Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller explores the multifaceted experiences of expats living in Latin America. He begins by introducing the podcast, which focuses on the challenges and opportunities of living, working, playing, and retiring in the region. He promotes his upcoming July 2014 Expat Wisdom Seminar in Guatemala, encouraging listeners to sign up by sending an email with the subject line 'seminar'.
Johnny then delves into the common use of the phrase 'don't worry' in Latin America, explaining its Spanish equivalents and the irony that it often signals the opposite. He shifts focus to Belize, noting that while it's a great vacation spot, it's not recommended for long-term expat living due to various issues. He touches on the John McAfee case, highlighting his fugitive status, pending charges, and the controversies surrounding his activities in Belize.
In a deeper discussion, Johnny explains how Belize's small size and lack of privacy make it risky for wealthy individuals. He notes that McAfee's decision to move his assets to Belize and his high-profile presence led to unwanted attention, including a demand for a $2 million campaign contribution from a local politician. Mueller emphasizes that while Belize offers financial advantages, the lack of anonymity and the small population make it a dangerous place for expats, especially those with significant wealth.
Johnny recounts the story of McAfee, an expat in Belize, who faced a series of threats and legal challenges after refusing to pay a bribe. McAfee's refusal led to a campaign of harassment, including break-ins, surveillance, and even the suspicious death of a neighbor. The government of Belize then placed McAfee under an embargo, restricting his movement and assigning police to monitor him. Despite the risks, McAfee avoided legal repercussions by not attending a hearing that could have led to his detention. Johnny highlights how, in Latin America, police often avoid being caught in the rain, making it easier for expats to evade detection. He also notes the presence of illegal aliens in the region and the importance of legal status for expats to avoid similar issues.
The podcast segment discusses a real-life incident involving a German expat in Costa Rica who accidentally hit a child on a bike while driving. Despite the minor nature of the accident, the child's family later pressed charges, leading to legal consequences for the expat, including an embargo on his passport. Johnny Mueller highlights the broader issue of the 'gringo disadvantage,' where expats, especially those from the U.S. or Europe, are often viewed as targets for legal action or exploitation due to their perceived wealth. He also touches on the topic of paternity suits, where some expats avoid legal responsibilities by evading court appearances, especially in countries with weak enforcement of child support laws. Johnny notes that while some expats may avoid legal consequences, the situation is changing due to increased pressure on legal systems and the rise of female judges in Latin American courts.
In this segment, Johnny Mueller discusses the challenges expats face with law enforcement in Latin America, particularly during the rain. He highlights how the legal system in Latin America is often biased toward those with money, but John McAfee was an exception due to his political enemies. Johnny also shares practical advice for expats to avoid getting stopped by police during rain, such as avoiding roadblocks and using the 'dumb gringo' act. He recounts his own experiences driving through border checkpoints without being stopped and explains how McAfee used this strategy to flee Belize. Johnny concludes by emphasizing the importance of not putting all assets in one country and avoiding political enemies.
In this segment, Johnny Mueller discusses the importance of having a contingency plan, especially in Latin America, where political and legal issues tend to develop slowly. He warns against standing your ground in disputes, referencing a case involving McAvie, who faced legal complications due to his connections. Johnny emphasizes the need for multiple backup plans, especially when dealing with legal or financial matters. He also transitions into a discussion about finding local sales, suggesting that expats should look for the cheapest newspaper in the area to find information about yard and rummage sales. He explains that these sales are typically organized by middle-class individuals who may not advertise in expensive newspapers and are often spontaneous, with minimal attendance.
In this segment, Johnny Mueller discusses his experiences with rummage sales in Latin America, highlighting the 'gringo advantage' and the cultural nuances of these events. He explains that most people in Latin America don't own cars, so attendees typically walk, and there's rarely a parking issue. Johnny admits he's not a rummage sale junkie but has attended a few, where he noticed the gringo advantage first hit him. He recounts a specific instance where he was the first gringo the host had ever seen, and they treated him specially, offering him cookies and coffee, which others didn't receive. He also notes that in some cases, gringos are the only ones accepted with checks, while others are only allowed to pay in cash. Johnny contrasts the experiences of rummage sales in high-end neighborhoods versus lower-middle-class areas, explaining that the latter often offer better deals and more interesting finds. He advises visitors to dress down and avoid flashy items to blend in and find real gems.
Topics
Introduction to The Expat Files, Promotion of Expat Wisdom Seminar, Discussion on the phrase 'don't worry' in Latin America, Evaluation of Belize as an expat destination, Overview of the John McAfee case in Belize, Belize's financial services, John McAfee's case, Anonymity in Belize, Expatriate risks in Belize, Expatriate experiences in Belize, Legal challenges for expats in Latin America, Police behavior in Latin America
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:32 Promotion of Expat Wisdom Seminar 00:01:30 Discussion on the Phrase 'Don't Worry' 00:03:30 Evaluation of Belize as an Expat Destination 00:04:11 Overview of the John McAfee Case 00:05:25 McAfee Case and Its Implications for Expats in Belize 00:06:18 Introduction to John McAfee's Case 00:10:06 McAfee's Refusal and Harassment Begins 00:10:35 The Escalation of Threats and McAfee's Escape 00:14:55 The Incident with the German Expat in Costa Rica 00:15:28 The Gringo Disadvantage and Legal Consequences 00:16:04 Avoiding Legal Responsibilities and Evading Court Appearances 00:18:51 The Legal System in Latin America and Its Limitations 00:19:12 Cops and the Rain: A Strategy for Expats 00:22:00 Lessons for Expats: Asset Management and Political Avoidance 00:22:20 The Importance of Contingency Planning in Latin America 00:23:23 Finding Local Sales Through Cheap Newspapers 00:25:30 The Gringo Advantage at Rummage Sales 00:26:25 The Gringo Advantage Rides Again 00:26:59 Best Hunting Grounds for Rummage Sales
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. First, I'd like to again mention that you can get in on the early bird sign up for my upcoming July 2014 Expat Wisdom Seminar by sending me an email with the word seminar in the subject box. It'll be way off the gringo tourist trail again, in and around Guatemala Central America. So, just send that email to the expat files at gmail.com or johnny at expatwisdom.com and by now the full details and agenda should be up at my website expatwisdom.com and up
[01:02] towards the top of the main page you'll see a link that says Latin American seminar, just click on that and you'll get the full details, agenda, pricing, accommodations and such, the whole shebang and if the link isn't up there yet, just give it a day or two. We're working on it. Now, before I finish off this rummage sale and yard sale thing, which I've been trying to do for the last three weeks but I just can't seem to be able to spit it out in coherent pieces, but don't worry, I will get to it today. And by the way, the phrase don't worry is the most common English phrase used by Latins who know almost no English when speaking to gringos, both on and off the tourist trail. And it always blows my mind that Latins way out in the boonies who only know maybe five or ten words of English will always be able to spit out that phrase don't
[01:49] worry in English if and when they ever come face to face with a gringo and actually have to converse with him in some way. And by the way, you really should get used to the Spanish version of the don't worry phrase, which is no priacuparte, no priacuparte, which literally means in English don't be preoccupied with it. And if you were paying attention, you'd have noticed that the word preoccupy is stuck in that phrase. You can easily pick the word out. That's the word priacupar, which sounds almost exactly like the English word preoccupy, which is a very nice memory aid for gringos who don't know much Spanish. And also note that in Spanish, you'll hear two versions of the phrase don't worry. One is no priacuparte and the other is no priacuparce.
[02:36] The first one meaning don't worry and the second one meaning don't worry Slightly different but really the same meaning. And by the way, those two phrases in Spanish are so very often used by Latin speakers down here. Not just to gringos, but Latin say it to each other often too. Anyway, soon enough, you'll come to the conclusion that when you hear those phrases, they mean just the opposite. In other words, a red flag should go up and you really should start worrying. You think I'm kidding? I wish I was. Here's a good example of that. Suppose you brought your broken washing machine into the mechanic and he told you to come in Tuesday afternoon because it'll be done. You can pick it up. Well, I can guarantee that when you walk in there Tuesday afternoon, if the first words on his mouth are no priacuparte, don't worry.
[03:22] That means it's not done and oops, I forgot to call and tell you that. You get the idea. All right, so let's change gears now. I'd like to mention a couple of pretty unknown facts that all of you guys and gals out there who are interested in Belize should pay attention to here. You probably know, if you've been listening to my program long enough, that I don't recommend Belize as a great expat destination. But I do recommend it as a nice vacation spot. You know, a week or two and it seems like paradise. But after a couple of months down there, after you take off the blinders, well, that's when the warts and the flaws become very apparent. And you know, I've mentioned various reasons why I'd never want to live there and I've been there many times. And they're all spelled out in past shows, so I won't go into it here. But I still do get emails from people asking me if any new information's been
[04:11] revealed about that John McAfee case. Remember that? You should remember him. He's the one that gave Belize its 15 minutes of international fame. Yep, that's right. Sleepy little Belize was never heard of, not in the international media anyway, until John McAfee became a fugitive there. And yes, Belize still wants him back. He is a fugitive and they've got pending charges against him. Starting with being a murder suspect for the death of his next door neighbor, as well as being under investigation for bringing in chemists and setting up a synthetic designer drug lab at one of his properties. And are supposed to charges and accusations that he had organized orgies and sex parties on a nightly basis at his house in the boonies, with a steady flow of imported hookers from Belize City.
[05:00] Which in fact down here doesn't make him a criminal, but sure does qualify him to be a high level politician. Same thing, right? Now, I've heard about all those and other accusations against McAfee. And you know, the news that you get on the subject down here is quite a bit more detailed and a lot different than you get up in the first world. So anyway, for those of you interested in coming down to Belize for any reason at all, there are a few things that you should know about that McAfee case that could impact you yourself. So have a listen. Now, as many of you already realize, Belize can be a very good place to do your banking and to set up corporations, et cetera. And you may have heard of this special instrument called the Belize Trust, which if set up properly and with an established firm can be airtight
[05:46] as well as being completely anonymous. Meaning once you put your assets into a trust like that, no one from any other country can come knocking and put a lean or hold on your assets in any way. Besides that, unless you tell someone, it's completely anonymous so no one should know anyway. Fact is, it's been tried but it's never been successful, ever. That means not even a judge's court order coming from a first world country will have any weight at all, even if it's taken to a Belize court. Like I said, those Belize trusts are set up to be airtight and they are. Which brings me to John McAfee's case. Now, over the years I've spoken to a few of these Belize bankers and believe me, there aren't many of them. Belize is a very small country and Belize City, the capital and financial center, it doesn't even have 100,000 people.
[06:33] Though, it does have quite a few banks. All of them, by the way, no bigger physically than the smallest branch bank in your own hometown. And it's those banks, along with the barrier reef and the scuba diving, that are about the only things that foreigners are interested in. If you were to travel to Belize right now and head up to Belize City and maybe strike up a conversation with the first person you see in a suit or that looks like a business professional, just bring up that name, John McAfee and you'll get an earful. And by the way, everyone in Belize speaks English, which is why so many gringos think it's a good place to expat to. Though, as far as I'm concerned, just because they speak English in Belize, that doesn't nearly overcome the negatives you'll find there once you move down. Anyway, if you visit the place, if you happen to know a businessman
[07:20] or a banker or two and you mention that name, McAfee, now that it's been nearly two years and the dust is settled, if you snoop around a bit, here's what you'll find out. When John McAfee came down, he made a few mistakes that expats should never make. The guy was a very wealthy man and he shipped all or almost all of his nest egg of tens of millions of dollars to banks and investment vehicles in Belize. So he set up trusts and corporations and bought land, et cetera. And as you might have guessed, in a country that has less than a half a million people, with its largest city being practically nothing but a dilapidated slum with about 20 square blocks of decent first world style middle class to upper middle class housing, if that. Well, let's just say John McAfee didn't enter the country with a soft landing.
[08:09] He came in like a tsunami and everybody knew it, which was really his biggest mistake. I mean, imagine, for example, if Cleveland was a country. And a guy, for example, like George Soros blew into town and put all of his assets in Cleveland banks, all of them. And he decided to live and set up shop there. Let's face it, Cleveland has a population slightly bigger than Belize, so when talking about the relative scale of things, you know what I mean. But still, if Soros did that, it would take about a day for everyone in town to know about it. Even if it was supposed to be a secret, in small towns, people talk. And soon enough, your face and your car and your house get to be known and you're pointed out on the street in your car, in the grocery store, etc., etc. Not to mention, John McAfee is of a tall, pale, almost ghostly white Irish ancestry,
[08:57] whereas about 95% of the locals in Belize are dark, very dark, which makes McAfee even much more of an obvious figure. Anyway, when a foreigner or outsider comes into a country that small and parks tens of millions of dollars, it doesn't take long for everyone to find out there's a big fish in town, in fact, in his case, a whale. So here's what really happened. After he'd only been down about a month or two, and by then living in one of the biggest, most luxurious houses in the whole country, McAfee gets a visit one day from a local big-shot politician who came knocking on a door with his bulletproof entourage and about four bodyguards. Then, after making with the introductions and the pleasantries and a few drinks, he came right out and asked McAfee for a $2 million campaign contribution.
[09:48] Think of it now, $2 million. This guy was way up in the Belize government, and he promised for that $2 million. All kinds of favors and concessions and land deals, etc. Plus his personal guarantee of loyalty and protection, blah, blah, blah. You know, typical scumbag politician BS. Only in McAfee's case, it seemed more like an extortion attempt, basically protection money. Same in the States, only it's a bit more subtle, you know? Up north, it's no contribution, no favoritism. Anyway, McAfee just wouldn't have it and said no. But it didn't end there. The guy kept coming back, hat in hand, asking again and again for a huge campaign contribution, slash bribe, and McAfee just showed him the door. In other words, he told him to shove it and stick it with a sun don't shine.
[10:35] And that's when the proverbial feces hit the ventilator. Soon enough, sleazy, dirtbag-looking people started hanging around the access road to his house. Cop cars and even unmarked cars would pull up outside that road and park there for hours on end. His houses and his properties would get broken into and things would go missing. And then the guy next door who was also a pretty wealthy guy, turned up dead. A foreigner too, by the way, that no one liked. And since McAfee himself had a few altercations with the guy about his noisy watchdogs turning up dead, he became one of the prime suspects. And by the way, a lot of other people were on that suspect list too because the guy who croaked had a lot of enemies. Anyway, as for McAfee, the government of Belize
[11:20] put an embargo on his passport, meaning he couldn't leave the country. Not only that, they assigned a few cops and some squads to watch him at all times when he went out. And then McAfee found out that in the upcoming hearing, the law in Belize says if they want to hold you for questioning, they could keep you in jail for 60 days. They could do that without even charging you with a crime. And after that 60-day period, they could do it again and again and again. So effectively, if you've made enough high-level enemies in Belize, like for example that politician who kept pestering McAfee for a bribe, you could end up in jail for a long, long time and never even be charged with a crime. So then you might ask with all that heat on him, how did he escape? Well, first of all, he wasn't going to appear at that hearing.
[12:08] He knew he'd end up in jail rotting, so he missed the hearing and was declared a fugitive. But what did he do then? How did he escape being picked up since he was such a well-known figure there? Here's a little lesson all expats can learn from McAfee's experience. He realized after living in Belize for a year or so, that the cops always stayed nice and dry. They loathe getting wet. That cops would go to great lengths to stay out of the rain to keep their uniforms dry. And you know, in most of Latin America, there is a heavy rainy season that's about six months long, where you can expect a pounding downpour up to four hours a day. Anyway, McAfee's confirmed what so many of us long-term expats already know. When it's raining, the cops simply disappear.
[12:55] They rush back to their cars or into the 7-Eleven or gas station, whatever's closest, and sit it out. Now, that's not to say that transit cops don't stand out in the rain, because they have raincoats on and plastic wrap to waterproof their hats. But they're only involved with moving traffic and traffic violations, etc. They're not at all involved with civil crimes or misdemeanors and felonies, unless it's involving a traffic accident. And still, they'll call in the regular cops on something like that. Everything else is the jurisdiction for the regular cops, the ones on the beat and in cruisers. Now, here's something totally on PC, so listen up. You might want to store this in your brain for future reference. If you're ever worried about cops in Latin America,
[13:41] that is, you've had an embargo put on your passport yourself, or your passport's actually expired and you're in the country illegally. Yep, and believe it or not, there are a lot of illegal aliens down here. Illegal gringo aliens. What a switch, huh? Now and again, I run into a few myself. They just never bothered to renew their first world passport for whatever reason. I'm not gonna ask. And believe me, a lot of them have been down here since the Vietnam and the hippie days. They just never went back and they've decided to assume a very low profile life way off the radar, and you can do that down here. But if you have the kind of money and profile like McAfee, it's not gonna happen. Anyway, like I was saying before, if you're somewhat persona non grata down here with the authorities
[14:27] and you're on some kind of government pickup list or other, or let's say you're in trouble in some other country and you're on Interpol's list, or maybe like a lot of gringos, you're just an ultra procrastinator. Your driver's license is expired or you don't have one or your paperwork's no good. Or if you're wanted for some kind of civil crime or you didn't show up for a court appearance and they've got you on a pickup list or whatever. Or for example, like the story I told about my friend in Costa Rica, a drummer from Germany, who while driving his car hit a kid on the bike, he actually just tapped the guy very softly and he stopped and got out of the car and made sure the kid was all right, he was fine and the kid actually drove away on his bike. And the bike too was undamaged. Only about a month later when it was completely out of his mind,
[15:13] my German friend was served with a court order at his house. Turned out the kid and his family were now pressing charges and he was facing a hit and run, and damages and hospital costs, etc, etc. So the Costa Rican government put an embargo on his passport. And that my friends is what you might call the gringo disadvantage. And you know, so far I've only heard of that kind of stuff happening on the gringo tourist trail when you're looked at as nothing but a dollar sign. That's another story and we'll talk about that again later. So anyway, my German buddy in Costa Rica could not leave the country since he was on an embargo list at the airport and at all the land border stations too. Now if he'd have chosen, he could have avoided any court appearances practically indefinitely. In fact, the bigger the Latin country,
[16:00] the easier it is to avoid such things if you want. And of course, I'm not recommending that. I'm just telling you that some gringos and expats do it. And believe me, I know a few old-time gringos down here who are experts at evading court appearances. Since, believe it or not, a lot of old-time gringos down here who came down when they were young, some were foolish, heavy-duty partiers that hung out at the gringo expat bars and ended up by hook and crook marrying or impregnating a local Latin girl. Many times these guys hook up with Latin gold diggers who, like I've mentioned in past shows, love to hang out at gringo expat bars on the lookout for gullible gringos who might help them in their goal to obtain a green card or more. And for those gold digger types,
[16:46] the easiest way to do that is to get pregnant. And you know, a lot of gullible gringo partiers, especially the hippy types and the types that have gone native have ended up in that situation and are now paying the price. And others, especially some who've gone native, can't afford to pay the price. Not that child support payments are high down here. In fact, they're ridiculously low. It's just that a lot of washed-out gringos and gringos who've gone native are pretty much on the edge of survival themselves because, well, let's face it, a lot of them are drunks and deadbeats, so you can't feel sorry for them. Not all gringos and expats down here are straight ahead upstanding good-for-your-word type guys. So that's why some of these scruffier-looking gringo expats who hang out at the bars all the time avoid the court appearances as long as they can.
[17:34] And yes, I personally know some gringos and expats who are actively doing that. In fact, I know one guy in his 70s who's been kind of on the run for years. Although down here, it's not like you're actually on the run. You just do pretty much everything you'd normally do anyway while trying to keep an even lower profile than usual. But just for your information, and I do get a lot of emails about this, regarding paternity suits with gringos and locals, if you actually do have a wife or kid that you're not supporting, it's getting more and more difficult to run and hide. Especially lately, since just in the last three or four years, Latin courts have been trying to toughen up a bit in regards to alimony and child support, since almost no one ever pays. Even though, most guys down here
[18:20] will have a court order telling them they must pay, and they'll start out well enough. But in the end, somewhere down the road, always sooner than later, payments are skipped and amounts are less and less, and eventually the woman goes to court again and again and the guy just doesn't show up. But just lately, women's rights groups down here have been putting a lot of pressure on the court systems, and there are now, finally, a few female judges, at least trying to enforce that stuff. But still, you could make a general statement that the legal system down here only works well for people who've got a little money. As most gringos who've been to court can tell you, Latin Americans have the best legal system money can buy. But unfortunately, John McAfee was the exception to that rule. Sure, he had all the money in the world,
[19:07] but he made big time political enemies. Anyway, we were talking about how cops just hate the rain and will do anything to make sure their uniforms don't get wet. So what does that mean for us gringos and what did it mean for John McAfee? Well, here's what John McAfee and all of us long-term expats know. If you never want to get stopped at one of those cop roadblocks that I've talked about in past shows, just make sure you plan to do all you're driving during the rain. Because that's when the cops abandon those outposts and hide in their cars. You know, I've seen that in action hundreds of times. In fact, I actually drove three times through one of the Guatemala-Honduran borders. No one at all was posted at the gate, so we just drove right through. Even those border cops
[19:53] don't want to get their uniforms wet. Now, you might say, how could that be? How can you drive through another country's border and not get a stamp and never get in trouble for it? Well, I'm telling you, it happened to me and I did not get in trouble. And that, my friends, is when the dumb gringo act comes in handy and the no hablo español works pretty good too. So many gringos have found out to their benefit that when you use that ploy at land border stations, you get the bums rush and you're out of there in no time. And believe me, sometimes that dumb gringo act is not a ploy at all. It's true. Authorities and border guards almost always just shake their head and let you through. Except, of course, if you're in an area with a lot of tourists, then they might try to extract a bribe out of you if they see you're missing an entrance or an exit stamp.
[20:40] Anyway, that's what John McAvie took advantage of when he fled the country. He moved from house to house and from town to town during pouring rain. And he was never once stopped by a cop or a roadblock. Even though his name and face were everywhere and the cops were on the lookout and on high alert. Anyway, he reached the southern most tip of Belize on the ocean which is called Punta Gorda, a tiny little backwater town with maybe no more than 3,000 people. And it's a short, unmonitored boat ride if you want it that way. From there to Livingston, Guatemala, about maybe a half an hour ride. When I say unmonitored, there is a tiny little immigration office there on the Punta Gorda Belize side. It's only open during daylight hours and since it's a tiny fishing town and fishermen go out at night, it's easy enough
[21:26] to just pay off a fisherman to drop you off in Guatemala. So anyway, in the end, John McAvie escaped Belize all right but since he brought most of his wealth there and deposited it in banks and such, he's completely SOL. He's never gonna get that stuff back. In Belize, he's a fugitive from justice. So, all that stuff will become property of the state or remain in dispute forever and ever at least till he comes back. But he's not gonna do that and I'm sure you can figure out why. So, there's two morals to that story for gringos and expats. Never put all your assets in one country and two, never show off like a big fish in a small pond. And number three, I said two right? Well, there's three. Never get on the wrong side of a dirtbag politician,
[22:12] which of course means any politician then, doesn't it? And remember, if you see impending problems on the horizon, you will have some wiggle room because nothing ever happens quickly in Latin America. So, just have plan B and maybe even plan C ready. Even if you're sure, the walls will never collapse around you, which they might never do but you really should have a plan B. Don't try to stand your ground like McAvie did because you're not gonna win. Not if you've pissed off as many high-level people as he had. So anyway, even if he set up anonymous corporations and a police trust, if he's got anything with his name on it, it's gonna be in limbo for a long, long time if not forever. But if for example, he's got his Honduran corporation owning his Belize corporation,
[22:59] that's a different story. Then he's protected. Or let's say he's got more than one trust. Wait a minute, wait a minute. That's the kind of stuff we talk about at the Expat Wisdom Seminar. So if you want to find out more, come on down. Okay, now it's about time I finished off that bit about rummage sales, yard sales, garage sales, etc. Now last time I talked about this a couple of shows ago, I mentioned that you buy the cheapest newspaper in the area to look up where those local sales are. And since the majority of Latin folks who have these rummage and yard sales are solid middle-class folks making maybe 500 or 600 bucks a month between the family members, they're really cash short and won't advertise in the larger papers which have more expensive classified ads.
[23:45] For example, let's say in a Latin city of about a million people, it'll have maybe three daily newspapers. And in the cheaper paper, you can run three small classifieds over three days for about let's say eight bucks. Whereas if you buy the same size ad in the largest daily circulation newspaper, you'll pay six or eight bucks for each daily ad about three times as much. Most people having rummage sales don't want to spend an extra dime on advertising at all. In fact, it might be just a one-time sales event for them and they don't really know how or what to advertise. And you'll only know they're having a boot sale at all when you're driving through a middle-class neighborhood and you see the garage door open, you know, boxes of stuff all over the place all the way out to the curb. And maybe just a few people poking around.
[24:33] And in fact, I've been to a few rummage sales myself and I'll tell you this, it's not at all like it might be up in Cleveland where it says in the local paper doors open at eight o'clock. I know for a fact when that happens up in the states by 8 a.m. they're already handing out numbers and the early birds have arrived by 6 with their thermos bottles, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks cups and aggressive attitudes. Now note that any of that would be completely foreign to anyone having a rummage sale down here. In fact, down here, unlike the states, I don't think there's any such thing as a rummage sale junkie. No one's ever on time, not even the guy or gal who's running the yard sale. You almost never see a crowd either so no one's handing out numbers. At least I've never experienced any of that and that's probably because
[25:19] most people don't have a car. So whoever shows up is on foot. Never a parking problem. Now I'm not a rummage sale junkie but I've gone to a few and I gotta tell you that's one place where the gringo advantage first hit me. In fact, the very first Latin American garage sale I wandered into. The owner of the house and his wife invited me into their kitchen for cookies and coffee. You believe that? Turns out I was the very first gringo they'd ever seen in the neighborhood and well, they figured I guess unlike the rest of the people coming through who were just buying things for nickels and dimes and kicking the tires. To them, I was a bit special. I was a gringo so I must have enough money to buy some of the big things. Like the bicycles and dressers and chairs and stuff. And get this, I was the only one to get the cookies
[26:05] and the coffee in the kitchen. No one else had that privilege. Oh and by the way, speaking of money, they'll only take cash. Don't ever expect to pay for anything with a check. That is unless of course you're a gringo. How about that? They won't take anyone else's check but they'll take a gringo's. I'm not saying that'll happen every time but it does show that the gringo advantage rides again. Oh and here's something else interesting I found out about rummage sales in Latin America. You know how they always say up in the states that if you go to a rummage sale in a high rent district, nice neighborhood, you know, you'll have some really fine pickings to go through at very good prices. Well let me tell you down here it seems to be just the opposite. At the high end, with the upper classes and blue bloods, there's not many of them at all that will have a rummage sale but when they do, you will not find any deals,
[26:53] believe me. The few of those that I visited, I've noticed they've got a highly inflated idea of what their stuff's really worth. That means the happiest hunting grounds for people into rummage sales are in neighborhoods that are lower middle class or middle class. And by the way, when you visit those places, do dress down. Best to look like a backpacker. That means skip the jewelry, the nice car and all the flashy stuff. And yes, at rummage sales like that, there'll be a lot of junk you have to wade through but there'll be some gems too. You will find family heirlooms and antiques, no problem. And by the way, only clueless gringos say no problemo. Latins never say that. You've been listening to The Expat Files,
[27:38] living in Latin America, coming to you twice a week from somewhere south of the border. Email me, theexpatfiles 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.