Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller dives into the complexities of food safety, expiration dates, and water access in Latin America. He begins by discussing the issue of expiration dates on food products, highlighting the differences in food labeling practices between the United States and Latin America. Johnny notes that in the U.S., expiration dates are taken seriously, while in Latin America, many people do not read labels. He provides examples of expired food being sold in places like Costco and contrasts the legal and cultural approaches to food safety and expiration dates between the U.S. and Latin America. He also mentions the inefficiency of the legal system in Latin America, where cases can take years to resolve, and he uses the example of a corrupt congressman who delayed his trial for years. Johnny concludes by discussing the broader implications of food waste and the arbitrary nature of expiration dates, even for products like honey and coconut oil.
Next, Johnny discusses the challenges of importing products into Latin America, highlighting how governments impose additional costs and regulations on importers. He explains that even if a product is approved and sold in the U.S., Latin governments require it to be analyzed in their country, leading to extra fees and delays. He also mentions that labels must be translated into Spanish, which can obscure important information like nutritional content. Johnny further discusses the issue of expiration date manipulation in supermarkets, particularly in areas with a significant number of tourists. He references the 'Captain Mango' anecdote to illustrate how expiration dates are sometimes altered, especially in places where consumers are more likely to check them. He concludes by emphasizing that expiration dates are often arbitrary and that food and medicine can sometimes remain safe and effective long after their labeled expiration dates.
In the third segment, Johnny explores the challenges of food storage and preservation in Latin America, particularly focusing on the impact of climate, infrastructure, and power outages. He explains that while medicines and drugs in the region tend to have long expiration dates due to the presence of pharmaceutical companies, frozen food in small tiendas (local stores) can be compromised due to unreliable power and poor freezer maintenance. Johnny also touches on the issue of power outages, which are common and often result in frozen food thawing and refreezing, leading to the formation of ice crystals and potential spoilage. He advises expats to check for ice buildup on frozen food packages as an indicator of repeated thawing and freezing cycles.
In the fourth segment, Johnny discusses the unique aspects of grocery shopping and water access in Latin America, highlighting differences in dairy products and water supply systems. He explains that powdered milk is common and raw milk is legal, while bottled water is often preferred due to concerns about municipal water quality. He also mentions the use of cisterns to store water and the importance of having backup systems for water supply. Finally, he promotes his expat seminar and course, emphasizing the value of planning and preparation for expats.
In the final segment, Johnny discusses the challenges of accessing reliable water in Latin America, particularly in urban areas where municipal water systems are often inefficient and prone to leaks. He highlights the importance of private solutions like cisterns, wells, and solar hot water heaters, especially for expats living in rented properties. Johnny shares a story about a friend who had a solar hot water heater that stopped working due to neglect and lack of maintenance, emphasizing the need for proactive upkeep. He concludes by advising expats to consider moving into gated communities with private wells or installing solar hot water heaters if renting, as these options provide more consistent water access and can add value to a property.
Topics
Food labeling and expiration dates in Latin America, Cultural and legal differences in food safety practices, Food waste and expiration date regulations, Corruption and legal inefficiencies in Latin America, Import regulations in Latin America, Labeling requirements for imported products, Expiration date manipulation in supermarkets, Food and medicine safety beyond expiration dates, Food storage and preservation in Latin America, Impact of climate and infrastructure on food quality, Power outages and their effect on frozen food, Expiration dates on pharmaceuticals and food products
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:32 Introduction to the topic of expiration dates in Latin America 00:01:20 Discussion of the recent increase in expiration dates and examples of expired food being sold 00:02:41 Contrast between U.S. and Latin American legal approaches to food safety and expiration dates 00:03:43 Example of a corrupt congressman and the inefficiency of the legal system in Latin America 00:04:20 Discussion of the arbitrary nature of expiration dates and examples of long-lasting products 00:05:47 The Cost of Importing Products in Latin America 00:05:58 Government Regulations and Additional Costs 00:06:27 Labeling Requirements and Language Barriers 00:07:16 Expiration Date Manipulation in Supermarkets 00:09:21 Expiration Dates and Food Safety 00:11:33 The Impact of Climate on Food Storage in Latin America 00:11:46 The Role of Climate in Food Preservation Challenges 00:12:19 Power Outages and Their Impact on Food Storage 00:15:48 Checking Frozen Food for Signs of Repeated Thawing 00:17:13 Milk in Latin America 00:18:52 Expatriate Seminar and Planning 00:20:57 Water Supply and Cisterns 00:22:42 The Problem with Municipal Water in Latin America 00:23:49 Solutions: Cisterns and Private Wells 00:25:23 Solar Hot Water Heaters: Pros and Cons 00:26:26 Maintenance and Neglect: The Solar Heater Story 00:27:04 Installing Solar Hot Water Heaters in Rentals
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 Alright now here's something we should talk about. No one talks about this on those expat blogs There's some fishy going on here in Latin America regarding Expiration labels on food products Well, you know almost everyone with a half a brain up in the States is tuned in to the idea that you buy stuff
[00:50] That's got some time left on it. You do trust those printed expiration dates. Don't you? or not We kind of take it for granted that first world people with IQ is greater than that of George Bush do read labels Correct. Whereas here in Latin America the middle class lower middle class as well. They don't read labels at all Not that upper middle class and wealthy Latins read label But at least the ones a little education will check out what they call la fetcha de Viencimento That would be the expiration date I'll tell you only in the past three or four years have those things been popping up regularly Before let's say five years ago. There rarely was an expiration date unless it was an imported product Now there's a lot of funny things going on here in Latin America when it comes to that stuff In fact, and I don't think this would ever go down in the States
[01:38] Costco which is a 100% first world franchise import So you'd think they'd know better but since nobody gets sued down here, I guess they can do what they want to a degree Anyway, Costco would typically put out a couple of pallets right in the aisle Containing foods that had recently expired. They'd be heavily discounted. For example I remember just a couple years ago right after Christmas There was a huge half price sale on Kraft parmesan sprinkle cheese as well as cottage cheese American cheese. Yeah, right. I think it's 2% cheese and 98% plastic and I'm being kind here Then there was some expired yogurt and other dairy products Wait a minute so-called dairy products past their expiration date can't be a good thing, huh? Now I don't know what happens to food up in the States when it's past its expiration date
[02:27] Maybe they donate it to halfway houses or prisons or give it to homeless people I don't know though I kind of doubt it since people are prone to sue at the drop of a hat even if you give it away if someone Got an upset tummy. I'm sure the lawsuits would fly Yep, that's what you get when your government is stacked with shysters reason Two thousand seven hundred and forty six why I'm so glad I'm living here in Latin America Because here when people have a dispute they work it out themselves Because if you file a suit it takes months even years to get to court In fact, I was reading a Latin paper just yesterday and there was an article about a pus bag Deputato that would be a congressman up for trial been stealing big time for years in his case It's just now being heard in court after four years. How'd that happen? His lawyer filed over one
[03:16] hundred amperos Those are postponements and get this during that time that corrupt lard bag SOB By the way, I married SOB with three kids flew back and forth to my jammy with his hot young secretary 11 different times that was while he was awaiting trial and naturally he expensed it to the government Yep those frequent shopping trips to my jammy are a vital part of the job and now his case is coming to trial well Guess what the initial judge has retired Most of the witnesses have moved away and the ones that haven't can't quite remember the facts exactly the lawyers plan Yep, that's why people rarely sue but I digress as usual. Where are we?
[04:01] Oh, yeah Imagine the millions of tons of food that go to waste every year just because they passed their date of Exploration and you know what after checking into this thing and reading a few articles about that very subject First world food quality and sanitation experts They'll tell you they can't be arbitrary and even foods that last practically forever Like honey and coconut oil are required by law to have an expiration date out on them Even though it's pretty moronic For example archeologists have found perfectly good wine and honey in the tombs of the pharaohs I know I know a lot of you gringles and exponents are religious about those expiration dates One day expired and suddenly it's unfit for human consumption Yep My mom's like that won't even give it to the dog and then you've got those gringles and expats down here in Latin America
[04:50] When they come across something that's expired in the pantry they hand it off to the maintenance guy or cleaning lady Might not not be just a touch racist or classist. I know I know it's better to give than receive especially if you won't eat it After all your help will never look a gift horse in the mouth Man, what a saying. Where's George Carlin when you need him? Oh and about food labeling Yep down here in Latin America Every country has now passed food labeling laws, which is really just a way for Latin governments to gougy importers In other words, for example, if you up in Seattle or Cleveland had a food product you wanted to sell Let's say in Honduras first You'd have to get permission from the Honduran Department of Health and Sanitation whose offices I guarantee you are scruffy and unsanitary
[05:36] Themselves then they'll send your food product off to a government authorized lab for analysis Authorized meaning some big-wig in government has a piece of it and those labs I've seen them They're not much better than a kid with a Gilbert chemistry set holed up in his dad's garage And even though your products been approved and it's sold everywhere in the states Latin governments have found a way to put the gouge on Importers by forcing them to have the product analyzed in their country, too If it's a product that's already being sold up in the states, they always rubber stamp it again It's just another government gouge same thing as I mentioned in a past show with architectural plans You could bring down plans that were designed by Americans number one architect And they still have to be completely redrawn by a registered Latin architect
[06:22] It's a way to give the local guy work and the government to pick your pocket Then what they'll do is they'll take your product with its food labeling in English And they'll translate that in Spanish and before you could sell your product in a supermarket Costco Walmart or even local ones Whatever the law states you'll have to have those new labels printed up in Spanish and you'll stick them over the original labels in English So when you buy an imported product, let's say peanut butter It'll be the regular skippy or planters peanut butter jar You're used to that is if you go in for that stuff, you know peanut butter has added sugar Chemicals now, so I make my own. However, if you don't make your own you'll find planters and skippy Exactly in the same jar as you have up in the states except there'll be a nutrition and ingredient label
[07:11] Plastered over the old one in Spanish. Oh and there's another thing that Occasionally happens here in supermarkets in tien does that would certainly get the owners jailed up in the states And I got this info straight from the famous Captain Mango You see he lives in a nice area of a big Latin City and across the street is a mall with pretty good sized No-name supermarket that carries a lot of imported products and not so long ago He mentioned to me that he caught some of the workers there removing or remarking the expiration dates So you might ask yourself how long has that been going on and why don't even do it when the average Latin person doesn't even care Well, that's because Captain Mango Like I said, it's in a very nice kind of high-end area and there's a first-world style business and hotel district nearby
[07:57] So they get their share of people flying in for conventions and business stuff and such and obviously people who can afford to fly into A country will most likely read the labels at least the date of expiration Otherwise a supermarket owner would never even bother I can vouch for that myself because I always look at the labels and many Many times I've been in a store even big supermarket chains and they'll have expired stuff right on the shelf Of course, I'm talking about stores off the gringo tourist trail now And you know if you're talking about on the trail like Costa Rica For example gringos read expiration dates all the time and they'll notice right away And they just won't buy it which brings us back to Captain Mango's comment So how much of that date changing is going on? I bet a lot of it in Costa Rica can't coon in any place else the gringos hang
[08:45] Which begs the question how bad or damaging can it be to eat something? That's ostensibly past its prime well as I started saying before Food and sanitation experts who decide what an expiration date should be sometimes They're arbitrary and for example an expiration date for a food product up in Canada could be quite different for one down in Florida Even if they were packaged boxed or canned the very same day in the very same factory They'll have the same expiration date But where they end up being consumed and stored will have a lot of bearing on how much longer they'll last Past that time by the way prevention magazine. I'm sure you've heard of that They say that the more processed a food is the longer it will last past its expiration date
[09:31] Kind of sad, but it does make sense Huh my favorite example wonder bread now owned by the biggest bakery in the world that's in Mexico called bimbo Alofa that stuff will outlive the pyramids Animals don't like it bacteria don't like it even kookarachas won't eat it And that should tell you something so then what good is an expiration date on wonder bread well as mentioned They have to put some kind of date on it However, I think it would scare some people if they saw that the real expiration date was somewhere in the 23rd century You hear that Elon perfect for the Mars trip, huh these days if a label hasn't have a single expiration date It might have two other dates a sell-by date followed by the date that says best used by a While ago I stumbled on a website
[10:17] I'm sure a lot of preppers check this one out where you plug in the food product that you have and it tells you how Many days weeks months even years the product is good for after its Expiration date and they give you the proper storage guidelines and tips as I remember some of those foods When stored right could last years and years beyond that expiration date And they also talked about how the nutritional value dropped off with time But not immediately good information for preppers But you know there's no need to prep if you live in Latin America, but you knew that already, right? So really it's buyer beware you have to take all that expiration date stuff for the grain of salt Oh, and you know what's the best expiration detector of all your nose?
[11:03] Oh, and I ran into another very interesting website recently I'm sure a lot of preppers look at that one too that site gives you the lowdown on expiration dates for Medicines and drugs another somewhat controversial subject because they all have definite manufacturing and expiration dates on them But never have I seen a label that says best if used before such and such date With medicine too it turns out some of them will last years and years past their expiration date as long as they're in a cool Dry place sure all medicines and drugs lose potency with time But there are websites that will give you charts and information on that timeline But there is a wild card with all food preparation and storage here in Latin America Remember 80% of Latin America is in the tropics and it's damn hot and humid much of the time
[11:51] Unless of course you're in the altiplano and I've noticed dozens of times myself Something that's supposed to be frozen in a supermarket or a tanda is not really frozen solid like it should be Because you see especially in the smaller tandas they use these old rusted out freezers bad seals leaking compressors No maintenance, you know the drill not to mention even under the best of circumstances Power does go out here in Latin America, especially during the rainy season if there is a lot of wind I don't mean it goes out for days, but it goes out for 10 15 minutes an hour sometimes for five hours now I don't want to scare you don't panic For example in my own case in the last year I'd say powers gone out maybe ten times and I know some of you out there thinking that's totally unacceptable
[12:37] Well, here's the thing. I'd say eight of those ten times The power was out for less than three minutes, which when you think about it is tolerable because it comes right back on We're talking about over a period of a year now and the other two times it went out for five or six hours once because during the rainy season a big tree fell on a power pole nearby and The second time because electric company was repairing some lines somewhere So when you hear someone say their power went out ten times in one year You need to hear the rest of the story or you just might panic Now when you get into discussions with local lands about the power company, there is please this punch What well, that's because every year the power is more and more dependable unstable. Why well
[13:22] that's because Latin governments who always had monopolies on power companies and utilities have sold off or partnered up with private electrical distribution companies and Privatizing utilities in general always tends to increase service and dependability though admittedly It's always more expensive than when the government ran it because unlike government They're constantly maintaining upgrading and modernizing the infrastructure But still almost every expat gringo I know who owns his own place has a generator around the house just in case Whereas local Latins who own and operate small tiendas in supermarkets They don't have generators and that's the problem if the power goes out for more than a couple hours The freezers melt down and when it kicks back in things are gonna freeze up again And you get that cycle going for a while. You got problems
[14:09] You'll often see on the frozen stuff a secondary buildup of ice crystals. You know what that means, right? It's been thought to some degree in refrozen who knows how many times? That's why I don't trust a lot of the frozen food in small tiendas now You might be thinking that doesn't make sense Johnny just said the power went off twice in the last year for a couple of hours Any freezer even one with bad seals should be able to maintain its temperature for a couple of hours Well, here's the story you see many of these small tiendas have power outages fairly regularly Sometimes for 12 hours or more Why because there are Latin owners occasionally forget to pay the electric bill either They're short on cash or it's the manana time thing who knows and you know here in Latin America
[14:56] You don't get a cut-off notice They just cut you off and now that private firms have a piece of the power company They're very strict about paying that bill not like the old days when the government used to run it back then Sometimes you could be a half a year behind on your bill and they still wouldn't cut you off So with some people there's still that mentality So these days if they cut you off then you have to go down to the nearest impressive electric That would be electric company office pay up your bill and might take them six to twelve hours to come and hook you back up Over the years have actually been in a few tiendas that were blacked out customers still coming in and out buying stuff Of course just because the power is out people don't stop going in and out of freezers and coolers Meanwhile the people on the rest of the block have power why because they paid their bills
[15:42] All right enough said about that only to say when you buy something from the frozen food department of any store big or small Squeeze the package make sure it's solid all the way through make sure it doesn't have a secondary or even tertiary growth of ice Crystals on the outside the package because that usually signifies it's been thought and re-frozen Who knows how many times not good, but on the bright side I have to say as far as pharmacies and drugs They're very good at having expiration dates way up to the future Maybe that's because Latin America's jam-packed with pharmaceutical companies that make practically all the generics for the world So the stuff's fresh and hot off the presses right in their own backyard even so in all my years down here I've never seen a drug or pharmaceutical product that was sold or meant to be sold with an expired date
[16:31] Which begs the question let a questions being begged here. Why does bottled water have an expiration date? I mean some of the purest water sitting deep in the earth's aquifers is millions of years old That would make that stuff a couple hundred thousand years past its expiration date, right? Well, the answer is in many of your United States for example in New Jersey There's a state law that requires all food products to display an expiration date of two years or less Hmm government overkill again that does explain why coconut oil and honey have expiration dates doesn't it? Alright full disclosure here. You'll never catch me drinking water out of a plastic bottle Oh, and here's something you might want to know when you go into a grocery store You're not gonna find milk ever in a cooler. It's always in one of those little square cartons on the shelf
[17:21] It's been UHT. That's ultra high-temperature to death and Powdered milk is huge down here. They've got whole aisles full of the stuff I rarely eat dairy products myself But just to let you know in case you do and also if you're into whole raw milk Which I understand I'll put you in jail for up in the states There's no laws at all against it. You can get it down here not to mention every neighborhood Well, at least middle class and lower middle class and poor neighborhood has its little goat milk, man If you're on his route, he'll come to your door every day and he'll milk a goat or two right in front of you, man You can't get fresher than that though watching it kind of gives me the willies But down here in Latin America, especially in the lower and middle class neighborhoods It's kind of a tradition and certainly a hundred times better than cow's milk
[18:08] Though cows down here are certainly much less drugged up than ones in the states Yeah, and they get around to and often not where they're supposed to be which is why I have a pellet gun No real damage done, but they do get out of your garden in a hurry So as you might imagine after hearing a lot of the stories on this show most of Latin America Especially off the gringo tourist trail is in kind of a time warp If you were to come down here get some boots on the ground and see it for yourself You'd say man, that's a hell of a good thing. So how do gringos and expats fit into that? How do they get along? How do they make connections doctors lawyers plumbers? Electricians housing insurance. What if you want to start a business? Well, if you want to get on the fast track to do all that and more There's no better way than to come down to my January 2018 expat insider seminar in Guatemala Latin America
[18:59] Yep for six days and nights You'll be drinking from the fire hose with a lot of hand holding by me and my expat insider team And you know since this show is going out on November 26th You got a little less than a week to sign up and still take advantage of those early bird discounts That's a $500 discount per person Then on December 1st, we're back to the regular pricing. So sign up. You absolutely will not regret it Just go to the new expat.com website and click on Johnny's seminar link and while you're there Check out those famous John Gulp pre and post seminar tours They're optional but always recommended especially if you're looking to find the absolute best place to live work planned or do business in my favorite Altiplano region in Latin America and you know a lot of gringos and expats say Johnny
[19:45] What would be your plan C, you know, everybody's got to have a plan B Well, I've got one of course had it a long long time But what if my plan B were to crash and burn what next what would be my plan C? Well, if you take one of those John Gulp trips, you'll know what my plan C would be then What about a plan D if the plan C crashes? Oh, we could keep going with this couldn't we? But it's enough to say everyone needs an insurance policy. That would be your plan B So just go to the new expat.com website Click on Jenny's seminar link and see what it's all about sign up information all details are there plus the itinerary And if you just can't make it down to the seminar get boots on the ground yourself Which you'll eventually have to do, you know You really must take my expat essentials course wondering about your own ducks and how to get them lined up
[20:33] This course is perfect for you. So do check out my nine hour video course at expat plan B comm and as for those One-on-one phone or Skype consults with me, you know, you get a free one if you sign up for the expat insider seminar Otherwise just go to the new expat comm website click on the phone consult link and download my questionnaire It's free and it will help you sort things out. All right moving on I was talking about bottled water before water is a big question on the minds of so many people down here in Latin America Especially since all the lakes and rivers are polluted. Aren't they everywhere? You've heard me say many times It's not a good idea to be on city water or municipal water Not if you can help it for a lot of reasons mostly because it's only on part-time that should be reason enough
[21:21] You see there's very few municipal water supplies in Latin America that give you service 24-7 and the cities and towns that once did and used to brag about it aren't bragging so much anymore Like many places in Costa Rica, for example And when I hear tourists and fresh green gringo say but Johnny the water pressure is excellent where I am at my hotel Whatever and it's got to be municipal water. Well, yeah, because down here when you have a decent business you want to have water 24-7 so you buy a cistern generally on the roof that slowly fills up with water when there is decent water pressure And then when there is no water pressure flow There's a sensor that kicks in an auxiliary pump that immediately starts pulling water from this cistern without skipping a beat So it appears there's never a loss of flow and pressure a lot of gringos and expats are fooled by that
[22:10] So picture this you've got a big plastic cistern on the roof holds maybe 250 gallons and let's say for example, you got water pressure eight hours a day Well, you're not using it all the time during that eight hours. Nobody does Meanwhile, your cistern has one of those floats in it like a toilet tank. It always wants to be topped off So during that eight hours that you have water it fills until it's topped off Then the float closes the intake valve and the cisterns ready to feed water into your system when the municipal water shuts off Hope that explains it because a lot of people said Johnny if I have a cistern on the roof, how does that help me? How does that get filled? Well, just explained it to you so really that's the only alternative you have and you live in a densely populated area or a city because then you're
[22:56] Certainly gonna be on municipal water or as you know, or maybe you don't studies here in Latin America Show that half of all the municipal water is wasted Before it ever gets to your faucet due to cracks and leaks in old piping under the city Which is why sometimes when you're driving around you'll see wet patches here and there It's just a slow leak in a water pipe. That's close to the surface again And it's all about the fact that whatever government does they fuck up. They can't do anything, right? They can never do anything right except waste time and manpower and pick your pocket Sound familiar now the permanent solution to not being on municipal water is to live in a gated garter community because they almost always have their own private well or if you homestead or live out in the boonies and have a decent sized lot you can
[23:46] Dig your own well and always have water in any case You can supplement your water in a big way by just diverting rainwater off your roof into a cistern But if you're renting it's not your property and if your landlord doesn't live on the premises He's probably not gonna go for it It's gonna cost a few bucks to do that not much But any extra cost for a landlord down here in Latin America is usually out of the question Unless you kick in the dough which brings me to an email from gringo I know living here in Latin America talking about his own water problem because he's on municipal water now listen to this He says Don Johnny as much as I like my furnished apartment the one I'm renting and the husband and wife landlord team that administers it I'm growing tired of the intermittent water problems You see for about half of the last year water keeps shutting off and turning on shutting off and turning on
[24:32] I believe something in the municipal plumbing system is broken Occasionally no water is available to my village or the one across the street from me And yes, I do have a water tower cistern here now for me if the water would just last eight straight days But the water flows pitifully slow when I'm taking a shower outside of that I guess it's okay as far as hot water I was letting the water run until it warmed up, but since this water problem occurred I thought I better get used to taking cold showers And then he says if someone has an apartment or house to rent that happens to be furnished had a solar hot water heater And a more consistent flow of water. I really would consider moving however something like that might not be available So this may be the best I can get for a while
[25:19] Any ideas Johnny signed Edgar well Eddie Let me flee in on the solar hot water situation here to lots of little solar hot water units popping up everywhere You can see them on the roofs always of course in higher-end neighborhoods They're the only ones I can afford that kind of stuff even though they are very cheap In fact one gringle friend of mine who rents in a nice gated garter community He has a solar hot water heater was there when he moved in was working fine for the first year and a half Then he phoned up and said Johnny. I don't get it not getting any heat out of this thing anymore So being a nice guy sometimes I popped over there got up on the roof No real fear because most roofs in Latin America are either flat or nearly flat And I checked the unit no leaks or anything except it was so completely covered with dust pollen spider webs and grunge
[26:08] That there was very little solar energy getting into the tubes and heat in the water So I told my friend to get a hose a big bucket some laundry soap and a long bristle broom And it took about five minutes to clean those long sleek black tubes Surprise surprise and two or three hours he took a shower, and it was so hot He couldn't take it the moral of that story Latin American manana time maintenance strikes again So yes Edgar you can find furnished places with solar hot water heaters I know a few gringos living in such places however the real answer for you is to move into a gated guarded community that has its own well almost all of them do then you'll have a nice powerful stream of water 24-7 and As far as solar water heaters yes, they're popping up everywhere But I'd say 95% of them are for the owners of private residences not for rentals though like that story
[26:58] I just told they are out there So bottom line you rent a place in a gated guarded community and if it doesn't have a solar hot water heater If it's just you or two people you can get a small one cost you maybe six or seven hundred bucks complete The landlord won't mind in fact it'll add value to the property But make sure you write up a little contract with a landlord that says if you leave He's got the option to buy the unit from you leave it up there or you can Disassemble it and take it with you after all you bought the thing and by the way those things are extremely easy to Disassemble and move would take two guys all of a half hour This is the expect files living in Latin America if you want me to help you out with your own plan B Just schedule a one-on-one consult send me an email the expat files at gmail.com
[27:45] And if you want to learn how to move forward with your own plan B from right up there in the states go to www.expatplanb.com and check out my three videos. See ya nos vemos