Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller dives into the concept of middle class in Latin America, comparing it to the United States. He highlights the stark differences in income and lifestyle, using examples of both local and expat experiences. Johnny also touches on broader topics like inflation, IQ discussions, and the definition of wealth, emphasizing the subjective nature of these classifications.
Johnny explains that in Latin America, the middle class is defined as making between $500 to $1,500 a month, with the upper middle class ranging from $2,000 to $3,500 a month. He contrasts this with the U.S. definition, referencing Nelson Rockefeller's 1960 claim that middle class meant making $100,000 a year, which would be nearly $1 million today due to inflation. Johnny provides an example of a gringo expat in Latin America who lives a lavish lifestyle for around $50,000 a year, highlighting the disparity in cost of living.
He also discusses the challenges of defining wealth and middle class, using his mother's perspective to illustrate the differences in cost of living between the U.S. and Latin America. Johnny notes that in the U.S., a middle-class family of four would need around $60,000 to $75,000 annually, while in Latin America, a similar lifestyle can be maintained on a social security check. He emphasizes that having hot water is a significant marker of class distinction, noting that only about 1-2% of the population has central hot water heating, typically the wealthy and some expats.
Point-of-use electric water heaters are common but often unreliable and prone to clogging. Johnny advises expats to use propane gas water heaters instead of electric ones due to the high electricity costs in Latin America. He also touches on the differences in how gringos and Latins manage propane tanks, highlighting the gringos' tendency to store tanks in secure, organized locations like garages or utility rooms, often with gauges to monitor gas levels. In contrast, Latins tend to have less organized setups, sometimes leaving tanks in open spaces or not using gauges, which Johnny views as a lack of preparedness.
Johnny shares a story about a Latin teenager who is familiar with the Hollywood Walk of Fame, indicating the influence of Latin media on the perception of Hollywood as a Latin construct. He also discusses the economic impact of remittances from the U.S. to Latin America, noting that they significantly improve the standard of living for many families. He critiques the so-called 'do-gooder' organizations that operate in Latin America, suggesting that they often exploit the region for grants and funding while maintaining a lavish lifestyle.
Finally, Johnny discusses his experiences with propane gas companies in Latin America, highlighting how they consistently underfill propane tanks, despite promises of accurate weight. He explains that the issue is widespread, with companies from Mexico and other regions in the region all engaging in this practice. Johnny shares his personal solution to this problem: switching to a rooftop solar hot water heater, which has significantly reduced his reliance on propane and allowed him to avoid the ripoff gas companies. He emphasizes the importance of buyer beware and the lack of truth in advertising, while also expressing his frustration with utility companies and the government. He concludes by promoting his upcoming expat seminar and YouTube channel as resources for expats in the region.
Topics
Middle class in Latin America, Inflation and cost of living, Wealth and income disparity, Cultural and economic comparisons between the U.S. and Latin America, Cost of living in Latin America vs. the U.S., Middle-class lifestyle and income requirements, Hot water as a marker of class distinction, Reliability and maintenance of water heating systems, Recommendations for expats on water heating solutions, Propane tank storage practices, Cultural differences in organization and preparedness, Influence of Latin media on Hollywood perception
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:32 What Bugs Me About Latin America 00:00:57 The Use of Wood for Cooking in Lower Classes 00:01:20 Defining Middle Class in Latin America 00:03:01 The Expensive Life of a Gringo in Latin America 00:04:03 Nelson Rockefeller's Definition of Middle Class 00:05:08 Cost of Living in the U.S. vs. Latin America 00:06:15 The Cost of Living in Latin America vs. the U.S. 00:07:08 Hot Water as a Marker of Class Distinction 00:11:09 Recommendations for Expats on Water Heating Solutions 00:11:42 Propane Tank Security and Organization 00:12:35 The Inconvenience of Propane Tank Failures 00:12:58 The Cultural Impact of English Phrases in Latin America 00:15:43 The Hollywood Walk of Fame and Latin Influence 00:17:53 Perception of Hollywood in Latin America 00:18:30 Economic Impact of Remittances 00:20:58 Critique of 'Do-Gooder' Organizations 00:22:34 Practical Aspects of Daily Life in Latin America 00:22:48 Propane Gas Companies Are Ripoffs in Latin America 00:23:50 Propane Companies Are Still Shorting Consumers 00:24:23 Switching to Solar Hot Water Heater as a Solution 00:24:57 Low Electric Bills and Off-the-Grid Plans 00:26:42 Gringo Disadvantages and Cost of Imported Goods 00:26:49 Promotion of Expat Seminar and Resources
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 talk about some things here in Latin America that bug me though. Some people say everything bugs me Anyway for all of you who've gone way back in the archives and listen to some of my first let's say hundred shows by the way I've got around 565 shows out there now you must remember I did a show or two about using LP gas liquid petroleum gas
[00:52] Otherwise known as propane or down here gas propano now There's another one of those great memory aids propane propano now on my last show you probably remember I spoke about how 90-something percent of the average people out in the boonies that would be the lower middle classes and poor They burn hundreds of millions of tons of wood a year just for cooking In fact, I believe the number in Brazil alone was 200 million tons a year Now when you're talking about Latins who are middle class and above and by the way, I've asked a lot of Latins just lately What's a good definition of middle class? Now that's a loaded question Somewhat like asking a guy on the street if he's average or not In fact, just the other day captain mango and I were having that very discussion
[01:40] And he said he just read that 75 percent or more of Americans think they're above average, which is mathematically impossible Yes, that's gringos are an optimistic bunch aren't we? Sadder yet as captain mango pointed out since the 1960s the average IQ in the u.s. Has dropped 12 points and I know expat Eddie's said as a joke though It has a ring of truth to it He says it's really starting to look like IQ is inversely proportional to ass size Wouldn't that be a cool t-shirt on the front Einstein on the back Kardashian who else then we discussed that recent news story That said that ten percent of university students polled in the states think that judge Judy's on the Supreme Court and the same percentage ten percent thought that Martin Luther King was the first black man on the moon
[02:29] I'm not kidding But back to what people think constitutes this salary of a middle-class person here in Latin America now when you ask a supposed middle-class person that question the consensus is middle class is anyone who makes from five hundred to fifteen hundred dollars a month and They'll say upper middle class is anywhere from two thousand to thirty five hundred dollars a month and the wealthy or the rich Well middle-class people will say it's anyone who makes four grand a month or more So then you might ask how can fifty grand a year for a family be considered rich? Well, all we have to do is hark back to that earlier example I gave a couple of shows ago when I told you about a gringo friend of mine Married to a Latin American girl has one kid in what is probably the most expensive helicopter school in all of Central America He's got two full-time maids and a gardener at his city house of about five thousand square feet by the way
[03:20] He's got three fairly late model cars a four by four ATV at his beach house You know your standard basic oceanfront beach house pool and all where he's got a full-time maid and maintenance guy, too So he's got five full-time employees two houses three or maybe four cars I can't remember and he lives the life of Riley all that for around fifty grand a year And if you come down to my expat insider seminar in July You'll get to ask him questions about that yourself because one of his factories will be included in our boots on the ground tour But let's get back to that loaded question. What does a person have to make to be middle-class? Well, let me toss this at you back in 1960 you might remember one of the richest guys in the US was Nelson Rockefeller
[04:07] 41st vice president of the US but his real claim to fame and you might remember this He died of a heart attack in bed doing that thing in the arms of his mistress. He was 70 She was 25. Well back then before he checked out in a most spectacular way He was asked by a reporter what he thought a person had to make to be middle-class in the USA He thought for a second and said middle-class, huh? I'd say a hundred grand a year No less now if you crunch that number through your inflation calculator for 1960 You'll find that's nearly a million dollars in today's US fiat money Which is why that's a very loaded question and why Latin American middle-class to us It is what you might call living no better than trailer trash up north Now I know some of you guys and gals out there are living in some very beautiful double-wides. You've downsized so no offense
[04:58] The point is what's your definition of poor middle-class or wealthy up where you live? Well, I asked my 86 year old mother that question recently and she said let's figure it out In Chicago to send one kid to a top private school would cost you at least 40 grand a year To have a full-time maid and gardener probably another 50 grand apiece That'll be a hundred grand if they're on the books anyway because you'll have to pay into social security and health benefits the whole works and then there's the city house and the beach house and the pool and the cars and all that just as a Comparison to my gringo friend down here in Latin America and she came up with a number and now we're talking about only two full-time people here as opposed to five a figure of around a half a million dollars a year minimum and still that might not Be enough to be called wealthy since you're usually in a 50% tax bracket
[05:45] So even at that things would be tight and you'd probably have no savings So if you made a half a million a year up in Chicago, you'd be upper-middle class, but not wealthy Bottom line she said to live an upper middle-class life in Chicago You'd have to make about ten times as much as you'd have to make if you lived off the gringo tourist trail in Latin America and then I asked her and my brother and a number of other relatives up in the states what they thought a decent salary would Be for a solid middle-class family of four in the states and that number came in around 60 to 75 thousand bucks a year that said it's easy to see why down here in Latin America You could live a first world lifestyle on a measly social security check and believe me I know a lot of people who are doing it. So it's true You won't suffer down here if you're getting just a social security check provided again
[06:33] You don't buy a lot of imported junk at Costco or Walmart Okay, it sounds like I'm going all over the place here, but I'm coming back to the main point which was what I can't remember Oh, yeah What some people down here in Latin America say is the difference between middle and lower middle class and that is some say you're middle class If you don't burn wood and you use gas propano propane gas to cook with yeah I know it sounds like a strange way to gauge something like that But get this there are some people let's say the difference between lower middle class and middle class down here is if you have Hot water in the house or not. How about that? Oh, and by the way only about one or two percent of the population have a central hot water heating That would be only the wealthy and some gringos
[07:18] I said some gringos You can always tell if a house does not have central hot water heating by looking in one of the showers if it's got one Of those dangerous looking point-of-use shower heads with wires hanging out of it They do not have central hot water Which means the water in the sinks etc will always be cold now about those nasty looking shower head water heaters That's something you'll never see up in the states They just wouldn't pass code, but you'll see them all over the place down here Every middle and upper middle class house has them for that matter every mom-and-pop hotel backpacker hostel in any hotel That's got two stars or less So be fitted with them and believe me when you get down here and you're not staying at a first-world style hotel You're gonna look at one of those shower heads for the first time with its taped and frayed rats nest of wires
[08:04] You're gonna say I'm not kidding in there But eventually you will you'll get over it unless you don't mind wreaking like an overripe backpacker Not good because as it is backpackers automatically lose two points on the gringo advantage scale So then what about this hot water thing? That's not to say you can't pick up a whole house hot water heater like you have in the states all the good sized hardware stores have them but it seems only gringos and the very wealthy have them installed and that'll happen when the House is built because normally if you buy or rent a house, especially a somewhat older house Very few have been plumbed for a hot water which comes as a shock to some gringos because well up in the states 100% of homes have hot water Now most all houses look as if they have hot water connections because they have standard sinks with a hot and cold water side
[08:50] But that's just an illusion But if you look under those sinks, you'll see there's only a cold water connection So you can turn on what you think is the hot water valve and let it run all day But you'll never get a drop of hot water. By the way That's one thing that frustrates gringo as we get pissed off when things don't happen immediately Well get used to it However, the good news is that when you build a house you can tell your architect and your plumber that you want hot and cold Water at every sink also these days in this big housing bubble You can go to an upscale guarded gated community and some of the newer houses have hot and cold water lines installed However note if you buy or rent a house you have to check in the closets or under the kitchen sink somewhere to make sure They've installed a whole house water heater because generally the builder won't install that you'll have to
[09:38] Why because the whole latin culture is pretty much used to bathing showering and washing their hands, etc In lukewarm tap water. What about those point of views shower head water heaters? They're all electric and that's unfiltered hard water running through that head So particles sludge and scale are building up all the time That said with all the millions of those units installed here in Latin America I'd say at least 50% of them aren't working at all after a year or two They just get clogged and full of scale and they kind of fizzle out and since maintenance down here is a four-letter word When that happens the average latin person just says hell with it and go back to taking lukewarm showers again. They're used to it That's what home sweet home was like when they were kids, which isn't half bad In fact cold water showers are quite refreshing if you're living in that 95% of Latin America where it's dead hot
[10:28] However, if you're living in my favorite area the alti plano where it's perfect spring-like weather all year round First thing you'll notice is the water coming out of a shower head can be cajones shriveling cold So get ready for that if you're staying in a hotel with two stars or less that includes backpacker hotels Hostels mom-and-pop hotels and if you're visiting Latin friends Now for gringos and expats used to having a nice flow of hot water up in the states You'll certainly want to have a whole house water heater And of course, like I said hardware stores have them with the big old tank like you're used to up in the states However, you should never get one. That's electric what with kilowatt hour rates down here being three four even five times What you pay up in the states you're much better off getting a gas propano
[11:13] That's propane gas whole house water heater Which means you'll have to have a place to put your two gas propane tanks and you don't want them in the house We do care about such things in Latin as well. They don't really care I've been in a lot of houses where big old propane tanks been shoved into a closet under a counter or even right out In the open you see that a lot in middle-class kitchens now A lot of us gringos have our propane tanks locked up in the garage And if they're not in a little closet or utility room out in the garage They're securely chained down to the wall with the big padlock because they will walk away Now let's have said Johnny you can only use one tank at a time. Why do you have two you crazy gringo you? Well, that's because gas tends to run out at the most inopportune times
[11:58] Like for example if you're taking a shower at 10 at night Which means you won't get a delivery till probably 10 the next morning and it'll come on a motorcycle by the way that you have to See to believe anyway that extra tank is your reserve tank Latins just don't get that to them. It's overkill to us. It's insurance one by the way I may have mentioned this a long time ago But you never know when your tanks gonna run out of gas Which is why astute gringos have a gauge on the top of their tank yet I've never seen a propane tank in a Latin person's house that has such a gauge So tanks down here just run out with no warning at all and Latins are used to that very Inconvenient when mama's cooking Sunday dinner I can tell you and a gauge like that might cost 25 bucks to Latins overkill to us insurance
[12:44] So again, it's details details. We call it part of our gringo advantage Can we help it if we like things a bit more organized and predictable whereas Latins just think it's overkill We're a bit crazy even anal though I'll tell you with lag time the phrase anal hasn't hit down here in Latin America, but I suppose it will pretty soon You know a few months ago I tried to explain that term anal to a couple of Latins who asked me about it They were watching a Jackie Chan movie or something and it came up in the subtitles and when I explained it to him They made a face like you and said you mean people in Los Estados the states really use that term They'll never catch on down here. That's too gay and I said hey eventually Everything from the states makes it down here
[13:30] So deal with it by the way a lot of our phrases and slang words come down here by way of t-shirt Because you know if you're a Latin person you better have a drawer full of English sayings on t-shirts or you just ain't hip You're a nobody. I'm not kidding which begs the question How many of you guys and gals up in flinter Cleveland have some t-shirts with Spanish sayings on them? Hmm Oh and speaking of Latin's loving anything and everything first world gringo this into this one now You might have heard me mention that once in a while expat 80 and I get on the phone and we start talking about the Weird things we still see even though we've been down here a long long time and just the general craziness that you never see up In the first world. Well, here's a little story He told me a couple weeks ago, and I still can't get over it He said he was over at his girlfriend's his fiance's
[14:18] mother's house in a middle-class Latin neighborhood in El Salvador and as it turns out Eddie's fiance has a couple of sisters and one of Them's 17 years old and she absolutely loves the TV So expat he says he's sitting in the living room and the TV's on all the time in Latin homes Just like up in the states and they've got the Latin version of e entertainment television on and suddenly they're doing a report in Hollywood on the walk of fame turns out some Latin diva that Eddie doesn't even recognize is getting her own Star and there are the usual couple of dozen ass kissers whooping it up around the event with just a ton of Latin TV Reporters. Nope. Not any first world reporters all Latin TV reporters So what he doesn't know who this person is when the 16 year old girl turns to him and says Eddie
[15:06] Do they have a Hollywood for gringos to now Eddie said that was the weirdest thing He'd heard in a long time and she was dead serious. So then how'd she come up with that question? Well, it's because more and more Latins are getting their star on the walk of fame Latins that first world people have never even heard of before they've never done even a B movie in Hollywood Most are C grade talents that don't even speak English How'd that happen how'd they get the privilege of being placed next to some of the real grades like Bogart Gary Cooper Clark Gable Audrey Hepburn Paul Newman Johnny Carson Gregory Peck Kirk and Michael Douglas I'm sure the ones who really deserve it are turning over in their graves right now Man, I can't think of a better way to take the luster off that formerly prestigious prize
[15:52] Well, it's easy enough to explain the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is broke and they'll take anyone's 25 grand and 2,000 Signatures from a fan base and give you a star in fact It doesn't seem to matter anymore whether or not the person's done anything at all in the US entertainment industry or in fact even speaks English Then again trigger rent in tin and lassie didn't speak English and they have stars on the walk of fame So scratch that so as it turns out that's what this Latin e entertainment channel has done It's perpetuated the weird myth that Hollywood USA is a Latin construct now whether you love or hate Hollywood This certainly is a twisted concept But if you're a Latin TV addict down here, it certainly seems like it's a very wealthy suburb of Latin America
[16:38] For example, Latin e entertainment reports for days and days on the Latin Grammys Something that middle America doesn't give a rat's ass about then they have the Latin tele novella or soap opera awards They take place in Hollywood and nowadays all first world programs are making it down to Latin America via cable channels and Practically, everything's dubbed almost no subtitles anymore, which is why not so long ago I was sitting down with some people and the Latin Disney Channel was on That's when a 20-something Latin girl said to her friend. Wait a minute. I don't believe it the princess She sounds exactly like Kim Kardashian So I stopped and I explained to her that all these movies and cable and TV shows you're seeing these days are Coming from Hollywood in English then they send them to Mexico to a studio where they're translated and dubbed into Spanish
[17:30] Then you get to see him so the same person that's dubbing the voice in Spanish for little princess also dubs a lot of movie and TV parts as well as The Spanish voice of Kim Kardashian then suddenly you could hear a pin drop now looking back I guess I shouldn't open my big mouth because by the look on her face I could tell I really burst her bubble. Come on Didn't you hate that kid who told you there was no such thing as Santa Claus? So the fact is there's a whole generation of young Latins down here who seem to think that Hollywood is a suburb of Mexico City It's really true many young Latins of a certain age think that Mexico City has its own huge studio complex Where all the Disney and Pixar movies like Shrek cars toy story and Zootopia are being made so bottom line
[18:16] What's that all mean down here more native Latin people than ever think that Hollywood USA along with my jammy are just higher class Wealthier versions of Latin America where all the Latins are beautiful talented and successful. Hmm. Don't laugh You can't blame them. That's how TV in the media down here depicts those places. Okay, let's change gears for a second Here's something interesting. This comes from the Sunday edition of Medellin, Colombia's biggest newspaper It says here the average amount of remisa money coming to Latin American families from friends and relatives up in the States is Can you guess it's 250 bucks a month now? I know that doesn't sound like a lot to you and me but to the average Latin family who make only 250 to 300 a month having someone up in the States sending back an equal amount
[19:05] Doubles a family's purchasing power and standard living it goes on to say that gives the average Latin more than enough motivation to want to get To the US himself and get a piece of the American dream. It was when you American Oh, yep If I've heard it once I've heard it a thousand times Swenio Americano Swenio Americano, which begs the question for all you listeners up in the States How's that American dream going for you? Now one gringo I talked to recently said he thinks it's a zero sum game Meaning when a Latin person is sneaks into the States and increases his standard of living There's some native born American up in the States whose income drops by a similar amount now That would make some sense since the economy isn't growing but the population is hmm sounds like a master's thesis
[19:51] I wonder how big a grant we could get for studying that which brings me right back to that point I discussed a couple of shows back where gringos are finding that they can come down here and do seminars and make a lot of Money now listen to this ad for a brand new seminar. That's just arrived It's called a project funding seminar hmm and get what it's about it says come to our seminar Well, you will learn how to obtain international financing That would be do-gooder grants and NGO money and stuff to develop your own projects and activities Here in Latin America, it says here and I'll translate if you are working in development projects Learn the correct way to formulate your plans and ideas to obtain International funding meaning if you're looking for donations or grant money from stupid do-gooders up in the States take this seminar
[20:42] And we'll show you just how to sucker them in I am NOT kidding you that seminars coming through Latin America right now And it costs a cool hundred bucks for that all-day course, and you'll get a nice suitable for framing diploma, too Now you know most of these do-gooder groups are completely non transparent They're CEOs and boards of directors fly first-class stay at four-star hotels and resorts eat and drink the best of everything on Huge wide-open expense accounts if you don't believe me just look up Haiti and the massive fraud involved with the Clinton Foundation And the Red Cross etc etc And that's just for starters or just come down to any big Latin American city and check in to the finest First world four-star hotel then tell me who's hanging out in the lobby Do-gooders and more do-gooders and more do-gooders and of course the organizers
[21:30] They'll send out their young brainwashed underlings to the tin roof shacks out in the boonies While they hang back and give orders from the penthouse or from 30,000 feet up in the Gulf Stream And it seems that all these do-gooder groups have a variation on the same marketing scheme Just show some happy skinny malnourished kids playing with a deflated soccer ball and a garbage dump Get that up on the net and some posters out to the first world and some TV spots on Oprah and the dough will start Rolling in just ask Sally Struthers, but I digress man. Did I digress? What was I talking about? Oh, yeah using water heaters and propane gas down here now Chefs will tell you the best way to cook is with gas not electric and down here The LP gas comes in basically two consumer-sized tanks 25 pounds and a hundred pounds
[22:20] Now if you have a cleaning lady down here if you tell her to wash your clothes She will and then she'll hang them out on a line to dry. Well, that's fine if you don't live in the city But in the city, there's dust and smog and grit. You don't want that on your clothes So we use a conventional clothes dryer and of course they come in electric and gas and you don't want to use electric it's way too expensive and the point of all this is Even though electric is much more expensive than using propane gas. Now, remember this all the propane gas companies The guys that fill and deliver your bottles are ripoffs And I mentioned that a long time ago in a couple of shows Probably four years ago now and they're still ripoffs In fact being that I might be the only consumer in Latin America who actually has a scale out by the propane tanks So that I can weigh them as they're dropped off
[23:07] The fact is I've proved to myself and the delivery guy time and time again that all the tanks come up short from their listed Wait, it doesn't matter what company order from there's usually a half a dozen in any big city. They all rip you off They're all stealing from you now in Central America almost all the LP gas comes from Mexico and about six months ago There was news all over the papers that Mexican gas companies were shorting everybody who bought propane in the bottle And yes, they had to go to court, but I'm sure someone got paid off Those are huge companies and now the controversies died down because those companies promise to be good boys and guarantee the weight on the bottle Well for a month or two, they were on the straight and narrow, but now they're back to their bad old ways again They're short However, the marketing divisions in all these big propane companies are putting ads full-page ads in all the big Latin newspapers and the media
[23:58] Saying that the correct weight is guaranteed. They say you buy from us and you'll get peso exacto Which means exact weight such liars So once again, I'll repeat there's no truth in advertising and it's buyer beware as it should be So what do you do about it besides get mad or go on a raw food diet or switch to wood? Well, you can't fight City Hall. I've tried you can't win So I'll tell you what I did about six months ago I switched over to a rooftop solar hot water heater and why not down here You've got nothing but Sun which more than takes care of all my hot water needs before I got that installed Three-quarters of the gas that I use was going into heating my water now It's coming from the Sun and I'm giving the finger to the ripoff propane gas companies Well, maybe not the whole finger, but most of it. So yes, I still have propane tanks
[24:48] They serve just a stove and a gas dryer now, by the way, I've investigated going completely off the grid I know exactly what system to get I'm ready to do it However, my electric bill is still quite inexpensive because I've got no air conditioning and no heating Remember my main place is in the Altiplano Perfect spring-like weather all year round even though electrics very very high down here. My bill never goes over 50 bucks a month However, I hate utility companies almost as much as I hate government So if they jack up the rates more or stick me on a smart meter I am ready to go completely off the grid When by the way about my solar hot water system because I'm in the Altiplano never freezes down here There's no antifreeze or heat exchangers and that makes the system very simple and inexpensive
[25:34] It ran me around a thousand bucks about a quarter of what it would have cost up in the States So then what about the rainy season? Well, it's the rainy season right now and we get at least four hours of Sun a day and some days a lot more However, you have to plan just a little when using these things For example, there's a small thermostat inside the house you check it Let's say right before you're gonna take a shower and if it's reading a hundred thirty degrees or more It'll be plenty hot and how hot does it get? Well, if you have a full day of Sun, it goes all the way up to 212 degrees boiling now For example, if it's at 175 degrees and you have three days of rain if you don't use it You'll only lose about 10 degrees over that time. The only downside I see is that it's made in China But so is everything by the way
[26:20] There are a half dozen or more brands you can choose from down here and I selected the one that's got the most number of installations in Central America that way I'm sure they know what they're doing they'll always have parts and service and yes They sell Israeli and US brands down here, too at twice the price Even though they're the exact same design and get this have interchangeable parts So that's a good example of what you might call a gringo disadvantage Anything imported from the States costs a lot more Well, it's that time again to remind you to sign up for my July 2016 expat insiders seminar Just go to www dot the new expat comm click on the seminar link at the top of the page For all the info and signup details and while you're there Don't forget to check out the famous John Galt and his pre and post seminar trips
[27:09] John Galt's offering the opportunity for you to get even more boots on the ground his trips come highly recommended by past attendees And by me and finally don't forget to go to my youtube channel See the slides and photos that go along with the audio. Just click on Santa. You can't miss him He's sitting in a hammock sucking on a mai tai and you'll get a whole list of what's available. Do subscribe. It's free south of the border 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 just send an email and let me know at the expat files at gmail.com. No spamos