Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller shares his experiences living in Latin America, highlighting the cultural and legal nuances of expat life. From indigenous communities to driving laws, Johnny provides an honest and insightful look at life in the region.
Johnny begins by discussing an incident where he encountered an indigenous woman lying on the street, initially suspecting she might be drunk. He reflects on the cultural context, noting that indigenous people in the region are often more reserved and less likely to be seen in public inebriated compared to Ladinos (non-indigenous people). He emphasizes the importance of understanding local customs and social dynamics when living in the region.
He then expands on the treatment of indigenous people in Latin America, highlighting their historical status as original settlers and the current marginalization they face. He notes that indigenous people are often treated as second-class citizens by the majority Latino population, even among those who may have indigenous heritage. The term 'indio' is used as a derogatory term, similar to the 'n-word' in the U.S., but indigenous people do not use it among themselves. Johnny contrasts the quiet and reserved nature of indigenous people with the more flamboyant and sometimes drunk Latino middle and lower-middle-class individuals.
The conversation shifts to expat dating in Latin America, where Johnny discusses stereotypes about gringos and their romantic preferences. He mentions how some Latin American women are not indigenous and how the concept of 'indigenous' is often used in a classist and racist way. He also talks about the dynamics between gringos and Latin American locals, including the idea that some gringos are looking for simpler, more romantic experiences in Latin America.
Johnny addresses the issue of begging on the tourist trail, explaining how it has become an industry due to the generosity of gringos. He shares a story about a Latin guy at a fashion event who comments on gringos being 'skin flints' or cheapskates, but notes that this is not true for most gringos except for backpackers. He also references an email from Jerry asking about the appropriate actions to take if someone is hit by a vehicle, emphasizing the importance of not leaving the scene.
The segment then moves to a discussion on driving culture and laws in Latin America, highlighting the lack of formal driver's education in many countries. Johnny explains that only about 5% of drivers have taken formal driver's education, which contributes to widespread traffic law violations. He describes the process of obtaining a driver's license in Latin America, which often involves long waits and subpar testing conditions. He shares a story about a young woman who received her license through a private driving school, emphasizing the contrast with the typical process for most people.
Johnny then discusses the legal and practical advice given to drivers in the event of an accident, noting that in some cases, drivers are advised to flee the scene, which is against the law. He concludes by emphasizing that the show aims to provide an honest portrayal of life in Latin America, including the complexities and nuances of local laws and practices.
The episode concludes with Johnny promoting his content and upcoming events, including an upcoming Expat Insider Seminar starting the week after the 4th of July. He encourages listeners to email him for early bird discounts and details about the seminar, offering discounts for early sign-ups and group bookings. He concludes by promoting his work in Latin America and inviting listeners to reach out for personalized consultations.
Topics
Cultural differences in Latin America, Expat experiences in Latin America, Social dynamics and behavior in indigenous communities, Legal and cultural considerations for expats, Indigenous people in Latin America, Cultural attitudes toward indigenous people, Stereotypes and prejudice, Social class and identity, Language and terminology, Expat dating in Latin America, Stereotypes about gringos and their romantic preferences, Classism and racism in Latin America
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:03 The Expat's Daily Life 00:00:06 The Incident on the Street 00:00:14 Johnny's Reflection on the Situation 00:00:20 Cultural Context and Observations 00:00:26 Understanding Indigenous and Ladino Cultures 00:05:27 Indigenous People's Behavior and Perception in Latin America 00:05:56 Historical Context and Current Treatment of Indigenous People 00:06:17 The Use of 'Indio' as a Derogatory Term 00:08:04 Contrasting Indigenous and Latino Behavior 00:10:28 Anecdote About Latino Attitudes Toward Indigenous Women 00:10:55 The Incident on the Boat and Curiosity About Latin Women 00:11:17 The Human Brain's Trick and the Red Car Phenomenon 00:12:02 Why Certain Gringos Hook Up with Short Dark Indigenous Girls 00:12:54 The Concept of 'Papa Sin Sal' and Gringo Relationships 00:14:29 Begging on the Tourist Trail and the Vagos 00:15:33 The Meaning of 'Cheapskate' and Gringo Spending Habits 00:15:57 Jerry's Email and the Appropriate Actions After an Accident 00:16:20 How can that be? - The contrast in driving laws between the U.S. and Latin America 00:17:04 Only 5% of drivers in Latin America have taken formal education 00:21:31 A Latin Lady's Accident and Its Aftermath 00:22:54 Eddie's Runway Show and the Maid's Lottery Win 00:26:34 Promotion of Content and Website 00:26:50 Announcement of Upcoming Seminar 00:26:58 Discounts and Early Bird Offers
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 wander 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 Let's talk about something. That's completely on PC now I got an email from one of my expat insider seminar guys who's now down here permanently he's learning his Spanish getting his boots on the ground way off the gringo tourist trail and
[00:46] He writes to pose this touchy question and I'll paraphrase this a bit. He says Johnny ready for something strange I know how you like boots on the ground adventure stories, and here's one that I'm sure you may have never heard of before now I usually go out for a walk every day for an hour for exercise people watching and learning lay of the land around me So yesterday was no exception about two blocks from my apartment I noticed ahead of me a person laying halfway on the sidewalk and halfway on the street Didn't think much of it because I've seen a couple other street people as well taking a snooze in public You know you see that everywhere right now I'm in a city called Chella Guatemala a perfect place to learn your Spanish way off the gringo tourist trail and the green goes you do Meet well, they're always those do-gooders. And of course a few people like me really bound on learning their Spanish
[01:32] Anyway, I run across this lady laying on the street and I get closer I notice it's an indigenous female with the colorful Mayan garb and all that and she looks relatively young maybe 25 ish She also has a couple of food items in a bag laying beside her and it appeared She was taking a nap it was 1 p.m. In the afternoon, and I figured maybe she was overindulging in some alcohol So on my walk I came back around the same way a while later, and she was still there this time There's a dog sitting beside her. She's still laying on her side exactly as before now We're talking about maybe two hours have gone by and she's exactly in the same position So I get a little closer to her and look for signs of breathing Johnny I don't see any I really think she's dead. Once again, my mind is racing. What do I do? Especially since my Spanish still pretty much sucks
[02:19] So I was just about to go into my clueless gringo good Samaritan mode I recalled one of your expat file shows where you said that some people off the record Recommend that if you hit a motorcyclist don't stop just keep on going because no matter whose fault it is There'll be a world of red tape and possible trouble I figured this was no different and certainly didn't want to be wrapped up in a situation like that Especially again having crappy Spanish, so the good Samaritan me did not kick in and I kept going She was already probably dead and what could I do for her anyway at that point? So in closing I have to say it was not an easy decision to make but thanks to your willingness in a past show to Talk about the good the bad and the ugly in Latin America It might have kept me out of what have been a very sticky situation
[03:06] So then maybe you'd like to comment on that. Thanks Jerry Well Jerry, you know in situations like that We all have to make up our minds and have a good look around and see what's happening eyes wide open and all that Then make a decision on what to do and hopefully it'll be a good one But first, let me say if she was a woman in the full indigenous Mayan robe She probably wasn't drunk. In fact, I've been down here a long long time and I've seen a lot of local drunks That means practically every Friday and Saturday night If you're driving through the boonies or in a small town, you'll see some inebriated guys I said men not women alone or arm-in-arm walking down the roads staggering down the roads I should say holding each other up singing cantina songs and kind of stumbling along often in your lane And those guys by the way are the ones that often get picked off by
[03:54] Vehicles traveling at excessive speeds and it doesn't help that out in the boonies There's a huge shortage of streetlights and if they have them They're often burnt out and I'll tell you when you're out in the boonies You almost always run into little grave markers alongside of the road. Sometimes they've got flowers planted on them, too Why because that's for some kid pedestrian or drunk got wiped out by a car. What a way to be remembered, huh? RIP on the 135 kilometer marker on the road to El Salvador Anyway about the unconscious lady if she had been laying there in a drunken stupor Well, I'd say that was a first because almost all the Latin American people I've seen that have been totally inebriated That is on the street and in very public places have been Latinos or more precisely Ladinos the fact is pure indigenous people do not consider themselves Latinos
[04:40] They're indigenous of a certain community or tribe So as for the Latins or Ladinos That would be the middle lower middle class and poor people that are not connected with or associated with any indigenous tribe and therefore Where no indigenous colorful clothing now the Latins or Ladinos like to separate themselves completely from the indigenous culture Around them now as for the indigenous people the ones with the colorful clothes They seem to be a lot more reserved in fact Introverted and quiet in public and seem to have a lot better manners than the Ladino population in the community Now that's not to say the Latins or Ladinos don't have good manners They have a lot better manners than many many gringos do It's just that when you see a group of native Latin Americans having a good time and whooping it up You can bet it's not going to be a bunch of indigenous people with colorful clothes
[05:27] The indigenous people have fun in their own ways, but they're not gregarious about it In fact if you talk to a Latin person enrolled in the regular crappy public school system Depending on which school you go to there could be a lot of indigenous people mixed in with the regular Latino kids And they're generally very humble and make no trouble at all neither for other classmates or for the teachers as one public school teacher Told me they're model kids and often so shy in class They just never raise their hands to ask questions So even though the indigenous people were the original settlers in Latin America by Millennium the vast majority of Latinos treat them like second-class citizens sound familiar oddly enough even Latinos who look like they've got a lot Of indigenous blood will simply deny it according to them They've all got Spanish blood running through their veins in fact if I've heard this once
[06:17] I've heard it a thousand times Latin people insulting each other by calling each other Indios which is short for indigenous considered a grave insult down here amongst Latin people some gringles who've been down here Oh, well notice and comment on that in fact some have asked me if the Indian word is the Latin version of the n-word And you know I used to think that too But I've come to a different conclusion because you see indigenous people never toss that word around between themselves Unlike the way black people use the n-word up in the states By the way the word indio the way latin's mean it as an insult if you haven't figured it out already means Idiot dumb retarded stupid backward whatever but note I've been down here a couple of decades now, and I've never heard middle-class people say it to an indigenous person's face
[07:06] Only behind their backs because I think they're afraid afraid of what I don't know because I've never seen indigenous people gang up on Ladinos but in those little indigenous towns way out in the boonies The people there are known to take the law in their own hands and lynch people occasionally and stone them and beat them in the town square So indigenous people do know how to met out justice Especially when the Latino town police sit on their dead asses and do nothing, but I digress as usual man Did I digress where were we oh? Yeah the possible dead young indigenous lady on the street that Jerry decided to avoid well She may have been dead But I'll bet anything it had nothing to do with alcohol because you could say that the indigenous people although They're much poorer than the average latino They're generally very humble quiet and reserved and almost never make public spectacles out of themselves unless they're out in the street
[07:58] Protesting one thing or another they do that now and again You know in fact as long as I've been down here I've never seen an openly drunk indigenous person much less one in his colorful clothes stumbling down the highway Slurring for he's the jolly good fellow in his native dialect though I've seen countless middle and lower middle-class latins in that condition in fact I'll never forget the time a couple years ago when I wasn't let's say about Honduras a place by the way That's not fit for a man nor beast But it's where you pick up the ferry to go to Roatan and utila anyway I was in a big modern shopping mall They got a handful of nice ones in that ugly sprawling dangerous town of around 200,000 and I was sitting at a nice seafood restaurant owned by a gringo and his wife By the way and sitting at the table next to me was a typical latino family with a little money
[08:46] You could call them nearly upper middle class, but really I was to find out shortly They had no class whatsoever and it turns out I ran into the very same family the next morning on the hydrofoil boat that takes you to Roatan So the father the family probably was around 40 years old came over to me and said hi because you know We exchanged a few pleasantries the night before I'll never forget He asked me if I was a Bee Gees fan because he had a Bee Gees t-shirt on he told me his brother up in LA Who was in the drywall business sent it to him? Hmm, and thankfully I was able to repress my gag reflex till I got to the restroom So I was stuck on the boat for around an hour sitting next to this guy Who'd been blabbering away about his other relatives the ones in New Jersey in my jammy, etc
[09:31] The ones sending back vermices and strangely enough. They all happen to be drywall empresadios Must have run in the family Which is probably why the guy could afford to take his family to Roatan because the passage was about 35 bucks apiece round trip By the way, that's why the islands of Roatan and utila are not overrun with the poor and sweaty masses from mainland Honduras Believe me, they'd love to move there if they could because well, that's where the tourists are, right? It's that $35 boat trip that keeps out the riffraff So anyway, this guy's blabbering away and he got around to asking me a rather odd question He said, you know, there's something that a slant just don't get about you tall handsome white gringo guys That's when I looked over my shoulder and I didn't see anyone there So I guess he was talking to me Which by the way just goes to show how that gringo advantage works because up in the states
[10:18] I was a solid six and now I guess this guy's saying I'm kind of tall and handsome Maybe even innate anyway, he says a slant guys. Just don't kid it How come so many of you tall white handsome gringos like going out with even marrying those short dark little indio girls? Then he motioned to a group of people leaning on the boats railing about 20 25 feet away And sure enough there was a tall light gringo with a very short indigenous girl See that he said check it out. Then he shook his head in disapproval Then he said something like look she's half his size I don't get it and you know what? I really didn't have an answer for him except to say to each his own now that incident on the boat sticks out Particularly for me because after that he had my curiosity up and I kept my eyes open a bit and I did see
[11:07] Even on that trip to rotan a couple of gringos with short dark indigenous ladies walk in the beach and in the big hotels But then I guess it's kind of like a trick of the human brain For example suppose you bought a brand new red car of a certain making model all of a sudden You're seeing a lot of red cars of the very same making model all over the place where you never really noticed it before Anyway on that same subject I can remember more than a handful of latin ladies. That would be latina ladies You know no indigenous blood or none. They'll admit to anyway Asking me pretty much that same question about gringo guys and their love and romance predilections And you know latin ladies You don't know are not about to come up to you and ask you a question like that These were ladies that happened to know and had an acquaintance with and still it seemed to me
[11:53] They had a hard time spinning it out And the question went pretty much like this with so many beautiful attractive young latina ladies all throughout latin america Why do certain tall handsome gringos hook up with short dark indigenous girls? And most of them didn't say indigenous. They said in the old girls again It's that classist racist thing and rear in its ugly head again To which I always answer to each his own and to be on pc in an equal opportunity way. I must say Occasionally i'll run into gringa girls who hooked up with short brown indigenous guys All you have to do is go to a popular beachfront disco Practically anywhere in latin america whether on the gringo tourist trail or not and you're bound to see some of that Which by the way typically infuriates the average latino guy who always hit the discos hoping to have a chance to meet a young
[12:41] gringo lady because rumor has it within the latin guy community especially on the gringo tourist trail that Many young gringo girls come down to latin america on vacation looking for a latin lover because their boyfriends up north are For lack of a better word boring as latins would say papa sin sal which means a potato without salt You got that papa sin sal That's potato without salt or it could mean an unsalted pope Because you know down here the pope is called el papa Anyway, that would be just the opposite of a smooth latin lover, right? Now I know I know i'm straying way off the point But you can't believe how many emails I get from people asking me about love romance mating and dating in latin america from
[13:27] Gringas and gringo and what I get out of most of these emails is that up north Everybody's so stressed out about economy and debts and money health care insurance pharmaceuticals big brother taxes You name it that it's taking its toll on people's love and relationship lives up there, too Seems like everyone wants to go back to simpler days. And yes, that's just what it's like down here in latin america off the tourist trail Anyway, so back to the question Did jerry do the right thing by walking past this lady twice who he believed was very inebriated or dead? And by the way, just because jerry talks about someone laying on the side of the road Don't think when you come down here You're going to see all kinds of vagabonds and people begging and living in cardboard boxes under bridges and in coffee sacks and such I'll tell you that when you're off the gringo tourist trail
[14:13] There's just not much of that at all sure when you're in the medium or large sized cities and you're driving through them There are certain choice street corners where there are a lot of traffic and you'll see the odd beggar But most of them are actually trying to sell you something more juggling coconuts ginsu knives or flaming ovomit dolls And i'll tell you it's on the tourist trail where you'll see that the vagabonds have turned begging into a real industry By the way latin's down here call undesirable street people who don't sell anything and just beg Vagos, that's the first half of vagabond Vago So then why is it that on the gringo tourist trail begging has become such an industry because gringos are soft touches So we actually perpetuate that kind of thing Whereas ten bucks to us is a short cab ride or a nice tip to a porter to most people in latin america
[15:00] It's a day's wages and you know when gringos are on vacation. We're all loose with the dough 52 weeks a year. We might be skin flints But on that two-week vacation to Costa Rica or Cancun for a lot of gringos It's almost as if money's no object put it all on plastic and we'll deal with it later Oh, and by the way the other day I ran into a latin guy at a fashion event Which i'll report on later in this show because it was pretty cool Yes, expat eddie's girlfriend was on the runway again, and there's some really good stories to go along with that So stay tuned. Anyway, one of the latin guys there running the event said to me johnny What's a cheapskate? Apparently someone had been tossing that word around in spanish a cheapskate or a skin flint is a ta can yo That's ta can yo Meanwhile another latin guy standing around overheard that and said yeah, I know a lot of people like that
[15:48] But he qualified it by saying gringos aren't cheap No way except for the backpackers No surprise there but back to the point whatever that was Jerry in his email referred to some of my past shows Where we were talking about what you should and shouldn't do if you hit a pedestrian or someone on a motorcycle etc Now I never said you should perform a hit and run or leave the seat of the accident I just said that's what most latin lawyers will tell you off the record And what most latins with money or means will tell you too. Now. I know what you're thinking. Wait a minute How can that be? Now we're all taught up in the first row that one of the worst things you could do as a driver is to hit Someone and leave the scene of an accident, especially if the person's hurt You know if that happens up in the states, you'll probably lose your license forever and you'll be doing jail time, too
[16:35] Though in massachusetts, it'll qualify you for multiple terms in congress. Look at ted kennedy Anyway, the subject of hit and runs here in latin america never seems to die In fact just about three weeks ago. I was talking to a young lady who just got her driver's license Her parents have money. She goes to a helicopter school and she told me she took driver's lessons at a private driving academy Yeah, there are a lot of private driver's ed schools down here and believe it or not zero driver's ed classes in high school, etc Unlike almost every high school in the us So as it turns out all through latin america only five percent or less of all the drivers You see on the road have taken driver's ed, which is certainly why nearly everyone breaks multiple traffic laws with great regularity Something that tends to drive us gringos Absolutely batty. In fact, some of us never get over it
[17:23] Which explains why the number one unwritten driving rule in latin america is the pedestrian does not have the right away So do keep that in mind next time you cross a busy street Anyway speaking to this young latin girl who just took driver's ed and got her driver's license She explained for a hundred bucks She got eight one hour on the road driving lessons and I guarantee that she'll get her license After the last class. In fact, she said she didn't even have to go down to the driver's testing station or the license bureau They had get this at the driving school a car simulator And that's how she took her test on the simulator. Yep She said she never even learned how to parallel park in a real situation In fact when I mentioned it though look on her face said she didn't even know what parallel parking was
[18:10] So to anyone else down here who wants to drive and has more time than money That's about 95 percent of the people they'll never shell out the hundred dollars for private lessons instead They'll go down to the driver's testing station wait in line for four hours to get a number to come back to take the written test Then after that wait a week or so go into another line wait two hours Get an appointment to take the on the road test, of course You'll have to supply the car But i'm telling you practically anything including a riding lawnmower will do if you've ever seen a parking lot in a latin american Drivers testing station you'll see dozens and dozens of unroadworthy pieces of junk and crap It may look like a junkyard But those are the cars people have brought to take their license exams in even though most of them have lights that don't work Bad brakes gauges that don't work a broken window here and there
[18:58] Yet new fresh green drivers are allowed to take their on the road tests and vehicles like that So if you think big brother's got a foothold down here in latin america, think again So anyway after I congratulated the young girl on receiving her license successfully. I brought up a sticky question I asked her point blank what her driving instructor said she should do if she got in an accident or hit somebody He told her it depends on the situation She explained that he said if you get in a collision with another car Stay in that car and call your insurance company right away Good advice for anyone, right? And he said if you're way out in the county in a desolate area and you get in a car accident like that If there is almost no one else around and your car is still working drive to the nearest gas station or populated area Then pull over and call your insurance company
[19:45] He said rightly you don't want to be the lone person out in the middle of nowhere Sure If you take off the guy you collided with will be irate But he will follow you to the gas station and then you can get the insurance company involved right there Now remember if you have insurance down here, which Only about five percent of people have by the way probably less That means when you collide with somebody he most likely will not have insurance unless he has a very late model nice car If not, you can assume they don't carry insurance and he or she will be afraid if the cops come Now in light America the person with insurance always has the upper hand So bottom line there at least carry liability insurance and that won't cost you any more than 122 maybe 200 bucks a year and by the way, like I said in the past show When you buy insurance of any kind even the cheapest insurance, it'll have full triple a like coverage
[20:35] So if you have a flat or you run out of gas or your car just breaks down They'll tow you to the gas station or mechanic of your choice free It's one of the benefits of your policy, but I mentioned all that in a past show in great detail anyway The young lady went on to say that her driver's ed instructor told her that if she hit a bicyclist a pedestrian or a motorcycle She should get the hell out of dodge and keep on going which of course is totally against the law But when you have drivers ed instructors and lawyers and wealthy latins telling you the same thing All I can say is the name of this show is the expat files living in latin america And i'm telling you what it's really like to live here in latin america and what the law is and what people actually do And don't do i'm not advising you to break the law in any way. I'm just telling you what people do down here
[21:24] Nothing is black and white. It's all variations of the good the bad the ugly and the great So there we have part of the ugly Oh and one more thing on that point a nice upscale latin lady I know hit a guy on a motorcycle with her late model honda She stopped because it was the right thing to do she said the kid had a couple broken ribs and a concussion So he ended up in a first world private hospital her car insurance paid for it. Of course by rights He should have gone to one of those very crappy national health care public hospitals That's what would have happened if he'd have been hit by a chicken bus or by someone driving a polished turd of a wreck with no insurance Because you see in latin america even if you have just basic liability coverage It'll pay medical expenses in a private hospital for all involved And the motorcyclist not only did the guy not have insurance He didn't have a driver's license and his bike wasn't even registered
[22:12] Now she and or her insurance company could have pressed charges against the guy brought him to court for damages and to repay the hospital But she didn't and unlike in the u.s The insurance company doesn't go after cases like that either because it's just a big waste of time The guy has nothing he works at a job that makes 300 or 400 bucks a month And if she did take him to court he'd probably end up doing some jail time But the case would drag on probably for years and it would waste everyone's time Even though it was 100 that idiot's fault. So how does a gringo eliminate 90 of those problems? Well number one have insurance number two don't tailgate number three Don't drive at night number four don't break the law, but the laws down here are extremely flexible Okay, so that said changing gears a bit now I mentioned earlier that I met up with expat eddie again at a high fashion runway show
[22:59] So eddie alerts me when a cool one's coming up and we go to a couple of them a year More on that than an upcoming show But here's what happened before the event Now do note over the past few years when eddie and his fiance traveled by car to these events His fiance brings along their maid who's been working for them now, I guess like seven years But this time no maid then eddie kind of left and said she quit She won the lottery. I said no eddie You mean she won one of those street corner lotteries where little guys are running around selling your books of lottery tickets I thought that was a scam and nobody won. He said no, no johnny. Not that lottery She won the cell phone lottery. I said you don't mean she ended one of those stupid cell phone text messaging lotteries Now you've heard me talk about those multiple text messages you get down here in your cell phones
[23:47] That's why so many of us gringos turn our phones off at night So we don't have to hear the messages as they come in because they make a tone Then eddie said no not that cell phone lottery. Not quite. She won the cell tower lottery And I said what he said johnny you're not gonna believe this My cleaning lady and her husband own a tiny little plot of land with some driveway chickens, etc They live in a little 400 square foot block building with a tin roof that happens to be up the side of a big hill Eddie said a few months ago a couple representatives from the big cell phone company clado Pulled up knocked on their door showed her and her husband a copy of the land title from the local Municipality land registry and made her an offer. She couldn't refuse They offered her a 10 year lease on their property to put up a cell tower
[24:35] So it took her and her husband about two seconds to sign the agreement So within a month there was a shiny new cell tower with one of its tripod legs Butting right up against the kitchen wall now when people win the cell tower lottery like that They can move but they never do they don't care if one of the tower legs ends up in the bathroom That's their house and they're gonna live there Then eddie said I know I know johnny they're gonna get fried and their dogs and driveway chickens too But you just can't tell them that they don't get it Then eddie said what made it worse was the tears She had in her eye when she said she was gonna quit and that she'd won the lottery The best thing that ever happened to her He said how can I rain on that party? And what made it even worse eddie said is she sold out cheap She could have held out for six eight even a thousand bucks a month
[25:21] Then they really could have moved to a nicer neighborhood But poor people in that situation almost never do oh and by the way the cell phone reps came bearing gifts to clinch the deal Free high-end smartphones for the family like they knew what to do with them Her husband eddie said can't read or write So when you come down to get your boots on the ground don't think it very strange when you see a cell phone tower That looks like it's grown out of a little tin shack. Yep. You'll see that and it does look weird So then it's logical to ask is anyone at all down here ever heard of the dangers of microwave towers and cell phones in a word? No In fact only enlightened gringos ever bothered to bring up the subject and about cell phone radiation Well, i've never met a single latin who seems concerned about it at all And you never see articles in the paper or reports on the news or anything like that
[26:10] Just like the uninformed everywhere latins want newer and better devices And of course latins sleep with their cell phones walk around with them all day in their pants pockets Ladies commonly tuck them into their cleavage And if you were to sit down with the average latin person and try to explain it all to them They'd be alert and pay attention because you're a gringo, but inside they'd be thinking those crazy gringos Okay getting towards the end now. So once again, i'm going to remind you to go to www.thenewexpat.com check out famous expat blogger john gault and i'm there too And there's my youtube channel, of course Check out the slides that go with the show Oh and one last thing for those of you who've been wondering if i'm gonna do another expat insider seminar I think it'll start the week after this 4th of july So if you're interested in getting some real boots on the ground off the tourist trail with me holding your hand
[26:58] Do send me an email the expat files at gmail.com. I'll put you on my early bird discount list So as always i'll give repeat offenders a big discount and people who sign up before may 1st will get a 500 discount Off the normal price and a thousand dollars off the regular price for two people double occupancy So find out where the american dream has gone. It's down here in latin america Now if you come down you'll definitely get your plan b in action and off to a fast track start We'll show you exactly how to vw yf vote with your feet 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
[27:46] And if you want me to help you sort out your own latin american plans schedule a one-on-one consult with me Just send an email and let me know at the expat files at gmail.com