gave it to eddie and the whole thing cleared up within
[16:07] a month and when i reported back to my maintenance guy after the dog was cured i said you know the vet that runs that agua piquaria really knows his stuff oh and i forgot to tell you the medicine didn't cost five bucks it cost all of six bucks anyway with that my maintenance guy said he's not a real vet him and his sons just own the place and i said what he's not a vet then my maintenance guy said oh no veterinarians are way too expensive muy carros everybody i know who's got a problem with an animal just goes to an agua piquario only people with money go to vets and you know my maintenance guy was right there really isn't a hell of a lot of difference between dogs horses cats cows pigs and even humans then he said you know you give any animal with an infection
[16:56] penicillin or tetracyclina and it'll generally work with humans too and he was right but i did find out that many poor latins especially small plot farmers who live out in the boonies they do occasionally use drugs intended for animals when they have an infection or a problem themselves because at the agua piquaria antibiotics are half again as cheap as they are at the regular pharmacy but as for me though i practically never use this stuff i'll get my penicillin and tetracyclina at the good old human pharmacy if you don't mind and by the way i do get where the poor folks are coming from on this because like i said in the past show most all of the middle class and poor folks like him get the bulk perhaps even 95 percent of their medical advice
[17:42] from the local pharmacist not from an md or a specialist they generally don't go to a doctor unless they're in terrible shape or the local pharmacies holding a free clinic with doctors as they often do like once a month or so then no matter how sick they are they'll try to hold out till the freebie event most would rather do that than go to the free public health clinic or hospital which are dirty smelly pathetic nightmares but we talked about that enough in a past show anyway getting your advice from the local pharmacist on any and all medical maladies is a big tradition with the middle and lower classes here in latin america and by the way the guy or gal behind the counter at the pharmacy probably isn't a pharmacist at all because you see down here in latin america chances are only the owner of the pharmacy is an actual pharmacist
[18:30] not any of the workers but they'll all liberally dispense advice and prescription and non-prescription medicine if you list your symptoms and yes of course since this is latin america you can get almost any prescription drug you want down here without a prescription just by asking and so far as i've heard from some expats especially young college-aged guys on vacation who like to party a lot of these guys come down on vacation looking to get some of those prescription drugs not only dirt cheap but because they're a scheduled drug up in the states and they can't get their doctor in cleveland to write them a script and yes many of those guys have heard the rumors that you don't need a prescription and it is true any kind of antibiotic even the expensive imported first world
[19:15] ones are available without a prescription and much cheaper here than up in the first world but the fact is if you're looking for psychotropic drugs like valium xanax xoloft so-called antidepressants and mood altering drugs well it turns out that down here there's so little call for that kind of stuff down here that naturally pharmacists are kind of suspicious when you ask for something like that by name and as for some of that erectile dysfunction stuff like viagra and all its clones well they've got that stuff down here too and from what i've heard not personal experience by the way you could get it without a prescription in about half the pharmacies and the other half will ask you if you've got one and i'm by no means an expert on that stuff so please no emails okay and here's the other thing i've learned the closer a
[20:01] pharmacy is to a big hospital the more likely they are to ask you for a prescription for a drug that's a scheduled drug or a prescription drug up in the states which means that if you're in a small town or out in the boonies at one of their pharmacies the chances are you won't need a prescription for anything and i've been told even when a pharmacist or pharmacist helper for that matter asks you for a prescription if you pull out an empty bottle of the equivalent from up in the states let's say it is viagra or xoloft or whatever nearly 100 of the time they'll give you a refill or two but chances are it'll be a generic because many times they don't carry the proprietary drug because it's just too damn expensive and there's no demand for it i mean up in cleveland where you live it might be the most popular drug in the neighborhood but down here in latin america
[20:47] forget it especially since 99 of the population has never seen a psychiatrist now like i mentioned the word is out among young men especially that one doesn't need a prescription to get a scheduled drug down here which means in places like cancun and costa rica and panama where they have a lot of tourists especially young partying college students who like to get high including backpackers well turns out that a lot of these weekend tourist partiers will come down to costa rica for example or pop across the border into mexico and try to hit up the local pharmacist for drugs like xoloft viagra tylenol number three and stuff like that and guess what on the tourist trail pharmacists are hip to that number and do want your gringo dollars of course but they also know that you're
[21:32] on vacation and you'll pay any price they tell you and it'll still be cheaper than in the states and without a prescription so yes in places like costa rica cancun and panama for example young gringos especially are buying a lot of that stuff but they're paying double even triple than what the locals could get it for though the locals aren't buying oh and here's another interesting scam that's going on now as you might be aware a lot of north americans make repeat trips to costa rica they got cheap package deals or maybe they were stupid enough to buy a timeshare or actually have a property or a friend who has a property down there anyway the average young partying gringo after a few trips to a few different pharmacies in costa rica he realizes there are just some scheduled drugs you absolutely have to have a prescription for like for example
[22:18] the heavily abused oxycodone here's a scam i've heard of of late used by certain young partiers who go to costa rica repeatedly they actually go online and print up some bogus prescriptions or they get an old prescription or prescriptions from their friends and photoshop it for the scheduled drugs that they're looking for and the next time they go down to costa rica or cancun they're covered with that bogus prescription and get this even if it's crudely done and there are obvious flaws in the way it's written up that doesn't really matter to the pharmacist's aid behind the counter as long as you hand them a piece of paper and it looks halfway right he'll fill your prescription especially a gringo prescription since basically the only thing the latin guy reading that prescription can make out are the numbers the date and the name of the drug
[23:05] remember that prescription from the states is going to be in english now if you tried something like that up in the states forging a prescription like that you'd probably end up in the slammer since not only can a pharmacist spot a bogus prescription in a second but they can call the doctor and get a verification right away too right well guess what down here in latin america pharmacists or people working there rarely call a doctor on a prescription in fact they almost never do it like one latin pharmacist told me good luck trying to get through to a doctor in his office anyway and by the way this guy told me and he is a real pharmacist that there's no monitoring agency to speak of anyway for example up in the states if a particular doctor writes too many prescriptions of a certain scheduled drug like tylenol 3 or oxycodone the sale of that stuff is
[23:51] so tightly controlled that soon enough red flags will go up and that doctor will not only be questioned but the state medical review board and even the dea could make big trouble for him whereas in latin america there are no state review boards or fda-like agencies to even attempt any of that stuff and as for some master computer database of scheduled drugs forget about it so i hope i'm not giving any of you young partying guys any ideas out there but i will give out my disclaimer i only report the facts ma'am exactly what it's like down here in latin america and i'm not gonna lie when i tell you that many a newbie expat and visitor have asked me and expat eddie and a load of other expats what's the scoop on getting those scheduled drugs down here that are prescription up in the states because remember it's not illegal down here to do that and the
[24:39] first question i always pose to him is this let's say you do get 200 xanax what are you going to tell tsa when you try to bring them through which means the big party is going to have to be south of the border oh and by the way let me just say one thing in closing out the subject here now don't you think it's funny that all these scheduled drugs and narcotics are available down here without a prescription and yet i personally have never met anyone who's addicted to any of that stuff and i don't even mean addicted i don't even know anyone who's an occasional user so the stuff's very cheap and available but even so people don't seem to be abusing it at all and the same thing is true for marijuana down here it's very powerful and so dirt cheap it's practically free and yet i don't know of any gringo or long-term expat who's locked himself in a spare room and
[25:26] smoking himself to death however when i lived in costa rica and visited places like panama and cancun where there's a never-ending supply of young gringo tourists well i can tell you this the vast majority of those guys and gals on a quick sabbatical are hell bent on partying till they drop and especially in the beach towns sometimes especially on weekends you can't walk a hundred yards without catching a whiff of the forbidden weed and you might ask down here how forbidden is it well it turns out that practically every latin american country have decriminalized small amounts of it like for example if the cops catch you with a joint or two or even a little bag often they'll just give you a dirty look and take it from you especially if you're a gringo not to mention if you're on the tourist trail like costa rica they'll surely hit you up for a bribe like 50 or 100 bucks and get this 20 years ago it used to be 10 or 20 bucks anyway when people ask me
[26:17] about penalties if caught with marijuana if you have just enough for personal use and like eddie says if you get pulled over by the cops you don't roll down your window and blow it into the cop's face well then if you're nice and polite they'll let you alone but if you have what looks like to be a pretty good stash and appear to be somewhat of a dealer well that's another story and you don't want to be that guy then there's the little country of uragwe which just legalized it for personal use and they plan on letting anyone grow this stuff so they can tax and regulate it and that looks like the wave of the future for most latin american countries so we'll keep an eye on that oh and one thing i keep forgetting to mention about filling forms and paperwork out down here you really have to remember this when latin's write the date they write it day month and year not month day and year you know how we might say july 30th 2013 well they'll say it 30 july
[27:09] 213 and just like we do they'll do it with a combination of numbers and letters or just numbers so be very aware of that which means for example if you come down here and try to open a bank account or fill out the forms for a health insurance policy or applying for a driver's license make sure you fill out the date the spanish way because if you don't something that simple and small could turn around and bite you in the traceto south of the border down mexico way you've been listening to the expat files living in latin america coming to you twice a week from somewhere south of the border email me the expat files at gmail.com and don't forget to check out expat wisdom.com to sign up for your free reports on latin america see you next time nos vemos