Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller shares his experiences and insights on navigating the challenges of expat life in Latin America. He begins by discussing the difficulties of driving in the region, highlighting the common issue of being pulled over by corrupt police officers, especially if you're driving a car with foreign plates. Johnny shares a personal experience of being pulled over near Cancun, where he was driving a car with Costa Rican plates, and explains that while some cops may be uncorruptible, the majority are involved in bribery. He also talks about the chaotic road systems and how they can lead to expats accidentally driving the wrong way on one-way streets, especially at night. He emphasizes that expats should be prepared for these situations and that the likelihood of being caught depends on whether they're on the tourist trail or not.
Johnny then discusses the common issue of police extortion targeting tourists, particularly in Costa Rica. He explains that tourists, especially gringos, often avoid trouble because local cops rarely speak English and may not understand the nuances of tourist behavior. He shares an email from David about a recent case where two Canadian tourists were extorted by Costa Rican police for not carrying their passports, with the officers demanding a $600 bribe. Johnny highlights that while such incidents are common in tourist areas, off the tourist trail, the situation is less severe. He also shares a personal anecdote about being stopped by police in Lima, Peru, where he was asked for his passport and eventually paid a small fine. Johnny concludes by emphasizing that tourists should not carry their original passports and should be aware of the risks of being targeted by corrupt officers.
In the next segment, Johnny discusses practical travel tips for expats, emphasizing the importance of carrying a photocopy and a secure flash drive with a scan of one's passport. He warns against carrying the original passport and highlights the risks of losing it, especially in public places like hotels. He also shares personal anecdotes about forgetting his own USB drives and the consequences of such negligence. The segment transitions into a critique of Lima, Peru, where Johnny expresses his dislike for the city's dry climate, expensive living costs, and the pervasive smell of human urine due to the lack of vegetation and poor sanitation. He then shifts focus to Costa Rica, where he discusses the impact of US dollar contamination on the local economy and the frequent strikes by labor unions, citing a recent example of an 86-day national strike in 2018 and ongoing issues with the national health care system.
Johnny then discusses the effects of 'gringoization' on Latin American countries, highlighting how the influx of U.S. dollars leads to various economic and social changes. He notes that strikes in public sectors, such as those involving teachers and government workers, rarely affect expats and gringos, as they often work in private institutions like helicopter schools. He then shifts to a news update about Brazil's nuclear submarine program, expressing skepticism about the country's readiness for such a move given its current infrastructure challenges. The segment concludes with Johnny discussing the benefits of bilingualism, citing studies that show bilingual individuals experience delayed cognitive decline and are more financially responsible. He also touches on the challenges expats face with banking in Latin America, advising them to avoid automatic deductions and use banks primarily for essential transactions.
Finally, Johnny discusses the challenges of dealing with Latin American banks, emphasizing that despite their impressive appearances and marketing, they often have technical glitches and inefficiencies. He advises expats to be cautious and to handle their banking transactions carefully, especially with wire transfers. He also mentions the importance of having some basic Spanish skills and being prepared for potential delays and bureaucratic hurdles when dealing with banks. Additionally, he touches on the topic of security in banks, noting that while bank robberies are rare, expats should be cautious about their surroundings, especially in less desirable neighborhoods. The episode concludes with a promotion for his expat seminars and courses.
Topics
Expat experiences in Latin America, Corruption and police interactions, Driving challenges in Latin America, Road signage and traffic direction issues, Police extortion, Tourist experiences, Costa Rica, Lima, Peru, Passport requirements, Travel tips for expats, Lima, Peru, Costa Rica's labor strikes
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:36 The Issue of Police Corruption in Latin America 00:01:14 Personal Experience with Being Pulled Over 00:02:47 Hassling of Expats with Foreign Plates 00:03:57 Driving Challenges and Road Signage Issues 00:05:47 The Gringo Advantage in Police Encounters 00:06:28 Costa Rica Police Extortion Scandal 00:09:23 Tourism as a Major Industry in Costa Rica 00:11:49 Travel Tips for Expats: Passport Security 00:13:05 Lima, Peru: A City of Negatives 00:15:45 Costa Rica's Labor Strikes and Economic Issues 00:17:35 Gringoization and Its Effects on Latin America 00:18:23 Brazil's Nuclear Submarine Program 00:19:20 Benefits of Bilingualism 00:22:19 Challenges Expats Face with Banking in Latin America 00:23:25 The Glitches of Latin American Banks 00:24:21 Wire Transfer Issues and Solutions 00:27:21 Promotion for Expat Seminars and Courses
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 out to play and now as 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 All right, let's hit on some expat gringo gonna be and wannabe topics Yeah, I won't hear anywhere else this one concerning how much Latin cops will mess with you Well, let me first say you can expect they'll be messing with you all the time if you're on the tourist trail
[00:47] And by the way, if and when you get hit up for a bribe, you never have to pay what they're asking Everything is the coachable here in Latin America including bribing the cops and here's something you really have to know if you're driving here in Latin America now some people will drive their car or truck down through Mexico down to Guatemala Honduras Costa Rica Whatever just know that because you'll have US plates when you're in a Latin country You are a target to get pulled over and extorted by the cops I've seen it myself. In fact, I remember one time I got pulled over near Cancun It was one of those, you know roadside stops with a flagging you down and you have to stop or you kind of have to stop Anyway, gringos will because we're conditioned if we don't bad things will happen But Latin this sometimes just won't stop to go right on by oh and just remember cops don't have gasoline for high-speed chases
[01:37] So don't expect if you fly on by they're gonna come barreling down on you I've never seen that happen yet If there's a big group of cops flagging you down normally They won't hit you for a bribe because there's just too many cops there and there may be one or two in the bunch That are uncorruptible mostly those will be the women It's hit or miss though. If one or two won't play ball with the corruption thing the rest will back off Anyway, when there's a whole organized row of cops pulling you over They're more or less in the public eye and there are too many people with smartphone cameras that might catch them in the act But when you get pulled over by one or two cops, especially on a side road, then they usually have a plan going anyway I got pulled over Between Cancun and Playa del Carmen that time I was driving a car with Costa Rican plates on it
[02:25] And I noticed all the other cars they were pulling over had non Mexican plates So they let their countrymen go because well It's not good PR to extort your neighbors or people playing in your own sandbox And of course tourists and foreigners are out of their element. So they're easy pickings Anyway, just know in whatever Latin country if you're driving a car that doesn't have that country's plate on it You're gonna get hassled. Oh and if and when you do get hassled if you're off the gringo tourist trail It's never for a big amount of money unless you've done something really stupid like go the wrong way down to one way And there's a cop right there in front of you Which isn't likely and you know going the wrong way down a one way is par for the course The locals but if a gringo or foreigner does it especially if you're driving a car with a non-local plate if you're in the wrong
[03:13] Place at the wrong time being there's a cop right there. You're gonna get nailed though I do remember this might have happened to you up in the states if you're going the wrong way down a one-way street It's happened to all of us. Well in about five seconds. It's an old Moment, there's a true adrenaline rush as you frantically look for a driveway to make a Yui and hopefully no one's barreling down on you Well, if you're down here in Latin America long enough whether you're driving or you're a passenger in a car That's gonna happen to you You're gonna catch yourself going the wrong way because the roads are so badly and haphazardly marked That means oftentimes the only way you know you're going the wrong way That is against the traffic is when you see up ahead no taillights and at night only headlights And it is much more likely to happen at night because during the day the traffic is so heavy in the cities
[04:03] Anyway, you go with the flow you can't help it because there's no other way to go and at night when there's little or no traffic And the roads are wide open spaces that you're just not used to like I said the signage is incomplete sometimes Non-existent so you can't easily end up going down the road ass backwards Where's yet those idiot syphilitic brain traffic engineers if that's what you want to call them are always Messing around with the direction of the traffic because especially in the larger cities traffic congestion is a chaotic nightmare And there's always some governmental fart-brained idiot making permanent even temporary Directional changes on various streets believe me it always makes things worse Especially if you're used to driving down certain roads and suddenly you turn and you realize something's wrong here
[04:50] And that's why so many times I've been in a car with a gringo, and he'll say hey is this right Are you sure this is not a one-way in the wrong direction because you see in Latin America They paint a lot of arrows on streets for the direction. You should be going but note those maggot-brained road engineers Will flip things around they'll change the signs, but they'll leave the painted arrows there on the street I've seen street signs contradict road arrows many times, but this is Latin America, and they'll get to it eventually Sometimes in weeks months or never Depends on the reported frequency of collisions since the idiot street engineers made the change Which is why I usually have a pretty good argument if you get pulled over up by a cop because you're going the wrong Way down a one-way. It's pretty easy to prove. There are no nearby road signs to that effect
[05:40] However, if it happens on the gringo tourist trail, it probably won't matter road signs or not. They'll nail you for a bribe However, if you're off the gringo tourist trail got about a 95% chance the cop doesn't speak English so you'll get off the hook simply because the cops rarely get a chance to talk to gringos That's the gringo advantage more than likely. He'll just shake his head point Which way you should be going and use that most common phrase all Latinas and Latinos off the gringo tourist trail Seem to know by heart nice to meet you and he'll shake your hand which brings us to this email from David I'm that very subject. He says Johnny been a while. Hope you're doing well still a big fan of your show still there Anyway, he says I thought you might be interested in this if you haven't seen it already from what I hear
[06:28] This scam is pretty common, especially in Costa Rica. Nice to hear they finally arrested a few of these cops Then he sent this link titled the article police in Costa Rica arrested in brazen extortion plot targeting Canadian tourists Hmm, probably because they're such nice guys and they'll open their wallets faster than u.s It says cops near tourist beach resorts in Costa Rica are accused of shaking down Canadians for bribe money to avoid bogus charges for not carrying their passports with them Then it goes on to tell this story about two Canadian visitors a married couple Traveling near Belen Costa Rica in the northwest region of the country on November 14th They were stopped at a police checkpoint 30 kilometers from the area's resorts about
[07:15] 250 kilometers from the capital San Jose there They were stopped by two officers with the force of publica a civilian police agency Responsible for the majority of street policing in the country. They asked the Canadians to show them their passports The Canadians said they weren't carrying them and didn't think they really had to With that the officers replied not carrying your official passport in Costa Rica was a crime subject to a fine However, there's always a however, you know, this is Latin America They said to prevent arrest and detention they could pay a fine of 600 US dollars to them on the spot The tourist Canadians told the officers they did not have that amount of money on them at the time Then the two officers offered to drive them in the police car to Philadelphia. That's with an F
[08:05] The area's main city around 10 kilometers away. Yep. They'd give them a lift to the nearest ATM machine How nice of them, huh? Anyway, so they went withdrew the cash and gave it to the cops But the real facts are this according to the OIJ that would be the Costa Rican kind of sort of analog to the FBI In Costa Rica, it is not necessary to carry a passport Anyway after the incident the Canadians feeling aggrieved told a local tour guide what happened And he said that was simply a bribe and they should file a complaint against the officers Well, the two male officers aged 48 31 were then picked up and charged with extortion Which means after they're processed and kicked out, they'll probably run for Congress. Haha. Don't laugh
[08:52] All right. Thanks for that Dave a couple of comments here asking for a $600 bribe is very very common in Costa Rica In fact, some of their smaller traffic violations will cost you 500 Typical and you know as One friend of mine a longtime resident of Costa Rica said the number one industry in Costa Rica is tourism number two Finding tourists for traffic violations and number three police extortion. Oh, and if you're interested number four sex tourism That means the top four money makers in Costa Rica are directly attributable to gringo tourists. Not kidding Meanwhile off the gringo tourist trail You might get hit up by the cops for the occasional bribe but nothing like 600 bucks
[09:38] In fact last time the cops tried to shake me down was in Lima Peru was walking down the street in a decent area It was around 10 at night. There were three beat cops ahead walking towards me and they stopped me and said hey Let's see your ID. I said okay, but why I'm just a tourist staying at a hotel a couple blocks away They said oh you have to be careful. This is the casino district At night lots of foreigners are walking in and out of casinos I've had too much to drink and I get mugged and in the moment. I thought yeah, these guys are looking for a bribe So let's see how much it is and whether it's worth paying So I reached into my pouch and did pull out a copy of my passport then one guy said where's the original? I said in the hotel. He said well, that's against the law. You have to carry your passport
[10:24] Now, let me point out right here that my first mistake was that I spoke to these guys in Spanish If I'd have just played stupid gringo and hit him with English the whole time They probably would have let me just walk on by because you know very few locals in Lima, Peru Including the cops speak English the ones that do speak it are in and around Machu Picchu You know the gringo tourist site 40 minutes to an hour by air from Lima Anyway, when they told me it was against the law not to have your passport on you I didn't want to argue with them. Not yet. Anyway, I just said how much is the fine something like 75 soles around 20 bucks Anyway, you can see right there. 20 bucks is a far cry from 600 and that's when I got in their face
[11:09] I said, you know, the US State Department has a website that says you never have to carry your original passport around Just carry a copy but they weren't buying that it was three against one Then they said if I don't pay up, they're gonna take me down to the police station. I said, okay, let's go Then get this they looked at each other a little pregnant pause there and one of them said, all right We'll let you go this time, but do carry your passport This is our beat and we'll be watching now you longtime listeners Probably remember me telling a similar story about six months or so ago Same thing happened to me in Panama this time It was two cops on a motorcycle and that time I didn't even have a copy of my passport on me So I gave the 20 bucks and was 20 bucks could have been 10 can't remember. Anyway, that's one very important thing
[11:56] You should know you don't have to carry your original passport. In fact, I don't recommend it Always carry a nice photocopy and a little flash drive with a good scan of your passport And the to a force comes to worse You can shove that into any computer USB slot and pull it up on the screen or print it out Of course, you should always have that little USB stick Encrypt it case someone steals it you lose it or as a lot of clueless Gringos do they go into a cafe internet or someplace that's got a computer station in a hotel and they forget to take it out Of the computers USB slot. I'd say in the last couple years I've collected three or four various little USB drives when I've gone to use a hotel computer in the business area myself That happened to you yet. I have to admit I've done it myself though
[12:44] Luckily, I've never been more than a few blocks away when the panic hits man. That's an adrenaline rush, huh? That's why you should always have that little spare flash drive with your ID documents and such on it Encrypted that way if you do forget it someone gets a hold of it like me when I get home and stick it in My own computer cuz I'm nosy. There's no way for me to get at your files Alright back to Costa Rica in a second, but let me tell you a little bit about Lima, Peru That place man, I'd never want to live there. It's huge has at least 10 million people That means terrible traffic problems. And here's something else. I don't like about it It's on the ocean, but it's surrounded by desert meaning the place is super dry very little rainfall So you've got none of that really nice lush sort of subtropical
[13:30] Vegetation so no matter where you go in that city. It's an asphalt and concrete jungle in a word ugly The only place you see any kind of trees and vegetation is in parks government parks and even if you walk through one of those and you kick around in the dirt for a while you'll hit sand and I found the apartment rentals down there about twice as expensive as they are in big cities in Central America So what you get for six hundred bucks a month in Lima, Peru You can get for 300 and pretty much any other big city in Latin America That's off the tourist trail and Lima itself's not really on the tourist trail people fly in to go to Machu Picchu and stuff But then they got to take another flight out a kind of a small jet hopper, which takes around 40 minutes to an hour and Food and Liam even that the big markets is much more expensive than in Central America
[14:20] I'm sure it's because again, it's very dry and they got that desert surrounding them So they have to truck everything in from afar and as to where they get their freshwater for 10 million people who knows? It's a desert that doesn't bode well for the future I'll tell you because as opposed to the rest of Latin America where the rainy season is so heavy You can collect as much water as you need forever There's none of that in Lima Peru, but here's the part I dislike the most about Lima Peru because it's an asphalt jungle and they've got very little Vegetation and just some public parks when you walk out of your hotel or apartment in the morning You'll see people walking their dogs and such and those dogs do their thing in man. Even in the nicest neighborhoods It stinks like urine the dogs have nowhere else to do it except on cement
[15:06] It doesn't penetrate and seep downward like it would with regular earth and because Lima gets very little rainfall There's no dilution or washing effect that you get other Latin countries with heavy rainy seasons Worse yet, they've got a lot of poor Indigenous types in Lima Peru and like most Latin males do especially in the underclasses They see the world as their urinal and I'll tell you there's no place in Latin America where I've gotten so many whiffs of Human urine in fact, I'd get knocked over by the stink every time I took a morning walk even in the nicer neighborhoods Nope, Lima Peru from me too many negatives, but back to Costa Rica Here's a good time to give you another very good reason why I'll never recommend living in Costa Rica Now you might remember I mentioned I'd live there for two and a half years a long long time ago
[15:56] And I got out while the going was good. Here's what you didn't know There's so much US dollar contamination because their number one industry is tourism that the locals work in regular jobs and especially Government jobs go on strike like crazy because they see such a discrepancy and the money people in the tourism Industry make versus people work in regular jobs and useless government jobs Everyone wants to make more money, but when you're a highly unionized country like Costa Rica It's easy to rattle the natives and get them to go on strike For example, did you know and I'm sure you didn't that in September of 2018? Costa Rica's labor unions called a national strike and it lasted 86 days that included government workers teachers and
[16:44] National health care doctors nurses and hospital staff now for all you gringos and expats living in Costa Rica who say they're public National health care systems not a total disaster and in fact, it's not that bad Except for the long waits and long lines, but you can buy your way to the front of the line Just pay a professional line standard. Yeah, that's a career down here But here's what you didn't know that in September and October of this year The numbers are in now from the national health system that during that month or so they were out on strike a hundred and eleven thousand doctors appointments were canceled and The strike caused the suspension and or postponement of three thousand five hundred and two Surgeries and the point of me telling you all this Well want to point out that the Costa Ricans will go on strike at the drop of a hat and it's all due to the
[17:35] Secondary effects of the gringo ization of the country and the flood of US dollar I could go into more examples and much more detail about it But you've heard enough now, of course all Latin countries have their unions and they do go on strike But in other countries where tourism is not king strikes almost never affect gringos and expats even when teachers go on strike the gringos working at those Helicopter schools aren't affected because helicopter schools are private We're talking about public teachers that go on strike and when government workers go on strike Well, who gives a damn about that? Let them go on strike That stuff rarely affects gringos and expats except to add a little more confusion in the streets regarding transportation and More typical delays in paperwork if you're waiting to get something processed
[18:23] Meanwhile more bad news out of Brazil, man. This is hard to believe Here's an article entitled Brazil takes the first step in program to join the nuclear powered submarine club Say what is this real in a country where three quarters of the cities don't have sewage treatment plants They're gonna fool around with nuclear subs now Says here on Friday Brazil launched the first of five attack submarines built with French Technology in a nine billion dollar program while the first four subs in the group are conventional subs The fifth will place Brazil in the club of only six nations with nuclear powered subs the US Russia France UK China and India. Oh, yeah, right Brazil really needs attack subs
[19:09] Who are they gonna attack and you know everyone in a nuclear sub club have nuclear bombs, too Excellent news for Brazil, huh? Won't be going there anytime soon. All right changing gears Here's something good to know in the last couple shows I was talking about having a job down here in Latin America online Teaching English to Chinese school kids with that there have been some recent studies concerning people who can speak two languages Bilingual people could that be you would be an excellent goal to achieve It says most importantly it's been found that people who learn a second language Even an adulthood can better avoid cognitive decline in old age Well, we knew that already but it says when everything else is controlled for bilingual people with dementia and or Alzheimer's are
[19:56] Afflicted generally four and a half years later than monolingual people It says in this article there have been many studies to support this one such study Dr Thomas Beck a lecturer in the philosophy psychology and language sciences department at University of Edinburgh Found that the level of education and intelligence mattered less than learning a second language when it comes to delaying cognitive decline or Alzheimer's and who knew this it says those who are bilingual or speak multiple languages also have been shown to be more self-aware spenders viewing what's called hypothetical and What's called real money that would be the perceived differences between money on a credit card Which is hypothetical money and money in cold hard cash. It says here
[20:44] Bilingual people are more astute spenders than monolinguals In other words bilinguals rack up less credit card debt than monolinguals And if you think it's maybe about being more astute smarter higher IQ when you're bilingual think again We all know someone or a lot of people that would be friends relatives, etc Who in all other aspects are smart astute and successful yet? They too are often saddled with loads of credit card debt much less So according to this article than bilingual and multilingual people Never heard that one before but it is interesting And finally it says speaking more than one language means you'll have access to all kinds of new words, too
[21:30] so The next time you need to let's say call your boyfriend girlfriend boss sister, whatever Or the next time someone cuts you off and you say fuck that guy on the motorcycle You can instantly switch languages and have the full intent and feeling of your outrage But not piss anyone off or start a fight The worst that can happen is you'll just look a little foolish blowing off steam in front of people in another language By the way, I've been there. In fact, you know when I was a kid I used to see that all the time had a lot of Italian buddies whose parents came from the old country, man Could they blow off steam in Italian? I don't know what the hell they were talking about Except the buff on goo stuff and finally let's talk a bit about gringos doing banking here in Latin America and problems
[22:19] That could arise in fact I can't tell you how many gringos I run into and gringos who sent me emails saying Johnny. I can't get this banking thing It's crazy, especially off the trail when everything's in Spanish They say I've got my account my passbook my debit cards even online access But I'm having so much trouble doing the simplest of things Luckily, by the way, even if you're well off the gringo tourist trail There's always someone at one of the bigger branches of your bank. Anyway, that speaks English Here's the problem. Let me make this perfectly clear every gringo tries to use his Latin bank like he uses his up in the States That's a mistake and as for me I only use my bank to do wire transfers in and out deposit cash withdrawal cash at an ATM or whatever
[23:05] But I don't use it for automatic deductions. In other words I don't pay my internet bill or utility services or any recurrent monthly bill through automatic deductions for my bank account. Oh Yeah, your Latin banks let you do that. All right millions of people do but man if you don't speak Spanish I wouldn't recommend complicating things Believe me, I know Latin banks and as for even the better ones 20-story monuments with glitzy facades They still occasionally fumble the ball I say go ahead check your account on the internet But I wouldn't make it too complicated and I do know many gringos who have their internet utility and other bills paid online Through their Latin banks, of course and every last one of them reports some kind of glitch I don't mean losing your money, but could be bills not getting paid or you get locked out of your account
[23:51] So just do the easy and simple things with your Latin bank account Then little can go wrong and if it does you can fix it even with your crap Spanish You know, this is Latin American if there's any kind of hitch or glitch at all You're for sure gonna waste a half a day screwing around in the bank trying to get it fixed So again, don't get fooled by how nice your bank building looks or how many glitzy ads or promotions You see on billboards or on TV or even pop up windows on your computers. Yeah, you'll get those too They all suffer the same stupid problems. I hear complaints about them all the time. That's for wire transfers They're straightforward enough and easy to do but only once you get the very first one Accomplished then it's plug-and-play It almost never fails the very first wire transfer you receive or try to do will probably not work for some stupid reason like you
[24:43] Didn't have the phone number of the beneficiary or the phone of their bank or the address of their bank Truly moronic things like that will hold up a wire transfer Problem is sometimes you won't get notified for a couple of days because you know wire transfers Take a few days even though they've got your money immediately. There's something really wrong with that long-lived crypto, huh? Alright, here's a tip for wire transfers Take all the information write it out long hand on paper in big bold letters like a fourth grader and hand it to the bank Person no Spanish necessary You should always try to go to the same one or two persons For all of your stuff that they'll get to know you and you'll get preferential treatment And if you're off the tourist trail, you'll usually get preferential treatment anyway, but even though you have your gringo advantage
[25:29] You'll play the waiting game That's just the way it is meaning you make it cuts to the front of the line and no one will really care I've even had a bank teller or two open a side door for me and usher me into a little room Give me coffee cookies what they call the VE pay treatment VIP But still even if you get preferential treatment and everything they do will take time In fact more than once I've been to the front of the line and a lady just closed up and went to lunch Then what well you grab another number if they're doing the number thing and you get into another maze of a line That's why I always recommend when you go to a bank bring some reading material audiobook or something But beware the rental cop will come over and tell you to remove your earbuds and your baseball cap By the way for all you more casual dudes and doodesses
[26:15] That's when knowing some Spanish comes in handy because often I'll screw with the rental cop I'll say something like, you know, it's a good thing You're on the job and checking because hat bombs are all the rage these days. Of course, they don't get it Oh and by the way when they tell me to remove my earbuds I do though when they walk away, I put them back in funny thing most of the time they notice that but they don't Come over and tell you to take them out again. Go figure, huh? So then why do you think they tell you to remove your earbuds because you know, there's always a chance of a sophisticated High-tech heist being coordinated by a slick group of operators on their own earbud channel, right? Yep. That's a big problem The truth is in the last few years anyway, there have practically been no stick-ups inside of banks They stood all the time before smart phones and cheap cameras came around but these days it's not the banks that get robbed
[27:06] It's people not paying attention who are walking out with their cash and that kind of stuff happens almost Exclusively with bank branches in crap neighborhoods Not the ones that sprinkles and expats hang out and live in but you knew that already Alright final plug here. You can still sign up for my January 2019 expat insider seminar Just go to www.thenewexpat.com But bring a raincoat because you will be drinking from the fire hose You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B, you can schedule a one-on-one phone call with me But first download my free plan B questionnaire at www.thenewexpat.com Better yet if you want to get your plan B going from right up there in the States Just sign up for my 9-hour expat essentials course
[27:54] Get the perfect plan B blueprint by going to the expatfinals.com slash academy