Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller dives into several key topics that expats living in Latin America should be aware of. He begins by discussing the cost of medical care in the region, emphasizing the importance of health insurance for expats. He shares his personal experience with a medical insurance plan that costs around $1,000 a year and covers 80% of his medical costs, with free emergency room visits. However, he notes that insurance premiums increase every five years as he moves into new age brackets, with an expected increase of 5-10% when he reaches the next age bracket. Johnny also highlights the challenges of the public healthcare system in Latin America, which is often underfunded and lacks basic supplies, making it unsuitable for expats. He advises expats to opt for private hospitals and clinics instead, as they offer better quality care, even though some doctors may have to work in public hospitals as part of their training.
In another segment, Johnny discusses the state of public hospitals in Latin America, particularly in Costa Rica, and contrasts them with VA hospitals in the United States. He mentions a Latin friend who is a doctor and describes the strong, unpleasant smell that indicates proximity to a public hospital. He argues that even though some expats may have had positive experiences with Costa Rican public hospitals, the reality is that only Costa Rican citizens benefit from the system, while expats and tourists pay for services. Johnny also touches on the issue of insurance for expats, noting that some insurance companies require proof of employment, which can be a challenge for new expats. He shares a personal anecdote about how he used a lawyer to create a fake employment proof to get insurance.
In a third segment, Johnny discusses the challenges expats face with health insurance, particularly regarding pre-existing conditions. He emphasizes that expats often have pre-existing conditions due to their age and that insurance companies in Latin America rarely verify these conditions. He also highlights the affordability of medical services in Latin America, suggesting that expats might opt for self-pay instead of insurance due to the low costs. He mentions that he personally calls his lawyer when he hits a brick wall, and this is something every good expat does. He states that his bilingual lawyer charges about 20% of what he would pay in the United States. He provides examples of medical service costs in Latin America, such as consultations and lab tests, which are significantly cheaper than in the United States. He concludes that while medical insurance is cheap in Latin America, some expats still choose to go without it due to the low cost of self-pay.
In another segment, Johnny discusses the importance of medical insurance for expats living in Latin America. He highlights the potential financial burden of hospitalization, using the example of a private hospital room costing $150 to $200 per day, which can add up to $5,000 or $6,000 for a month. He also shares the story of an expat woman who pays $400 a year for an insurance policy that covers 80% of medical costs, with a $10 co-payment for doctor visits. Johnny explains that while many policies are HMO-type and limit coverage to specific hospitals, some offer coverage in adjacent countries like Costa Rica, Panama, and Guatemala. He also notes that some policies provide worldwide coverage, including transportation to the United States for specialized treatment. However, he warns that many policies have age limits, often cutting coverage at 70 or 80 years old, which poses a challenge for older expats. Finally, he humorously suggests that expats should learn enough Spanish to understand basic documents like insurance policies and legal papers.
In a segment on language learning, Johnny emphasizes the importance of learning Spanish for expats living in Latin America. He explains that while basic Spanish can be helpful in everyday situations like communicating with hospital staff, legal documents remain a challenge for everyone, even native speakers. He also highlights the value of reading local newspapers to improve language skills, noting that newspapers are written at a fourth-grade level and can help expats understand common slang and expressions. Johnny provides examples of words with different meanings in various countries, such as 'Hueco' and 'Cucaracha,' to illustrate the complexity of language in the region.
In another segment, Johnny warns expats and tourists against eating street food in Latin America, citing unsanitary conditions and potential health risks. He describes the lack of clean water, the use of dirty rags for cleaning, and the reuse of utensils and dishes. He also highlights the presence of manure as fertilizer and the lack of pesticide regulation, which can lead to contamination of fruits and vegetables. Johnny advises expats to wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly and to avoid pre-cut street fruits sold in plastic bags, as they are often handled with unclean hands and knives.
Finally, Johnny Mueller warns listeners about the potential risks of purchasing certain items in Latin America, advising them to observe the preparation process to understand the conditions under which these items are handled. He highlights the lack of hygiene practices, such as the absence of gloves and fresh water, and the presence of flies, to emphasize the unsanitary environment. The segment concludes with a reminder about how to contact him for more information about living in Latin America.
Topics
Cost of medical care in Latin America, Health insurance for expats, Public healthcare system in Latin America, Private vs. public healthcare in Latin America, Public hospitals in Latin America, Comparison with VA hospitals in the U.S., Expats and healthcare access, Insurance for expats, Legal strategies for expats, Health insurance for expats, Pre-existing conditions, Cost of medical services in Latin America
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:40 The Cost of Medical Care in Latin America 00:01:32 Johnny's Personal Experience with Medical Insurance 00:03:13 Public Hospitals in Latin America 00:05:16 VA Hospitals vs. Public Hospitals in Latin America 00:05:45 Visit a Public Hospital in Costa Rica 00:06:14 Citizens vs. Expats in the Healthcare System 00:07:36 Insurance and Employment Requirements 00:08:44 Fake Employment Proof for Insurance 00:09:37 Handling Obstacles with a Lawyer 00:09:54 Cost of Legal Services in Latin America 00:10:15 Pre-Existing Conditions and Health Insurance 00:13:29 Affordability of Medical Services in Latin America 00:14:47 The Cost of Hospitalization in Latin America 00:14:58 An Expat's Insurance Experience 00:16:14 Coverage in Adjacent Countries 00:17:43 Age Limits on Insurance Policies 00:18:16 Johnny's Insurance Policy and Age Limit 00:19:33 Understanding Legal Documents in Spanish 00:19:48 Learning Spanish Through Local Newspapers 00:20:45 Regional Slang and Word Meanings in Spanish 00:23:12 Warning Against Street Food Consumption 00:23:15 Hygiene Concerns in Street Food Preparation 00:23:18 Health Risks for Tourists 00:27:19 Warning About Purchases in Latin America 00:27:35 The Expat Files Podcast Segment
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.
[00:01] South of the border, down Mexico way That's where I fell in love When the stars above came out to play Hi everybody, I'm Johnny Mueller And you're listening to the Exped Files Living in Latin America The one of a kind show that tells you what it's like To live, work, play and or retire in Latin America So let's get started He was a picture in old Spanish ladies Let's talk about the cost of living again now And what just might be everyone's favorite subject The cost of medical care down in the third world And like I said before, almost all the expats I know, including me
[00:47] Eventually end up getting some kind of health insurance plan Because it's just so inexpensive And if you do your homework, it's easy to get first world quality Or nearly so As long as you select a private hospital and doctors That train for their specialty in the US or Europe And believe me, in every big city down here There are plenty of doctors like that And of course plenty of doctors whose only training Is in the medical schools down here Which are very substandard So you gotta watch out for that So just ask questions and check out those diplomas on the walls Now as for me, I have a medical insurance plan myself That cost me about a thousand dollars a year You heard me right, a thousand dollars a year, not a month And it pays for 80% of all my medical costs And on top of that, all my emergency room visits are free
[01:36] And that's for a male on the wrong end of 40, like me But alas, every plan has a hitch And the hitch in my medical plan is that every 5 years I get kicked into another category And my premium goes up somewhere between 5 and 10% But it remains level for the next 5 years That is, until I hit the next age bracket And they raise my rates again So the way my plan works, I can expect when I hit 50 Which is the next age bracket, my premium will go up about 5 or 10% Which is 50 or 100 dollars a year, whoopee But right now, let's talk about people who don't have insurance Who either don't want to carry it, don't qualify Or are so broke, they can't even cough up a grand a year And believe me, for an expat, that's a really lame excuse
[02:21] And as far as the common man goes, the average latin down here Almost all of them choose to go without insurance Which expats down here like to call going raw And that's because they live from day to day And bounce from crisis to crisis And because 90% of the people here don't have any savings at all And no discretionary income They don't believe in maintenance Because for them, it's money spent for nothing And like I said, some expats choose to go without insurance too Not because they're in a crisis mode But rather, they're taking a calculated risk Because medical care of all kinds is so cheap down here And I do have to mention that every country in Latin America Does have its own so-called national health care plan And that means every big city in every country Has a number of public hospitals
[03:08] And if you're a citizen of that country, you can walk in And get treated for anything and everything Either for free, or for just a tiny copayment But in general, those hospitals are so neglected And so underfunded That they don't even have toilet paper or gloves or syringes Or even basic electricity And when you walk in, you'll see sick people just lining the halls Waiting for their turn to get looked at Which, if you're not an absolute emergency around your death bed Could take hours and hours So as for expats, public hospitals are never recommended Unless you happen to get in a head-on collision Right in front of their emergency room And still, no matter how bad you're bleeding You might have to wait three hours to get looked at Otherwise, expats, I advise you to drag yourself
[03:54] To the nearest private hospital or clinic The fact is, I can't overestimate How bad those public hospitals really are And the irony is, although those hospitals are very short On equipment and disposables and just the basics altogether They do have a lot of good doctors working on staff And quite a few who did specialty training in the United States And not that those doctors want to work there, believe me In fact, most of them hate it But the way it works down here is If a doctor got his basic medical degree from one of the local public universities No matter how many specialty degrees they ended up earning in the United States or Europe They have to put some hours in every week in one of the public hospitals As a kind of a payback for that dirt cheap public school education
[04:40] So although the rest of the week they might have a very lucrative practice In a nicely equipped, first world style private hospital or clinic Well, they still have to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty A few mornings or afternoons a week at one of those medieval public hospitals And you know, one of my Latin friends who's a doctor down here Says even a blind person can tell when he's getting near to a public hospital Because even from a block or two away you can smell it Which I know sounds pretty gross, but it's true In fact that same doctor told me that he visited a few VA hospitals up in the United States And he's heard all the complaints about him But he says VA hospitals are still ten times better than any public hospital down in Latin America So all you first worlders up there who've heard all those nasty things about VA hospitals
[05:28] Take note, okay? Now I just know I'm going to get some emails from some of you folks out there Saying that you've been to a public hospital in Costa Rica Or one of your friends has And it's not that bad It may not be first world, but it's not falling apart like Johnny says Well, my answer to that is Go visit one of those Costa Rican public hospitals That's not in a tourist zone Because you know what? When you go to a Costa Rican public hospital You have to pay cash if you're not a Costa Rican Only citizens of that country get to take full advantage Of the dilapidated national healthcare system And that's how it works at all the public hospitals in Latin America Citizens get government sponsored medieval medicine for free And expats and tourists have to pay for it
[06:14] And in the special case of Costa Rica Because there's so many tourists down there Consisting of huge numbers of drunk college kids on vacation getting crazy You might imagine that a lot of these wild and crazy tourists End up stumbling into the public hospitals Which means those Spartan public hospitals in Costa Rica Have a constant inflow of tourist cash On top of the meager funds they get from the government And that flow of tourist money is like manna from heaven So they can afford to buy gloves and syringes and towels and supplies So it's just another case of how the tourist dollar has dislocated things as usual down there But I guarantee you if you go off to one of those far out towns in the boonies Just stick your head into one of those public hospitals and you'll see exactly what I mean
[07:00] So what if you don't have insurance? What if you want to go raw? Well, up in the first world I'd never recommend it But down here, like I said, it's a flip of the coin Especially if you're checking on getting insurance And you have a pre-existing condition Just like up in the first world, they'll disallow coverage for it Although I have to say this Not that you want to be dishonest when applying for insurance down here There are some little tricks you should know before you fill out the forms and apply for it For example, the medical insurance that I have says that I have to be employed to be covered At least employed when I filled out the original forms and paid the first premium And they're talking about being employed down here in a company in Latin America That would mean being employed as a legal resident of the country Which as a matter of fact, most expats aren't
[07:47] Because in some cases there's good reasons for expats not to be legal residents I'll be talking a lot more about that on a future show, so stay tuned Now about some insurance companies requiring that their applicants have a job down here Now I don't know why that is But the fact is a private insurance company can instate any rules they want And when I applied for my insurance some years back, I didn't have a regular job In fact, most expats that come down don't have regular jobs, at least not in the beginning So how does a brand new expat get around that hurdle? Well, when I explained this catch-22 to my lawyer, my trustee lawyer Remember, you have to have one of those He smiled and said no problem, and had his secretary fill out a proof of employment form Saying that he and I were business partners
[08:34] And if I'm not mistaken, I think it was some kind of a road repair company Of which he was involved in at the time Which was a bit of a stretch, but not exactly a lie And the insurance company gladly accepted that piece of paper as proof of my employment And of course if they ever made a call back to my lawyer's office He and his staff would vouch for me to the ends of the earth And right now I'll advise you that if you haven't heard that show I did About lawyers and why you need them down here Well, if you haven't heard that program, go back and check it out And though a lot of the stuff they do might not seem ethical or legal to you by first world standards It's just the way they do things down here That's why they call it the third world Now, if you own real estate or investment property here and you have employees and a payroll
[09:20] As far as the health insurance companies are concerned That's not exactly considered real employment Don't ask me why, but I know a lot of expats who run into that roadblock So anyway, you can see why you need a lawyer down here They know how to work their system in ways we expats could never imagine So personally, I never get too upset when I believe I've hit a brick wall on something Instead, I just call my lawyer And that's what every good expat does And if you're thinking that to be a successful expat Those lawyer bills must really mount up You're wrong My fully bilingual lawyer charges me about 20% of what I would have paid for the same hourly billing in the United States Just remember, he pays his staff and his golfers about $300 to $400 a month
[10:06] And in the States, a legal secretary would get probably $3,000 a month Or almost 10 times as much But let's get back to health insurance Let's talk about pre-existing conditions Which I'm sure a lot of expats have Because in general, most expats are not young adults in their 20s and early 30s So there's a chance that when you come down, especially if you're middle aged or older You're not going to be in perfect health and you're going to have some kind of condition or other So let me talk about my own case for a second When I was 41 years old And I first filled out that form for that medical insurance policy It said right at the bottom of the page that they had the option to send me out for a physical and a blood test Before they wrote the policy And next to that was a section on pre-existing conditions
[10:54] And I wrote down that I once broke a leg and I had my tonsils out And I listed the usual childhood stuff, measles, mumps and all that And if I had had a serious pre-existing condition I just might have written it down And the fact is, if you do have a pre-existing condition Let's say for example, glaucoma Well, it asks which doctor treated you and what hospital you were treated at Well, I'll tell you right now since the form you're filling out is completely in Spanish In that case, you probably have your lawyer or someone in his office whose bilingual help you do it, of course Hmm, there we go with that lawyer business again It keeps coming up now, doesn't it? And guess what? Most of them don't charge for stuff like that Anyway, not to give you any devious ideas here The fact is, your new Latin American insurance company is never going to check with that hospital up in the first world
[11:43] Unless you had some kind of a major operation Like a heart transplant or a knee replacement or a back surgery Or even check or make contact with the physician that might have treated you Because the insurance administration office people have a difficult enough time Tracking down the histories of local people who fill out those forms Much less people who got treated in a foreign country Which turns out for them to be pretty much mission impossible And I was told that directly by a Latin physician Now, let me ask you, if you were down in Lima, Peru And you applied for a private medical insurance plan And you put on your form that you had had a hernia operation in Boise, Idaho Sixteen years ago by so-and-so doctor at so-and-so hospital up there Well, you can practically bet the farm that no one at the insurance company is ever going to contact anyone
[12:32] Up in the first world about that Just look at this thing realistically What are the chances that a first world hospitals could respond to an email or a letter Coming from a third world country in Spanish Especially since in the first world anyway Medical records are considered strictly confidential And by the way, down here, they're not So, I guess you're on the honor system when it comes to explaining pre-existing conditions Enough said about that Anyway, back to you expats that just might want to go without insurance And of course, the younger you are, the more invincible you think you are So, I know there's a general feeling out there for people in their 20s and 30s To just forget about it and pay as they go So, the question is just how much does it cost to pay as you go Now, I just happen to have in my hand a full page ad from a private clinic down here
[13:19] Advertising a number of common medical services and laboratory tests Now, I have to admit, prices down here in Latin America are very low Even at the very best private clinics You can pay as little as 25% of what you might pay up in the first world for the same service And that includes hospital room rates, drugs, and laboratory procedures For example, get a load of these rock bottom prices in this clinic's newspaper ad And these are prices without insurance coverage A consultation and basic exam with an MD, $4 A consultation and basic exam with a specialist For example, a hematologist, a dermatologist, or a neurologist, $10 And listen to these laboratory prices Urinalysis, $2 Hematology, $3
[14:05] Electrocardiogram, $4 Ultrasound, $10 Mammogram, $25 Pap smear, $5 Tomogram, $50 Endoscopic exam under local anesthetic, $50 Endoscopic exam under general anesthetic, $185 AIDS test, $4 Well, I'm sure you get the idea So at those prices, you can see why at least some expats Prefer to take their chances and go without any insurance at all Though medical insurance policies are so cheap down here I don't know why anyone would go without I mean, you never really know if you're going to have a catastrophe And you might end up in a hospital for a few weeks or even months And even if a private hospital room can be around $150 to $200 a day down here
[14:52] Well, a month in the hospital could set you back $5,000 or $6,000 For the hospital charges alone Now, for example, an expat woman I know in her 30s Has an insurance policy that she pays $400 a year for And admittedly, almost all the insurance policies down here Are of the HMO type And though, for example, in my case I'm required to use a certain group of hospitals If I do have an emergency and I'm not near one of those hospitals They'll still pay their regular 80% As long as it truly is an emergency And as far as a list of MDs and specialists On my plan, I have a booklet with a list of over 100 doctors in it And if I go for an appointment with any of the doctors in that book I only pay a $10 co-payment for each visit Now, in a future program, I'm going to give you a list
[15:39] Of your average private hospital room rates And fees associated with a hospital stay Let's say, for example, to have an appendectomy So stay tuned for that program And by the way, that expat lady I told you about in her 30s That pays $400 a year She has the same plan that I have That is, it pays 80% of everything But the reason why hers is so much cheaper than mine Well, that's because she's about 10 years younger than me And she didn't elect to have the free emergency room benefit Which adds about $200 to the cost, too I'd like to mention the fact, too, that a lot of these medical insurance plans Provide full coverage within your country And all the surrounding countries Let's say you're in Central America And your insurance plan is based in El Salvador Well, if you look at the fine print
[16:25] It'll say that you have coverage in Costa Rica Panama Guatemala Nicaragua Belize And maybe even Mexico In other words, all the adjacent countries in Central America Ones that you might pop in and out of at any time Because, in actuality, some of these countries are no bigger Than the average state in the US So you do get coverage within a group of adjacent countries But if you choose to go far out of the area Like to the United States or Europe You have to buy an additional rider when you travel Or it's easy to pick up some short-term traveler's insurance Either at a travel agent or at any international airport But the good news is, some medical insurance companies down here Do provide worldwide coverage And some of them even pay for transportation Up to the first world
[17:12] And additional medical expenses that you might incur If the treatment for whatever affliction that you might have Isn't readily available down here in Latin America Let's say you picked up an oddball parasite Or maybe you swallowed a poisonous tree frog Or whatever Well, some policies will pay for shipping you up to the United States for treatment Now, one of the things I have seen down here When you sign up for a private insurance policy Is that they have an age limit on both ends In other words, once you've hit 55 or 60 years old Most of the policies won't allow you to enroll anymore You're just too old Which is another reason why a lot of older expats who come down here later in life They end up going raw But some expats have told me there are policies you can pick up well into your 60s
[17:58] So there are options out there But one thing you do have to look out for Just as you have to in the first world Is that a lot of these policies cut you off at a certain age In other words, once you reach 70 or 80 years old You're either automatically off the plan Or they cut back on a lot of your covered services Now, I can tell you that my plan goes to age 79 That's when they cut me off But by that time, who knows Maybe I can get myself cloned And if not, maybe I'll just have to look for a rich old widow to take care of me And there's always Jack Kevorkian Oops, scratch that He just died the other day Did you see the news? And one more thing I should mention Eventually, I hope, all you expats and expat wannabes out there Will pick up enough kitsch in Spanish To be able to read the headlines and the basic stuff
[18:45] That shows up in the Spanish language papers every day And soon enough, you should be able to Slog your way through things like insurance policies Bank forms and business documents And maybe even some simple legal documents Because, you know, it does help if you can talk a bit To the hospital staff or the nursing staff If you ever get admitted And even though almost all the doctors speak some English You won't always be able to corral one to do some translations for you I mean, if you're about to get an unsolicited enema A little Spanish could come in handy I can tell you that my Spanish is fairly good And I can read the Spanish newspapers Still, I never could wade my way through any of the legal documents in my lawyer's office Which means it's pretty much the same as it is up in the first world Legal language up there excludes the common man too
[19:30] We all knew that It's the same way down here So don't expect to pick up a lease or a deed or a title And understand much of what they're talking about Don't feel bad even if your Spanish is excellent Lawyer talk is utterly confusing in any language And that's the way they like it And speaking of learning your Spanish There really is no better way to learn it Than to get right in there with the locals And quit hanging around with other expats At least try to minimize your contact with first world types It's not good for you, believe me And if you really want to learn your Spanish And get a feel of what's really happening locally You should try to slog your way through one of the daily papers Because like up north, the papers down here are written at about the fourth grade level So if you've had a year or two of high school Spanish Before too long, you should at least be able to pick up on the headlines
[20:18] And maybe parts of the sports page And once you start picking up little bits of Spanish You'll notice that every country has its own slang And favorite words and exclamations that they use over and over again I'd say every country has maybe 20 or 30 favorite words That don't necessarily translate it all To the same meaning in other Latin American countries Or even to the meaning in the standard Spanish dictionary For example, if you say the word Hueco H-U-E-C-O And look it up in the dictionary It means whole, like a hole in the ground Now in most Latin American countries That's exactly what it means But in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, and Belize It's slang for a person who's gay In other words, if he's a Hueco, he's gay
[21:05] So if an expat, for example, says to a driver of a car Look out for that Hueco in the road Well, the driver's gonna laugh and give you a strange look Now another example is the word Cucaracha You know what that is Cucaracha Now in Latin America, they often shorten it to just Cuca And why not? Like we shorten crocodile to croc And alligator to gator Well, the Latin shorten a lot of phrases and words For example, por favor Which even non-Spanish speakers know means please Well, Latin's often shorten por favor to just por favor So that kind of stuff happens quite a lot down here And it's not proper Spanish But it's common street Spanish Now take that word Cucaracha again When it's shortened to Cuca, it means exactly that horrible little insect
[21:50] That none of us can stand But in a lot of Latin countries, especially in Central America The word Cuca also is a derogatory word for vagina So depending how you use it down here Someone will either pull out the bug spray or slap you in the face In any event, you won't see some of those words in the newspaper But in the newspaper, you will see a lot of words that just don't show up in the dictionary So if you're steep on the learning curve in Spanish And you still haul around that pocket dictionary when you read the newspaper Or if you have one of those electronic translators I can tell you for a fact that a lot of the words that you're having trouble with You just can't look up In fact, if you pick up a newspaper from a country, let's say Paraguay And compare it with a newspaper that's printed in Panama About every paragraph or so, you come across a word or two
[22:39] That don't translate like they do in the dictionary For example, the word Xuco A very common word down here means dirty, grimy, and filthy But in some Latin American countries The word Xuco is used with the very same spelling To mean a kind of a tortilla sandwich that you buy At one of the little food kiosks on the street And it is quite ironic, I suppose, to think that a fast food called Xuco Does in fact live up to its name Xuco Which means unsanitary and dirty Because in fact, that's just what they are Unsanitary and pretty disgusting And if you watch how it's prepared, you'll know what I mean And speaking of eating food on the street I always advise expats and tourists against that And for tourists, it's the easiest way to ruin a nice vacation
[23:25] And I don't care how nice that food looks Or how good it smells Or how many locals are standing around munching down on the stuff Just take a look at the people preparing that stuff You'll see that not only don't they have any running water But they use a filthy, dirty, moist rag To wipe off not only their hands, but the countertops And the utensils and the dishes And then they'll drop it on the ground or the floor And pick it up and use it again Then if there's a male in charge serving you At least a few times a day he'll make a run to urinate or whatever In another place where there's no water And then he'll come back and make some more food And don't believe those expats and seasoned tourists who tell you Well, you have to get used to the bacteria down here And the only way you can do that is to eat the street food once in a while Well, I've heard that one a hundred times
[24:12] And really, that's just an excuse Because the only people that I know who eat that stuff on a regular basis Besides the locals that is, are backpackers And people who come down here on the cheap And it's true, the street food is a lot cheaper than if you go to a restaurant And like I said in the past show Even if you do go to a restaurant You have to keep your eyes open and check out the bathroom Before you even order Because if the bathroom doesn't have running water And paper towels, not a cloth towel You might as well eat the food on the street Now here's another thing to keep in mind Now often you'll see locals selling fruit on the street I mean apples and oranges and kiwis and pineapples and papayas, you name it Now that's highly recommended However, somehow you gotta wash that stuff before you eat it
[24:59] Because down here in Latin America for fertilizer The age-old standby is manure And another thing, this is the land of cheap pesticides And since none of these countries have an FDA Or an Environmental Protection Agency And by the way, not that the FDA and the EPA Aren't just corporately controlled hypocrites up in the first world Well, they are But that's another story And we're talking about Latin America here But anyway, there's not a hint of pesticide regulation Or food monitoring down here Unless the first world gets involved Because there's been some kind of a problem With a fruit or vegetable export That somehow didn't pass muster Once it landed up in the first world Well anyway, not only can Latins use as many pesticides As they want down here
[25:44] That is, on the foods they sell within their own regions But they can also use pesticides That have been long since banned up in the first world Though again, they might have laws down here Against doing that kind of stuff They haven't got the will, the manpower, or the agencies To enforce any rules and regulations like that So how's an expat to know if a piece of fruit or vegetable Has been a pesticide dumping ground Well, it's not so hard Have a good look at the skin on a fruit or a vegetable Like for example, where you really see the pesticides show up Is on the skins of papayas, apples, and avocados You see it all the time in the markets and in the grocery stores Often there's a kind of whitish film That sometimes appears as a light powder Now you should either stay away completely
[26:31] From something that looks questionable like that Or give it a good washing and scrubbing Before you ever cut into it Because the mistake I see a lot of people make Is when they cut into a fruit or a vegetable like that With a film on it The knife blade drags at least some of that film Into the edible parts And that's always gonna happen Unless you give that stuff a really good washing Now on the street, let me warn you You'll often see people selling fruits Already cut up and packaged in plastic sandwich bags And I'm talking about fresh papaya and mango and melon And a dozen other fruits that look absolutely great to eat And most of the time these street vendors Will sell these cut up fruits and bags For ridiculously low prices But expats, don't be tempted Don't buy that stuff Because every one of those pieces of fruit
[27:17] Have been touched by dirty knives and bare hands And if you don't believe me Before you consider buying something like that Stand around for a while and watch how they prepare it No gloves, no fresh water Flies landing everywhere What more do you need to know? South of the border You've been listening to The Expat Files Living in Latin America And don't forget you can email me On anything at all about Latin America The Expat Files at gmail.com That's theexpatfiles at gmail.com See you next time Nos vemos South of the border