Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller dives into several key topics that expats often encounter when living in Latin America. He begins by discussing the cultural differences in social media usage, highlighting the irony that expats in Latin America are often more aware of privacy issues than those in the first world. He notes the pretentiousness of showcasing Facebook and Twitter numbers, even as many in the first world continue to engage in this behavior. Johnny also explains the 'cafe internet' phenomenon, where people access the internet through public cafes using outdated technology that is repurposed and repaired by locals. He emphasizes the resourcefulness and practicality of Latin Americans in making old technology last, using examples like the 1971 Datsun B110 and other vintage appliances.
Next, Johnny discusses the state of bathrooms in middle and lower middle-class Latin households, emphasizing the prevalence of poor sanitation, lack of maintenance, and the necessity for expats to adapt. He highlights issues such as unclean floors, lack of running water, and the common practice of using garbage cans for toilet paper disposal. He also provides practical advice on how to handle these situations, such as using water from the toilet tank for handwashing. Johnny acknowledges that while not all bathrooms are in this condition, generalizations are necessary for expats to make safe decisions.
In another segment, Johnny explores the differences in bathroom standards and cleaning practices in Latin America, particularly among the upper middle class and wealthy. He notes that while these individuals often have access to first-world-style fixtures, the overall quality and maintenance of bathrooms may not match first-world standards. This is attributed to the limited skills and resources of cleaning staff, many of whom come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and lack the training to maintain high standards. Johnny also touches on the broader topic of technology and internet access in Latin America, highlighting the prevalence of prepaid phones and the challenges expats face in accessing high-end smartphones without a credit history or a 'fia door' (a person who vouches for them).
The podcast segment also discusses the challenges expats face when trying to get a smartphone on a long-term contract in Latin America. Johnny explains that without a local lawyer, it's nearly impossible to secure a long-term contract, as most new expats don't have the necessary credit history or relationships with locals. He highlights that lawyers are often willing to act as 'fia doors' (signatories) for various services like phone contracts, internet, and business lines, especially for expats off the tourist trail. However, he warns that lawyers on the tourist trail may not be reliable and that expats should seek out lawyers with established relationships in the local community. The segment also touches on the differences between prepaid and long-term phone contracts, noting that prepaid plans offer fewer high-end phone options and that internet usage on prepaid phones can be costly and slow.
Finally, Johnny discusses the process of recharging prepaid phones in Latin America, emphasizing the importance of verifying transactions and being cautious of potential scams. He outlines the steps to recharge minutes, the importance of waiting for confirmation texts, and the risks of giving incorrect phone numbers. He also explains how to take advantage of bonus minutes on certain days and the importance of saving receipts for customer service. Johnny notes that while customer service in Latin America is generally poor, phone companies are often owned by international corporations, which ensures a level of support for expats.
Topics
Social media and privacy, Cultural differences in technology usage, Resourcefulness and practicality in Latin America, Bathroom conditions in Latin America, Sanitation and hygiene, Expatriate experiences, Adaptation and survival tips, Bathroom standards in Latin America, Cleaning practices and staff training, Technology and internet access, Prepaid phones and smartphone availability, Legal assistance for expats
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:01:11 The Pretentiousness of Facebook Friend Counts 00:02:46 The Cafe Internet Phenomenon in Latin America 00:05:15 The 1971 Datsun B110 and Resourcefulness in Latin America 00:06:04 Refurbished Computers and Their Cost 00:06:36 Cafe Internets and Their Typical Environment 00:12:31 First World Fixtures, Not First World Standards 00:13:28 The Cleaning Lady's Limitations 00:16:57 Smartphones and Prepaid Phones 00:18:03 Why You'll Need a Lawyer for a Smartphone Contract 00:18:57 Lawyers Do That No Charge 00:19:28 Avogados and the Gringo Tourist Trail 00:21:13 Prepaid Phones vs. Long-Term Contracts 00:23:41 Introduction to Recharging Prepaid Phones in Latin America 00:24:18 Hot Tip: Don't Walk Out Before Receiving Confirmation 00:25:23 Understanding the Risks of Scams and Language Barriers 00:25:31 How Many Prepaid Minutes Can You Buy at a Time? 00:26:50 Why Customer Service is Better for Expats in Latin America
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.
[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wonder 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 Sometimes you know when I run into people face to face They asked me a question like Johnny. Do you have any idea how popular you might be? What with the expat file showing off and I give them kind of a canned answer. I tell them I have about
[00:46] 87,000 226 pseudo friends on Facebook about six real friends And that's including my mother and all those unknown thousands of friends I have listening in from the NSA and the other alphabet agencies And of course, it's kind of a joke the Facebook part that is because I don't have a personal Facebook page And I never will and it always makes me laugh when I hear pretentious people up in the States say to each other How many Facebook friends do you have? I've got eight hundred and twenty two as if they were really flesh and blood friends You'd met in real life and had at least a couple of face-to-face conversations with thankfully up in the first world It's becoming more and more uncool and a glaring display of personal privacy ignorance when you roll out meaningless Facebook friend numbers
[01:32] And that goes for Twitter followers, too as if more is better Well, maybe it is for business, but more is actually worse when it comes to privacy I mean, come on one of the main reasons people want to become expats in a foreign country is to be more anonymous Lower their profile and have a smaller footprint altogether At least by now most adults up in the first world think it's pretty idiotic to rattle off Facebook and Twitter numbers to show off their fake popularity Though unfortunately most have not zipped their lips about it in the name of regaining their privacy most quit bragging because it just sounds pretentious and the privacy issues have nothing to do with it because Most people don't care whether they realize it or not that horse left the barn a long time ago
[02:21] But guess what with that lag time thing we always talk about down here in Latin America People are just now starting to tell me how many Facebook friends they have and naturally my eyes glaze over and they just don't get it It's the coolness and the one upmanship factor again Transplanted down here to Latin America for those who have Facebook and Twitter and by the way Facebook and Twitter are Massive down here now, even though only about 15 to 20 percent of Latin Americans actually have internet in their homes So how is it then that the vast majority of young adults and adolescents have Facebook and Twitter accounts? Well, it's due to the massive cafe internet phenomena You see all over down here and you just don't see up in the states
[03:06] In fact in middle-class and lower middle-class residential areas. It seems like there's one on every corner. I take that back There's two or even three on every corner and for as low as 40 or 50 cents an hour Now when you walk into one of those places You'll generally see five ten or fifteen computer stations with equipment that you and I tossed out as old tech junk Five or ten years ago You chucked yours. All right, but where do you think that stuff ends up sure sometimes in the garbage? But if it's still got some life left in it It could end up in Latin America The fact is there's a huge aftermarket for used computer equipment down here All you have to do is scan the classified news sections and you'll see dozens of ads though not very many individuals selling simply because some computer stores take trade-ins and
[03:55] Most neighborhood cafe internet places will buy up your old hardware to and either recycle it or sell it right there at that cafe internet So anyway those used computer stores and used computer ads you see in the classifieds are usually small mom-and-pop operations operating out of a hole in the wall somewhere often a dumpy garage attached to their house and Sometimes they get into the business by buying a mixed lot of old computers Through an online auction or something like Craig's list up in the states now if you didn't know this already Latins are very very good at fixing things electrical mechanical and otherwise They have the golden touch for making things last forever now They don't have the touch for making them look pretty but they can double and triple the lifespan of most any consumer product
[04:43] Take cars for instance once down here especially off the tourist trail You'll be amazed at some of the ancient cars you'll see driving down the road Cars that no one in the right mind up in the first world would ever think to restore or keep running like for example When was the last time you saw a? 1971 Datsun B110 Chances are if you're under 40 you've never seen one since up in the first world I guarantee they're all in the graveyard Now the reason why I mentioned this model is that they were considered back in 1971 as the least expensive new car you could buy they were well under 2,000 bucks So naturally a lot of them ended up down here in Latin America well 40 plus years later You'll still spot them chugging along junk piles on wheels, but they're running the fact is down here
[05:32] Especially off the tourist trail you'll see 40 50 60 year old cars that have no business being on the road And these are not cars with any kind of antique value either and yes They all look like rotting dumpsters on wheels and death traps to us first worlders But somehow the local mechanic keeps them ticking and the same thing goes for stoves washing machines televisions refrigerators and Computers in fact just looking at last week's classifieds in the big Honduran newspaper out of San Pedro Sula They're selling those boxy old desktop computers of five or six years ago with big heavy old style monitors Totally refurbished except for the dents and scratches along with a full 30-day guarantee for around a hundred to a hundred twenty bucks
[06:19] Complete with massive hundred gig hard drives whereas if you bought a brand new computer today Even the most basic desktop notebook or whatever it'll have at least a 500 gig hard drive Anyway, when you're off the tourist trail in a middle or lower middle class neighborhood And you walk into one of these ever popular cafe internets What do you see well generally you'll see mama or grandma through the back door? Washing clothes or cooking up tortillas and the obligatory mangy dog or two that haven't had a bath since well never Oh and do be advised They'll be telltale whiffs of air coming from a disgusting Bathroom that never would have passed inspection in a million years up in the first world now Let me pause a second to say that I don't want you to send me emails saying Johnny not every Latin bathroom can be
[07:09] Unsanitary and disgusting like that. How can you generalize to which my response would be yes, of course I am generalizing life is all about making decisions based on generalities and sure there are exceptions to every rule But making decisions based on generalizations is what keeps most people alive and well, for example Here's a good generalization What if you looked in your refrigerator and you found some yogurt that was two months past its expiration date generally speaking? It'd be nuts to eat it, right? However, it just might be perfectly fine But generally speaking probably not and you're not gonna eat it you get the idea And that's why I'm advising you right now with middle and lower middle-class Latin families Generally speaking there'll be some severe sanitary shortcomings in their bathrooms now through 20 something years of personal experience
[08:00] I can vouch for the fact that nearly 100% of Latin families middle or lower class have bathrooms that are pretty much disgusting now for example I don't care if the lady of the house is an Obsessive compulsive cleaner and you could eat off that bathroom floor or even the toilet seat. The fact is nearly 100% of Latin bathrooms have such bad plumbing that everyone is required to put their used toilet paper in the garbage can next to the toilet and by the way, nearly 100% of Latin bathroom garbage cans do not have a lid on the top and if it did you can imagine even a bigger mess and So that little garbage can filled with used toilet paper is what you get to stare at while you're sitting there doing your business
[08:49] And that's why nearly all middle and lower class Latin bathrooms. Never ever smell fresh and clean How can they which is why us gringles and expats when forced to use a bathroom like that Have learned to do our business in Olympic record time and another thing in my more than two decades down here I've never been in a middle-class or lower middle-class bathroom Where my choice to wipe my hands after I rinse them out in the sink provided the water faucet actually worked which is by no means guaranteed where my choice to wipe my hands was anything better than a Limp moist dirty towel that's been hanging there for who knows how many days or weeks or months That's why so many expats and gringles I know think fast and wipe their hands on their pants
[09:35] But then again, you still have to grab that dirty doorknob to get out now Don't you and that's why like I said in last week's show I always carry a little wad of paper napkins in my pocket that I lifted from the last restaurant I was had now. I know I'm digressing here quite a bit as usual But this is very simple and important stuff if you want to avoid well You know what you want to avoid and one last thing about Latin bathrooms You'll find that in many middle and lower middle-class bathrooms There won't be any water at the sink the faucets in the spigots will be bone-dry Well, if you find that's true try this first stick your hand under the sink and twist the little valve That's attached to the cold water line. And then you might ask why would that be shut off?
[10:21] Well, the fact is as you know by now Latins are not into maintenance in many many many Perhaps more than 50% of all Latin faucets leak a little bit so as to not pay for excess water usage Latins instead of fixing the leaky faucet will just turn off the water down below and just make do with not having any water At the sink they obviously get used to it because you see it all the time So what if you find that little valve under the sink and you can't turn it? Because it's rusted solid or when you do turn it nothing happens. That's always possible Well plan B then is to lift the lid off the toilet tank and there's always water in there Which of course is the reserve tank for the water flush? But it's clean enough water to wash your hands in not to drink
[11:07] Of course No water coming directly out of a faucet in Latin America is safe to drink And by the way that water in the toilet tank is no more contaminated than the water that would be coming out of the faucet Anyway, it's coming from the same source. Just because it's on top of the toilet doesn't mean it's more contaminated It's not and for those of you aren't there who are thinking. Oh, there he goes Generalizing again. All I have to say is go ahead drink the water. I dare you now If you notice I've been qualifying this bathroom issue by saying you find those deplorable conditions in middle class And lower middle class houses and in the vast majority of mom-and-pop businesses, too So what about those bathrooms in the wealthy and upper middle class houses? How do they stack up?
[11:53] Well in general much much better all around and of course It's due to the fact that they have more money to do better improvements and use better grade materials But mostly because they're better educated and many many of them have been up to the states and in the first world and they've stayed At higher-end hotels, so they know first hand how an acceptable first world bathroom looks and functions And remember upper middle class and wealthy Latins are genuine first world wannabes And they're the ones that have enough money to copy what they see up in the first world now That's not to say their bathroom is gonna be spic and span like a first world bathroom What I'm saying is it'll have all the right first world style fixtures and the plumbing and the faucets will all work fine However, you won't be able to miss the fact that it's just not brilliant and buffed and detailed around the edges like so many first world
[12:43] Bathrooms are and that of course is the responsibility of the maid or cleaning lady, right? You'd think but when we see a first world bathroom like that, that's just dingy. We always think what the hell's wrong with the maid Why isn't she on it? Now in regards to bathrooms and cleaning ladies It's not just the upper middle class and wealthy classes that have them many many middle class Latins Have a living maid or one that comes in daily, too So then you might ask if that's all she does all day is cleaning and housework Why aren't the bathrooms looking spic and span like I said the same thing goes for upper middle class Latins and wealthy Latins, too Good question Well, the answer is it's because they clean the boss or the boss ladies bathroom Like they clean their own bathrooms at home
[13:30] And remember the average cleaning lady has a house with a tin roof cooks with wood has cold running water Maybe no washing machine and get this no sink in the bathroom Nope, nearly 100% of the cleaning ladies come from families in the lower classes of society and for most of them The only running water and the only sink is outside in a big cement basin called a Pila Pila and if they have running water That's where the faucet will be and that's why having a fuller part-time cleaning lady is not enough You'll have to give her some first-world training yourself or you'll be disappointed in the way She does things from day one and for all those Latins who hair cleaning ladies They just hire them give them a mop a broom and a bucket and tell them to go at it
[14:16] So they end up cleaning their employers house like they clean their own houses. No training No, nothing and the results pretty crappy D minus which is why like I mentioned in the show a long time ago That's a great opportunity for gringos who want to start a business How about a four hour weekend course on how to whip your cleaning lady into a first world dynamo? You get the idea, but you'll have to speak Spanish because none of the cleaning ladies speak English Well, maybe on the tourist trail a few of them do but when you're off the tourist trail forget about it now, where was I? Oh, yeah, I was at the cafe Internet So what do you think you see when you walk into one of those places besides big old used boxy computers and the occasional
[15:03] Landmine you have to dodge courtesy of a mangy pet or two. Well, it's obvious Everybody's on Twitter or Facebook or surfing the Latin entertainment sites often doing all three at once So anyway, depending on what land country you're in 50 to 70 percent of all young adults and adolescents Have Facebook and Twitter accounts yet only about 15 to 20 percent of Latin Americans have internet in their homes Now that's not to say they don't have internet on their phones But the vast majority of people who can access internet on their phone Just don't do it because it's too expensive at least it is for the average guy who makes three or four hundred bucks a month because nearly all the people in that Category buy phones without a contract or monthly plan
[15:51] They buy phones that you recharge time by paying cash at the local phone store or buying a scratch-off card with minutes And loading up extra time that way they call those phones prepaid phones Or pre-pagos that's pre-pago in Spanish You can't confuse that because they borrowed the English word almost exactly and by the way as far as technology is concerned Latins almost always borrow the English word for it like television is televisor or just telly even ancient technologies like refrigerators are called refrigadores or Refrees using the first five letters of the word refrigerator or refrigadora and get this in Spanish when you're talking about the Telecommunication sector they call it sector Telecommunication is how's that for a tongue twister even so it's almost exactly the same two English words though with the accents in different places
[16:44] Now here's a question people ask me all the time if you buy a prepaid phone down here That means without a plan You know the kind you charge with money anytime you want to instead of being billed monthly or having money extracted from your credit card Anyway gringos and fresh expats often wonder can you get those nice high-end models of smartphones like iPhones high-end? Androids and even blackberries which are still kind of the rage down here due to lag time even though up in the first world They're virtually dead Anyway, expat gonna bees and wannabes Want to know if they could just buy a prepaid phone like that and get a high-end model like you can with the contract plans Now let me point out when you buy a prepaid phone whether it's a smartphone or a dumb one You can do all of that and walk out of the store with it working within 15 or 20 minutes. That's it simple, huh?
[17:34] However with those contract plans you need a credit history a credit card and a fia door That's fia door. That's someone who'll vouch for you that you're a decent honest respectable person Which means you can't be a politician or French just kidding about the French part Anyway a fia door can be a person like an established local businessman And of course the best fia door of all will be your lawyer and that's reason 247 why you'll need a lawyer when you first get down here Meaning it'll be virtually impossible for you to get a smartphone on a long-term contract Unless you've established a relationship with a lawyer and that's because almost all new gringos and fresh expats that come down Don't really know any local Latins personally. Anyway, you have to know someone a while before he'll sign as your fia door
[18:24] And by the way, you're cleaning lady and your maintenance guy they won't qualify as fia doors for the phone company or anyone else because Basically, they're at the bottom rung of the socio-economic ladder and don't have a credit history credit cards or even money in the bank And that's why your lawyer is a great choice and he'll gladly sign for you and believe me when you're off the tourist trail Your lawyer will sign as a fia door for whatever you're gonna do rent an apartment Get a phone internet or cable TV contract and even a line of credit for your business and guess what off the tourist trail Lawyers do that no charge but if you're on the gringo tourist trail like Panama Costa Rica Cancun or any place a cruise ship stops and you ask your lawyer to Be a fia door or ask them to do anything
[19:09] then you'll just have to bend over and hope for the best and why you might ask can I make such a blanket negative statement like That well, that's because every single gringo and expat I know that has worked with lawyers on the gringo tourist trail has been screwed or taken in one way or another By their local avogado. That's what they call lawyers in Latin America Avogados which comes directly from the word advocate. It even looks like our English word advocate Now most gringos have a very hard time remembering that word avogado But I was telling it's simple just think of the word avocado. And in fact, a lot of gringos call their lawyers avocados And the lawyer he doesn't care what you call him
[19:55] Avogado avocado as long as the check doesn't bounce right now That's not to say you won't get taken by your avocado when you're off the gringo tourist trail But it's very very less likely and it'll almost never happen if you've been properly Introduced by gringos who've had a long-standing relationship with the guy and like expat Eddie says Lawyers off the gringo tourist trail have very very few gringos as clients Which believe it or not is the best of all worlds In fact some of you guys and gals when you get down here when you eventually do hook up with a lawyer You might be his or her very first gringo client and because avogados here off the tourist trail consider gringos high class clients and a feather in their cap who certainly have other gringo friends that just might come down and
[20:43] Become clients too. That means from the moment you meet you're treated with favorite client status It's that old gringo advantage again, you know, but I digress and where was I? Oh, yeah I was talking about Telephones and whether or not the phones available in the prepaid plans are the same as the ones Available when you get a long-term phone service contract In other words people with some dough and a credit history Latin folks who can actually qualify for a long-term contract Do they have a better choice of phones? Well, the simple answer is no when you're on the prepaid plan and you don't qualify for a contract You have a big choice of low and medium end phones, but not much on the high end And that's because if you can afford to buy a high-end phone for four or five or six hundred bucks
[21:30] Or whatever high-end androids and iPhones cost these days I wouldn't know because I use dumb phones Anyway, if you've got that kind of money to throw around on an iPhone You probably have a credit card a bank account and a credit history now Many of us gringos and long-term expats could certainly afford a contract plan But we prefer to be off the radar or at least have a very low profile by having a dumb phone Because when you buy one of those things, yes, they might ask you for an ID But gringos almost never have to pull one out and actually show them You just recite your personal data or just fill in the data sheet yourself because of your bad Spanish vocalizations You hand over the dough and they give you the phone. It's as easy as that Now if you actually come down here with your own high-end phone from up in the States
[22:16] You can buy a prepaid sim card for like six or seven bucks and pop it in your high-end phone And now it's a totally anonymous prepaid phone Of course, it'll have a different telephone number now a new number because every sim card comes with its own new phone number So you might have to advise certain friends and enemies that you have a new number big deal And for those of you up in the first world Who got your cellular phone blocked or keyed in to a certain service up north when you get down here with that phone? There are any number of little kiosks hundreds of them in every medium in large city That'll unblock your phone for you That way you can use any sim card from any of the latin american telephone services Anytime you want now about surfing the internet with a prepaid phone with a 15 or 20 dollar dumb phone
[23:05] You can't do that. Those things are quite basic But you can buy a medium to kind of high-end android phone We're talking prepaid phones without a contract here And still you'll have complete internet connectivity if you want it and believe me these phone companies do everything in their power To try to get you to jump on the internet and surf or whatever with those prepaid phones But I don't recommend it unless you've got absolutely no other choice and you just have to get on the internet Because like I said earlier, at least I think I said it earlier You're working on prepaid minutes now and the internet will suck those minutes away Faster than snoop dog can suck a crack pipe now Here's what you should know about recharging those prepaid phones with minutes And again when you run out of minutes or getting close to running out
[23:52] You can either recharge the minutes by going into a phone store Or go into any gas station or convenience store that has the phone company logo pasted on the outside door You walk up to the cashier give him or her your phone number and the money And they punch some codes into the register and you're all set and within the next four or five minutes You'll get a text message saying the transaction has been complete and you've got your recharged minutes now Here's a hot tip Don't ever walk out of the store or the gas station Before you get that text message because sometimes especially with green expats and gringos They'll walk out of the place thinking everything's okay And then later in the day they find out they didn't get those minutes credited after all So does that mean the locals are out to rip off clueless gringos?
[24:41] No, but you still might not get those minutes and how would that happen? Well 95 percent of the time it's because you gave that person the wrong number or the cashier When entering the number in the system typed it in wrong because when you dictated it to him your spanish was so bad He didn't get it right. Oh, and here's another little scam that happens a lot on the tourist trail like costa rica You'll buy your minutes in a store your phone will get the text message that the minutes have landed Okay But you won't get all the minutes are paid for which means the guy at the register Shorted you and they can get away with that easily on the tourist trail because most gringos don't speak spanish with a dam And the text message comes in spanish and they don't know quite how to read it So they just think because the text message ringer went off that everything's okay. Well, don't assume that
[25:31] And another question that comes up is how many prepaid minutes can you buy at a time? They come in segments. You can buy 50 cents worth a dollar's worth five dollars worth ten dollars twenty and even twenty five dollars worth In the local funny money equivalent not us funny money And if you want you could keep on loading your minutes in Endlessly as long as you've got the money you can load in the minutes And you should be aware that with these prepaid phone plans each different cell phone company And there's four or five of them usually in every latin country Has certain days of the week where you get double triple quadruple bonus minutes or even more If you buy more minutes on that day And I highly recommend doing that but when you do it You should wait for the second text message to ring saying that you've been awarded the bonus time
[26:22] And that message should come within four or five minutes, too So what happens if you're not awarded those bonus minutes or you walk out of the store and forget to check and the original Minutes never came sometimes that can happen Well, as long as you save your receipt You could go to the phone company store and plead your case and they will credit you with the time Usually without an argument at all and considering this is latin america where customer service is non-existent or simply sucks You wonder why it's so easy Well, that's because these phone companies are owned by first world corporations Or at least these huge international companies have huge stakes in local phone companies. So they're running things Thus you do get pretty good customer service. Now. I'm not saying it's fast You could stand in line for a half an hour to an hour
[27:08] But with the phone companies anyway, usually the customer is always right But you have to have your receipt and by the way just one more thing about buying a phone on a contract down here Remember I said you could buy a prepaid phone and get it working and walk out of there within 15 or 20 minutes Well, it's not like that at all. If you buy a phone on a contract plan They do check references, etc And it could take a week or two 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 expatwisdom.com to sign up for your free reports on latin america See you next time nos vemos