Episode Summary
In this episode, Johnny Mueller dives into a range of expat topics, including cultural misunderstandings with Canadians and the challenges of business partnerships in Latin America. He discusses a letter from a Canadian listener, David, who took offense to Johnny's claim that Canadians have the worst Spanish accents. David argues that French Canadians are more likely to speak Spanish due to their openness to travel and interaction with locals. Johnny acknowledges the criticism but maintains his stance, noting that he has had negative experiences with both French and Canadian business partners in Latin America. He also shares a personal anecdote about his experience with French taxi drivers in Paris, highlighting the cultural and linguistic challenges he has faced.
Johnny also emphasizes the importance of due diligence when entering business partnerships, particularly with Latin American partners. He advises expats to research potential partners thoroughly, noting that references in the region are often unreliable. Language barriers are a significant issue, as expats may struggle to navigate bureaucratic systems and verify the integrity of their partners. He stresses the importance of learning Spanish to better understand the true nature of Latin partners, both in their presence and behind their backs. The segment concludes with a transition into a discussion about the word 'awesome' and its overuse, which Johnny critiques as having lost its original meaning.
In another segment, Johnny discusses the prevalence of 'Hotel California'-style backpacker accommodations in Latin America, noting that they are often inexpensive and widely available. He addresses an email from a Canadian listener named PT Marco, who is seeking advice on finding short-term rentals. Johnny acknowledges the challenges of using Airbnb due to currency conversion and suggests alternative platforms like OLX.com, which is more common in Latin America. He also highlights the importance of language skills when using local services and recommends checking classified ads in local newspapers for better deals and local pricing.
Johnny also mentions the practical tips for expats looking to find short-term rentals, including checking local bulletin boards and shopping centers, often in nicer sections of town. He then shifts to discussing a significant email from a listener about the decline in container shipping across the Atlantic, suggesting it may be an indicator of economic issues. He talks about the Decameron all-inclusive hotel deals, noting that while the initial deal was good, the membership plans have become more complex and less favorable over time.
Finally, Johnny discusses how the Decameron resort memberships, originally intended for occasional users from Latin America, have become problematic due to the influx of legal Latin American immigrants living in the U.S. These immigrants, now retired and with more time, are using up every point in their memberships, which were not designed for long-term use. Johnny attributes the decline of the membership system to these immigrants, not gringos (Americans), and explains the complexity of the point system, which has become too convoluted for even locals to understand. He also highlights how the membership system was originally aimed at upscale Latins in Latin America, not first-world gringos.
Topics
Canadians and Spanish accents, Cultural and linguistic challenges, Personal anecdotes and experiences, Business partnerships in Latin America, Due diligence in business, Language barriers for expats, Cultural differences in business practices, Critique of the word 'awesome', Latin American accommodations, Finding short-term rentals, Currency conversion challenges, OLX.com as a rental platform
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:39 The Accents Debate Begins 00:02:11 A Response to the Accents Claim 00:05:12 Experiences in Latin America 00:05:53 Future Partnerships with Canadians 00:05:58 Current Partnership Opportunities 00:06:00 Importance of Research Before Partnerships 00:06:07 Research Availability in the First World 00:06:12 Past Experiences with Bad Partnerships 00:06:16 Lack of Research Options in the Past 00:06:22 Research Availability Today 00:06:30 Common Complaints About Latin Partners 00:11:41 Gringo Language and Cultural Observations in Latin America 00:12:00 Finding Short-Term Rentals in Latin America 00:17:25 Finding Short-Term Rentals for Expats 00:18:19 Economic Indicators Through Shipping Data 00:20:25 Decameron All-Inclusive Hotel Deals 00:23:19 The Shift in Membership Usage: Immigrants, Not Gringos, Are Killing the Golden Goose 00:25:57 The Demographic Shift: Latin Immigrants and the Decline of Membership Programs
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 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 Okay, let's start out this fine day with a letter. I should say email of protest first Let me set this up for all of you last week Some time I mentioned in a show that when a first world person speaks Spanish Native-born Latins can certainly recognize a bad gringo accent when they hear one
[00:49] Just like when we hear a foreigner speak English we can tell if he's got a thick accent or not Anyway, I mentioned in last week's show that when you ask any Latin person who's got the worst accent of all turns out almost unanimously Latins will say Canadians speaking Spanish get the prize Anyway after mentioning that on last week's show I got this email from David a Canadian defending his countryman He says Johnny you sir have promote me and my honor must be restored Consider yourself the recipient of a strongly worded letter How dare you insult Canadians by spewing unfounded lies that we have the worst accents in Spanish Maybe it's the French Canadians that I can believe since they have horrible accents even in their native French the real continental French gag on their baguettes and Brie when they hear a
[01:38] French Canadian butchering their language Then he goes on to say though French Canadians tend to be more Adventurous and travel and are more willing or able to speak Spanish than your typical Anglo Canadian So therefore are more likely to attempt interacting with the locals Maybe that's the reason they get singled out You see apart from Newfoundland most native English speaking Canadians have a very neutral accent Which I believe would be less pronounced in Spanish than Americans from certain states that have very pronounced accents like Josie New York, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, etc. So there Johnny take that Consider yourselves now schooled from the source Johnny for your sins. I deduct 1% from your yes, I'm gonna say it
[02:26] Awesomeness leaving you at only 99% from now on when speaking of us Canadians Johnny. What's your step mister? Con mucho cariño de Canada David by the way, that means from Canada with love Okay complaint filed and noted first of all gave I'm kind of a hard-skinned guy And I can take just about any insult except when someone uses the a word, you know what I'm talking about First let me start off by saying some of my best friends are Canadians Like that cliche hasn't been overused, huh? I always thought there should be a t-shirt that says I'm not prejudiced Some of my best friends are dot dot dot fill in the blank That said all my own personal prejudices aside for example. I don't eat GMO foods
[03:12] I'm prejudiced against them and deny it or not. We all have prejudices, right? Anyway, no matter what Anglo Canadians say about French Canadians I much much prefer French Canadians to home-grown French back in Europe who I found pretty much Don't like anyone including the French Canadians and even foreigners Like Americans who've bothered to learn some French and try to use it when they get there. Yep. I tried that I took French in high school They still give you the brush off even when you try to communicate with them in their own language In fact, just the other day. I was reminded of this strange experience I was trying to catch a cab at the airport in gay Paris a long time ago And this is before all the Muslim and Arab refugees invaded Europe and of course invaded the taxi business, too Back then 20 some years ago. Most of the cab drivers were actually homegrown French people. Anyway, I just got into the airport
[04:01] I walked over to the first cabin line. I got in I told him where I wanted to go and he just didn't want to Take me he gave me an unwelcoming look and pretty much said get out of my cab I'm thinking Wow, it was a long nasty 12-hour flight in coach Did I have a loogie hanging from my nose or did a bird shit on my head hell cab drivers are supposed to take you Where you want to go, right? So he knocked the pride out of me and I got out and went to the next cabin line Now this guy was a Sikh with a beard and head and a turban cab smelled like curry and all that anyway This guy was glad to take me anywhere Then I mentioned what happened with the first cab driver and he said those French taxi drivers They're kind of irritable if they don't like the route They have to take or your destination or just something about you They just won't take you and of course being French they'll be rude about it
[04:50] But that was then 25 or so years ago Now the last time I was in France was about a half a year ago and surprise surprise all the taxi drivers I encountered were not native French speakers So then you might ask what happened to all those native French taxi drivers my answer who cares now This might seem like a digression, but it's really not bear with me Now you got to know after being in Latin America over 25 years I've been in and out of a lot of business deals and I've had a lot of partners and yes I've had Latin business partners on only one turned out to be an honest straightforward guy and guess what he's a lawyer Which makes it all the more surprising, huh? In fact since we're talking about Canadians I've had three Canadian business partners at different times here in Latin America two of them rip me off subtly of course and the other a nice guy, but just a terrible businessman and yes many years ago when I lived in the States a
[05:42] Couple of business partners ripped me off there, too Not enough to ruin my lifestyle, but you know you lose friends that way So needless to say I'm not much of an advocate for having a business partner And of course that doesn't mean I won't get into any future partnerships with more Canadians In fact, I'm looking at one right now But the key is before you jump into a partnership with anyone do your research on them first and luckily if your prospective business partner Is a first world person you can do plenty of research on the internet these days anyway Way back when when I got sucked into a few bad partnerships There was no way to do the research it was way before that kind of detail on anyone was available on the net of course Now with Google Facebook Twitter LinkedIn big brother etc etc the tentacles are everywhere first world people anyway have very big
[06:30] Footprints on the net now when it comes to expats having Latin business partners most expats in the end have many Complaints about it and often say they regret that decision And there's pretty much two major reasons for problems and difficulties with your Latin partner for one You just have to take their word for everything because you can't go back and do research on them Sure, they all come up with very beautiful resumes But if your Spanish isn't perfect and even if it is there's almost no way you can go back and thoroughly check References on them seems like every employer down here gives out glowing references even to people they had to fire for stealing That's just the way it is in Latin America and unlike in the first world You just can't go to the internet and find out if these guys are decent honest trustworthy people
[07:17] And you can't find out for sure if they're telling you little lies or leading you on and worse yet Most gringos that get into business deals with Latin partners feel their Spanish is so bad They'll never be able to maneuver through the bureaucratic system Which is markedly different from the way things are done up in the first world in short You'll do triple the amount of government paperwork in the first few weeks before you open But once you get that permit to operate you'll almost never have to deal with the government again That said if you do get a Latin partner your number one mission at first should be to find out what kind of morals ethics And values that guy or gal has which could be a very difficult task So then how do you find out really what a person's like since you're the gringo putting up the money generally
[08:04] And he's the Latin who's on his best behavior because you're a gringo with a business opportunity Well, the problem is Latins when sitting amongst themselves will talk the real dirt about other Latins You know if they've been ripped off themselves, etc You as an American gringo or gringo trying to get that kind of truthful information out of Latins who know Work with or are acquainted with such a person. That's just not gonna happen Latins it seems just do not like talking dirt about each other to strangers acquaintances or gringos Which is why if you plan on getting into a business here in Latin America It's pretty much imperative that you learn enough Spanish so you can figure out what your own Latin business partners and employees are saying Not only to your face But amongst themselves and behind your back too and who knows they might be talking behind your back in a good way
[08:53] In fact of all the stories I've heard of gringos being ripped off by their Latin partner or partners in nearly every case The gringo knew very little Spanish and so therefore delegated all Spanish duties to his partner from dealing with employees The bureaucracy banks inventory customer service, whatever remember if he's putting up his expertise against your money There's gonna be lots of temptation there now I'm not asking you to take my word for all this just go to any old gringo bar anywhere in Latin America Pull up a chair and ask the first gringo You see if he knows of any first-world people who came down here and had Latin partners and how that worked out for him So bottom line if you're gonna start a brick-and-mortar business down here, you really have to learn some Spanish However, if you're gonna start an internet business and all your customers are English speakers, that doesn't apply
[09:42] Okay. Now Dave it's time to talk about that a word you've been tossing around, you know I get emails from people all the time asking me Johnny. Why do you hate that word? Awesome so much Well, let me start by saying it's a descriptive word that long ago was stripped of its meaning in effect And of course every pop word has its day like groovy bad bitchin cool neat rad And they all fade away and soon enough people who continue to use a mark considered out of touch and uncool And as far as that word cool goes It's one of those rare descriptive filler words that faded out for a long time was uncool for a while and came back Maybe because of that retro saying old is cool and cool cigarettes
[10:28] Which never went out of style then there are those passé filler words like groovy Which came back after those Austin Powers movies if only for a minute or two now groovy has sort of a retro life of its Own when you use it. It's more of a soft put down like for example when your Mormon neighbor says, hey Let's go to church and you say groovy, but no, thanks So where were we? Oh, yeah the a word if you consider what the word awesome really means It means filled with awe and how many times in your life has that really happened to you? Not 50 times a day. That's for sure. So then when do you experience? Oh well When a miracle happens or a meteor wipes out your garage when a UFO lands in your backyard or you win the lottery
[11:14] now any of those events would surely be awesome as Would personally witnessing Kim Kardashian or any politician being run over by a truck? So when our fashionable catchphrase filler words no longer fashionable Well, that's when three-year-old kids grandmas and nuns are blurting them out now Thankfully perhaps due to a long long lag time The a word has not yet landed down here in Latin America with the general Latin population Gringo say it and I want to slap them when they do as for Latin Thank Buddha or Allah or whoever the a word has not arrived in any significant way though Neither has the f-word go figure, huh? But unfortunately I expect sooner or later it will land like almost everything up in the first world does and you if you think I'm
[12:00] Exaggerating did I tell you that every small medium and large town in Latin America has its very own get this Hotel, California, and it's usually a dumpy five dollar a night backpacker joint So let's move on to another email and this one is from PT Marco is another loyal Canadian listener Who lives part-time in Canada and part-time in Latin America? He says dear Johnny if you have a moment to discuss this on your show What is your recommended method for finding short-term that is one month or longer rentals? I prefer to have a rental set up ahead of time before I fly into a city I have been using Airbnb, but they price their rentals in US dollars, which now adds about 50% To the rental costs for us Canadians just thought I'd asked. Thanks PT Marcos
[12:48] All right PT and of course are you astute listeners out there know that PT stands for either permanent traveler or Perpetual tourists a term coined in the 60s by a guy named William Hill a pseudonym Of course who wrote a couple of groundbreaking limited edition books one called the passport report and one called PT the perpetual tourists Some of you listeners out there might remember that Anyway, as far as Airbnb's I know a lot of people are using them these days And I've heard no real bad reports about them Except people often report the least amount of contact you have with the owners of the place the better in fact I've heard a few reports about touchy Landlord tenant relationships if the owners slash landlords are around a lot Which is something you can never predict until you actually get there, right?
[13:36] So anyway as the funny money US currency gets increasingly stronger against the other worldwide funny money if you're not from this stage You're gonna pay more for everything Meaning for the very short foreseeable future the dollar will be king But don't bet the farm on it in the long term Which is you know just a piece of paper backed up by the good faith and promises of the US government and man when I read That or hear people say that I just want a projectile o vomit in Hillary's face I've polled a few people and they say it would be a definite improvement That said if there's not a drone with my name on it by now There certainly will be when she steals the next election But I digress as usual anyway Fortunately for people paying in dollars Airbnb seems to offer one of the best deals possible when booking from your own country
[14:22] And of course there'll be no deals if you're booking from another country with a weak currency like Canada now for those of you Who don't feel comfortable unless you book a hotel from home well before you take off on your trip Especially if you're looking for a furnished short or medium-term rental. I always recommend that service called OLX calm It's pretty much a Latin American Craigslist and sometimes much better than that so check it out You'll get photos and descriptions, and you could even talk back and forth and Skype to the owner if you wish Unfortunately 90% of those listings off the gringo tours trail would be with someone who does not speak English So you'll be stuck, and you'll have to have a translator on your end or Google translate Whatever even so you could have a communication breakdown along the way, and it could be difficult to hook up your deal
[15:10] However when you're talking about being on the gringo tourist trail Costa Rica Panama Cancun Playa del Carmen Rio whatever most of those olex.com listings will be made by someone who speaks a little bit of English and Sometimes the ads will actually be in English and remember down here in Latin America prices are not firm They expect a little bit of haggling oh and one more thing about OLX.com whatever country you happen to be looking for your listings in you put in OLX.com The Latin country code like for example Panama would be well x.com that PA Mexico Oh, let's calm that MX Guatemala. Oh, let's calm that GT Etc etc and when you get to their main page you'll see there's an outline of the country a map showing the various
[15:56] Departments or regions so you can hone in on your destination or listing And it'll have all the categories like on Craigslist you just select your category or you put in the general object You might want to find let's say it's a motorbike or a drum set or even a cleaning lady in fact I'm looking up cleaning ladies right now on the service in Panama. That would be olex.com that PA and I noticed there are 1100 listings some of them are cleaning services, but most of them are cleaning ladies offering their services now I'm clicking on one and she's offering her services by day week or month starting at $15 US a day because you know Panama's currency is the US dollar She says she'll supply references and get this she can start work right away immediately after Carnivale, so we know what's important to her, right? Well, we won't make any judgments here, but you get the idea
[16:47] So do check out olex.com that whatever country you happen to be visiting Although when I travel through Latin America, I don't use Airbnb or any of those services I prefer to go online and check out a couple of the daily newspapers their classified ad section and check out the furnished rentals Especially if you're gonna be hanging around a town or a city over 50,000 people You're gonna find some furnished apartments by the week day and month in the classifieds in the newspaper and better yet You're gonna pay local prices not gringo prices and most times there'll be no middlemen either But of course, you're gonna have to speak some Spanish then won't you now, of course for the best deal possible You could do what I like to do you come into a town if you haven't got any particular Itinerary or nothing's pressing you'll land at the airport you stay the night in a local hotel and the next morning
[17:36] He had some of the big local shopping malls or shopping centers And of course the Walmart's and the local big commercial supermarket chains and they'll have all those bulletin boards where people in the local area are Advertising everything including rentals and not just long-term stuff either You'll often find nice furnished apartments by the week or month You just have to search out the classifiers and the local bulletin boards So you book the first day or two in a local hotel and you search out a good furnished short-term rental and make sure You know beforehand which are the nice sections of town And of course the bulletin boards you want to check are always gonna be in the nicer sections of town because that's where the local Property owners will advertise and it's always free advertising on the bulletin boards So, you know, there's no middleman and you're getting the best deal. That said here's another very interesting email
[18:25] This one comes from our longtime listener and good friend guy. It says hi it Johnny So I think this will be one of the most interesting bellwether markers for your listeners It looks like it's the potential spark indicator of commercial collapse. You've been speaking of the image I'm sending you is an image of the Atlantic Ocean showing both the East Coast of the United States and The West Coast of Europe turns out the image above he says marks the very first time in history Even during World War one and two in German subs were patrolling the Atlantic Where shipping container boats across the Atlantic have stopped completely for any given time In other words, no container movement across the Atlantic Ocean at all
[19:11] And then he adds the link for the full article and he ends the email by quoting Samuel Jackson quote Hold on to your butts. And so I did click the link and he's right container shipping is way way down meaning worldwide Manufacturing orders are way way down and why of course China the world supplier of practically everything is in the dumpster So anyway, if you listeners out there want that link, just send me an email and I'll ship it off to you that said How is your exit strategy slash plan B coming? Okay. Now the next email is a repeat of a number of emails I've been getting on the same theme starts out by saying Johnny I heard on a show of yours in late November that you would be having more details on the Decameron deal in the near future but have not seen anything since is that decameron membership deal
[20:00] You spoke about in those past shows still valid. Hope all is well true it by the way true It's another alumnus of my expat insider seminars Anyway about the decameron all-inclusive hotel deals now if you recall probably a couple years ago now I gave a full report on what I considered was the best all-inclusive hotel package deal in Latin America if not the world and the name Decameron all-inclusive resort hotels You'll find these nice beach resorts all over Latin America and just lately a few have popped up in the Mediterranean and in Africa So you can book the place as a regular all-inclusive resort hotel or you can buy into one of their long-term all-inclusive membership plans and wouldn't you know it it was discovered by some
[20:47] Savvy Americans who travel a lot and speak a little Spanish that if they bought into a certain kind of membership They could live at one of these resorts an entire year or they could skip around to some of the other 50 or 60 Decameron resorts, so they won't get bored at one place. Remember This is an all-inclusive resort now food drinks Sun and fun all the time for under 20,000 bucks a year for a double two people share in a single room and I have personally met some Americans who have been doing that However, that was a couple of years ago and things have changed now I have been back to the Decameron since in fact in the last four or five months and over the years I've been to the resorts in Colombia Panama El Salvador in the Caribbean Islands and well a lot of places and when they're at newly built and even a year or so
[21:35] Afterwards you could call them three star Establishments, but since this is Latin America and they're a hundred percent owned and operated by Latinos Meaning maintenance and attention to detail could always be better That said those new three star establishments eventually slipped down to two and a half some even to two stars after some years But really for the money you can't complain for example even without the membership plan at all you can often get a per person rate of from 55 to 75 bucks a night double occupancy So for between let's say 110 to 150 dollars a night for two people you have a beautiful all-inclusive beachfront location meaning free food and drinks 24-7 and guess what if you have one of those famous Costco membership cards you can get 10% off of that too
[22:23] But what gringos want to know people who've heard my previous broadcast on the Decameron They want to know if they can still get that deal for 10,000 bucks around her to live the all-inclusive hotel resort life for an entire year and of course to be able to renew that plan at The same rate well It's true when you go to a Decameron they still try to sell you a membership for a year or two years or five years Or ten years, but they've arranged it so the whole membership is very complicated and not such a good deal anymore In fact, it's so complicated. You can't really predict how much you're gonna pay yearly and why'd that happen? Well, you have to know in the beginning. They never thought people were gonna live there permanently They worked out their membership plan based on how health clubs do their membership plans meaning most buyers come for a while the first
[23:09] Few months and then lose interest and it went along fine like that for many years until suddenly Latins living up in the United States figured out how the deal went So it isn't the gringos who are killing the golden goose It's immigrant Latins from the states who are now legal and living the US middle-class life who are buying the memberships and Overloading the place with their family and friends because you see memberships allow you to bring family and friends now Remember if you go to one of these Decameron resorts everything's in Spanish and you'll practically never see another gringle Unless of course you stop off at one on the tourist trail like in Costa Rica So anyway, the memberships now have such complicated legalese in the contracts and a point system almost no one understands
[23:55] Well, let's just say if you don't speak very good Spanish You're kind of lost the battle before you begin and even for locals whose Spanish is perfect. They don't understand the system either So then how could it be that complicated? Well, it's like this you buy a package Let's say for a year you get 2,000 points every one of the 50 plus Decameron locations has a calendar showing high medium and low seasons and For each day and each particular season they subtract a certain amount of points and each Decameron's point system is different Not to mention the points subtracted on weekends are more than the points on weekdays And the point system depends on how many people you bring along with you for each visit Not to mention the points count when you go to hotels in the RCN chain
[24:41] That's thousands of hotels throughout the world and each of those hotels has its own complicated point system, too So anyway years back when I met gringos who were staying at these resorts years at a time like a deluxe all-inclusive beachfront Retirement home for under 20 grand a couple per year. They were able to work that out with around 2,000 points a year between them by booking low season rates at different Decameron Locations throughout the world and in certain countries low seasons do not overlap So you just have to do some advanced planning so even then it was a bit complicated But not like they're doing things now by the way all these years They've been offering those great membership programs, but you can't buy them online or even check them out They only offer them to you when you actually show up there
[25:27] There's a guy with a clipboard that will approach you and say I'd like to talk to you about something a membership program So as one of these guys with a clipboard recently told me they just had to change the system because they just didn't figure So many people mostly Latins from up in the states would buy memberships and use up every single point He said in previous years most people had a lot of points left over at the end of the year And they just automatically lose them. That's typically the way things happen with any membership program So it was really Latin immigrants to the first world and demographics that killed the Golden Goose Right now hordes of Latin Americans who are legal now up in the states are retiring Some getting pensions and some getting Social Security and they know the secret to having a nice retirement is not living up in the states
[26:16] Not on a small pension or Social Security check anyway They know the secret is having a house in the country in Latin America They originally came from along with getting a membership at a nearby all inclusive resort like the Decameron That way they can have the best of both worlds a nice cheap standard of living as well as an all-inclusive Upscale resort nearby and because they're retired they have all the time in the world to use up every single point in their Membership program and that membership program by the way was really only intended in the beginning for occasional users So the Decameron was never aimed at us born first world gringos because well, it's a Spanish facility It was really aimed at upscale Latins living in Latin America So yes, it's a great place to have an all-inclusive vacation package on the cheap
[27:05] But it's not such a great place anymore to buy a membership. Okay, once again, we're towards the end So don't forget to go to the website hosted by none other than the mysterious John Galt WWW the new expat calm check out his and my blogs and then don't forget to go to my youtube channel The expat files are just expat files Do check out all the cool photos that go along with the audio and don't forget to subscribe. It's free 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 if you want me to help you sort out your own Latin American plans schedule a one-on-one consult with me
[27:52] Just send an email and let me know at the expat files at gmail.com. Nos vemos