#874 – The Expat Files: Power Outages, Water, and Cultural Challenges in Latin America

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 ex-pat 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 Hey now here's a first after doing 800-and-something shows this is the first time I've ever broadcasted during a power outage a big one, too Now normally the power grids are pretty good here in Latin America since they privatize so many of them only the ones that aren't

[00:47] Privatized are crap like in Costa Rica, Venezuela Cuba, you know the usual suspects That's what always happens when you've got the utilities run by fat lard ass bureaucrats Who don't give a damn if the service sucks cuz they can never get fired Anyway, a good three-fourths of Latin countries have private or private partnership utility companies that are pretty damn good these days So power outages for no apparent reason are rare except again when the government owns the power utilities I remember when I was first in Costa Rica Every few days at five in the afternoon the power would go off for a couple of hours like cockwork Oops, did I really say that I met clockwork, you know, sometimes my brain locks up I get Freudian slips when talking about government Anyway in more than three-quarters of Latin countries the power grids are pretty damn good now

[01:34] But you know after a storm especially when a big one rips through and they've got some doozies down here Oftentimes power will go out for 20 minutes half hour an hour two hours And if a transformer is gone down or a tree fell across the power pole could take well as long as it takes so anyway a few hours ago a big storm ripped through have had no power for around three hours and Unfortunately, I'm not in my usual place of residence where I've got solar power and I'm all set up for these kind of things So today I'm in a rental in a residential tower Of course most decent residential towers have a backup generator You know one of those big ones like they have in the hospital diesel job and those things You know kick in within 30 seconds of a power outage and you're all set and up and running again That's what a backup generators for and that's what happens

[02:22] Normally in this case in the place that I'm at now the generator did not kick in and it's a brand new one, too Can you guess why maybe you can you know, we could chalk it up to the old standby This is Latin America, you know, but the maintenance guy Wait a minute. Talk about oxymorons, huh? The Latino maintenance guy there's one for you Well the maintenance guy neglected to maintain the fluid levels in the battery. So it was dead You know, those big diesel generators are like a diesel truck motor. They have battery starters So there's another idiot move we could chalk up to a so-called maintenance guy Although that's slightly more forgivable if you consider what happened last time the generator didn't kick in it was because well The maintenance guy neglected to check the level of the diesel fuel tank a genius move

[03:11] Yep power went out the generator tried automatically to kick in and just wouldn't fire up no fuel So that's what you're up against here in Latin America Even though you see so many places these days that seem completely first world Shopping malls subdivisions residential towers hotels first world franchises business offices when you look at them You can tell they're absolutely built to first world standards But you can't put first world standards into the maintenance guys who in almost all cases live in a skanky part of town They got municipal water, which is only on a couple hours a day. So they're used to that inconvenience It's not an inconvenience for them besides that they've got no backup generators. No AC Sometimes their windows don't even have glass in them and definitely no car though

[03:58] They may have a beat-up 90 CC rice burner, but that's about it Oh, and did you know that the chances are you're cleaning lady and maintenance guy never buy so-called bottled pure water They drink right from the tap. Why because for them it's an unnecessary expense So then you might ask today or their kids sometimes get stomach disorders damn straight In fact the CEO of a company who makes water filters told me that's the number one reason Latin American kids miss school Speaking of water if the power goes out in your subdivision or in your residential tower There goes your water pressure Why because cisterns operate with electric pumps, of course, you know You're building a project will need a cistern because if you're on municipal water That means you're living in the city, of course in reality

[04:43] You won't have water 24 7 though It will seem like you do because your water will always come flowing out of the tap Because you see when city water is not flowing the water is flowing out of the sister and that's either on your roof or under Your garage slab now these cisterns have a float in them Like your toilet tank has a float So that float will open a valve to allow the cistern to fill up while the municipal water is flowing, of course Then however many hours a day your municipal water is off your cistern supplying the water and you won't even know because the transition Is seamless, but believe me you'll get pissed off rather quickly when there's a power outage Because after a few minutes or depending on which floor you live on in a residential tower Your tap water will peter out down to nothing now everything I've been talking about since the beginning of this show would be a completely no concern to you if you had a solar-powered electric backup or a

[05:35] Compact gas or diesel generator for yourself And that's why I spent a couple of shows talking about having a portable backup solar electric power supply I'm talking about at minimum a portable one just in case there's a grid down like I'm having right now That's why you've heard me say so many times before You have to have for one a gas stove not electric And if you don't have a solar hot water heater a gas hot water heater and a gas dryer And if you've got the dough you can even get one of those gas refrigerator freezers. Yep They've got refrigerators and freezers that run on propane gas and natural gas too. They're interchangeable That's how refrigerator freezers work in RVs By the way, that way if there's any kind of grid down you won't care a bit because you'll have a tank or two

[06:20] I always recommend hundred pound tanks of propane gas Two is better and that's all you'll need because two if you're easy on them and conserve a little bit could and will last a family of Four anywhere from a half a year to an entire year That is you'll be able to run the dryer cook your food eat your water, etc Etc for an entire year without electricity, of course if you got a gas dryer It'll have a motor that'll take some current to spin the drum So you'll need an electric power source just a small portable solar electric generator You know solar panels and a little all-in-one lithium battery controller outfit We'll handle all your electric needs in a power outage except for air conditioning For that a portable system won't do you'll need a bigger system or a dedicated solar air conditioning system

[07:06] That's something that didn't even exist two or three years ago Now suppose you were renting in one of those hot beachfront tropical climates and your air conditioning bill Was killing you. Oh and by the way, if you're in a residential tower and there's a power outage And you're in a very hot tropical climate there goes the air conditioning and man you're gonna suffer anyway these days You can buy a complete package solar air conditioner unit Most of it looks exactly like your standard air conditioning unit you see in towers and apartment buildings with a nice sleek little quiet horizontal unit Close to the ceiling somewhere in the room your air conditioning Then there's the condenser and the lower unit outside somewhere usually on the roof or in the backyard by the way That's what they call a split AC system half of it's in the room and the other half is outside somewhere now with the solar

[07:56] AC system you've got those two parts but they also come with from two to four solar panels and The necessary lithium-ion battery storage pack so you can run the AC at night now If you're interested in checking out one or more of these things just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And I'll send you a couple of links by the way These solar air conditioning units are very very efficient much more so than your regular air conditioning Why because you see your regular air conditioning unit has to change your AC current in the house to DC To run the fan and compressor etc and that conversion from AC to DC is inefficient But you see solar panels put out DC directly So there's none of the conversion and the energy is safe, but you knew that already right anyway

[08:41] I'm looking right now at a number of these things on Alibaba name brands to like LG Panasonic and others and the cost well, you know, they're rated in BTU So let's say for example a very big room would need probably a unit rated at 12,000 BTU By the way BTU means British thermal unit another piece of useless information courtesy of me Johnny at the expat files Thank you very much. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah Whereas a small bedroom would require an AC unit rated at six to eight thousand BTUs Now the cost these units start at around a grand enough, but remember that's the whole works and you'll never use electricity For your air conditioning again, of course, we're assuming your doors and windows aren't leaking like sieves now if you're renting it's very unlikely you're gonna have solar power and if you're renting on the cheap

[09:31] it's unlikely your residential tower or condo complex, whatever is gonna have a backup generator like they have in hospitals a Rule of thumb here if you're paying under 500 bucks a month. Normally, there won't be a backup generator Anyway to me it doesn't matter if you do have all that necessary backup stuff because when it comes to water you're on your own What I mean is you should still have a couple of a five gallon what they call gata phones Those are those ubiquitous big plastic blue jugs you see all over the place here in Latin America When you buy or exchange them, they're supposed to be filled with purified water, but that's debatable And even though you can't trust the plastic in those bottles not to leech I'm saying pick up a couple of those because as mentioned when the power goes off there goes to water pressure

[10:17] However, if as in the usual case, it kicks back in within 10 or 20 minutes No problem, but for example, I'm stuck here now. It's been around four hours. No power I'm on the bottom floor. So I had water for the first two hours trickling down from the upper floors Thanks to gravity, but now and I just checked there's no water pressure at all But I've got two five gallon gata phones They call them that you can buy at the local grocery store for something like three bucks apiece That is if you're exchanging an empty for a refill if you're buying one for the first time it's around ten bucks So when you first buy them or refill them, they're supposed to have purified water But I always dump it out and fill them up with the water that I purify myself So that's the setup you should have if you're staying at a place more than a couple of weeks

[11:04] For example, rent an Airbnb now if you're renting an Airbnb in a residential tower Generally, they'll have a backup generator that actually works But you never know by the way, speaking of my particular favorite portable solar power setup Well stay tuned because in the very near future I'm gonna be telling you all about that system how to use it where to buy it and how to have it shipped to your Location if need be now again, I'm not talking about a whole house off the grid solar power system I did a few shows in the last year talking about that stuff I'm talking about a portable all-in-one unit that weighs without the solar panels around 30 pounds It's got a handle on it So you can bring it anywhere throw it in the trunk of your car and head out to beach the boonies are anywhere And that's the power and the battery unit then of course along with that

[11:50] You'll need some portable solar panels to charge it up But not just any portable solar panels you pick off Amazon You'll want a particular portable suitcase panel as they call them They fold up nicely have a carrying case and handles now, of course There's tons of that stuff on the market and a lot of it's really under powered light duty and flimsy So naturally I spent a lot of time checking out those things and sourcing out just the right system I think the average green going expat would need to get you over the hump for pretty much any short-term power outage Even in a long-term power outage situation days weeks months You'll have to adapt and cut back but it will serve you and make your life a lot easier now You know, I don't make any money off of this stuff But you see since I'm sourcing it up for myself, you'll get all the info here first So stay tuned for a report on what I consider the best portable solar units now speaking of so-called pure water

[12:43] The other day I was in a grocery store with a fresh brand new green gringo as we walked by a virtual wall of those five Gallon blue tinted plastic water jugs. He said Johnny I don't get it Everyone's got one of those things in his shopping cart and every time you're on the road You see trucks just loaded to the gills with those things delivering to houses I said, yep, those things are standard issue for all middle-class upper middle class and wealthy Latinos He said why keep buying that stuff when you can filter your water at home Most all big hardware stores sell units you can put on or under your counter, but he said so far I've never seen one of those things in someone's home except for you Johnny I said, yeah It's kind of strange because if you do the numbers after they've spent six months buying this water at the grocery store

[13:29] They could have well afforded a really nice under the counter unit that would really purify their water I mean it would be guaranteed. He said then why don't they it's an obvious win-win situation I said it's a couple of things one lack of education and Latinos fall for marketing every time They think if the water is coming from some big industry supplier It's got to be definitely better water than anything. They could purify themselves at home Reason number two and probably most importantly. It's a matter of maintenance Let's say most Latinos if they have one of those under counter systems installed, they'll use it All right, but don't forget or they haven't been informed weren't listening or didn't read the instructions that the cartridges The filters have to be replaced every six months or so

[14:15] And since the average Latino does not have plumbing tools even to replace the cartridges They'll have to call a plumber or handyman and buy new replacement cartridges It's just too much of a hassle by the way a plumber and a couple of guys working at hardware stores told me Most people who buy the countertop are under the counter filter setups We'll end up sooner or later going back to the grocery store and buy in those five gallon jugs again So again, it's maintenance or lack of it marketing combined with an incomplete education But keep this in mind you've heard all the stories and you've probably read over and over again that bottled water So called pure water is not pure at all In fact, most of them are no better than tap water and the brand name expensive waters Nothing, but tap water run through a sediment filter and then dechlorinated

[15:00] So I ask you if they've got those kind of problems up in the first world where they've got tons of regulations Imagine what the bottled water and so-called pure water companies can get away with down here in Latin America where no one's checking Sure When you buy a bottle of water here in Latin America if you look on the label somewhere They've got a couple of seals verifying water purity even certification from an international water testing group and those seals of approval are real They're not fake However, you have to remember those seals were obtained when the company first got into business which could be 10 15 20 years ago So they did send samples to an international lab the samples passed with flying colors So they were allowed to put that seal on every bottle though It's quite likely it's been years since they've sent those samples out to be tested

[15:46] You get the idea Alright, speaking of purifying your own water like I always do I'll make this offer Once again, send me an email the expert files at gmail.com and I'll send you out the instructions on how to build that is Assemble my under the counter and portable water purification systems the ones I use myself You'll see you can build your own under the counter system using a 5 micron sediment filter as the first stage a silver impregnated Ceramic cartridge filter as the second stage and a carbon black filter as the third stage So under the counter, that means you'll have three identical blue canisters. That's the color They usually come in there at the standard 10 inch long jobs You find them at almost every hardware store and pool supply outfit So then you might ask how long do those filters last before you have to change the cartridges?

[16:34] Well, the 5 micron filters about 2 bucks And you change that every 6 months to a year or when the water flow coming out of a little Auxiliary spout starts flowing in a trickle like a guy with prostate problems instead of a nice solid stream more or less As thick as a pencil now the next stage the center canister is the workhorse of the system It's also the most expensive part of the system anywhere from 35 to 50 bucks on Amazon But if you're careful, you'll never have to replace it in your lifetime What will happen over time you see is it'll get gunked up on the outside in time You'll get a brownish scale that's loaded with impurities and that's what will slow down the flow of water So when you notice the flow rate going down All you have to do is pull it out and clean it that ceramic filters filtering all the way down to 0.1 micron or less

[17:23] Now all you have to do is put it in the sink run tap water over it and take one of those rough plastic sponge Scouring pads. Nope, not a metal one a plastic one. I think one brand name is scotch bright Then yeah sort of lightly sand the outer surface of the ceramic filter and all that gunk will come off and you'll get down to fresh light colored ceramic Then you're back in business and good for another six months to a year depending on how dirty your water is By the way, most of those ceramic filters are colloidal silver impregnated. That means they're bacteria static They kill bacteria or don't allow them to multiply but when you're cleaning it you have to be careful Ceramic filters are sort of fragile and if you've got one in your hand you drop it a foot or two You might crack it. It's like pottery ceramic just like the name

[18:10] So when you're cleaning it be careful not to drop that thing or bang it around on your porcelain sink I ought to know I was clumsy and broke one myself It didn't shatter but it put a hairline crack in it if that happens You shouldn't use it and the third filter the final stage is a carbon block filter. It's not what most people think Activated pulverized carbon, you know the kind you put in a fish tank that's granular and you can pour We're talking about a solid block of carbon and the cost around 10 bucks When do you change it? Well in time as it absorbs volatile impurities like chlorine, etc It'll lose its capacity to pull out other organics like Glyphosate pesticides and those nasty estrogen breakdown products from birth control pills you find in city water supplies

[18:56] So if you're in the city, anyway The easiest way to tell if that carbon block filter is saturated and you should replace it is if the chlorine taste in the water Starts coming back However, if you haven't got much chlorine in your system and you really can't tell it's best to change that thing every six months to A year now about carbon block filters versus activated granulated carbon filters The carbon blocks always better because with the granulated charcoal water can find channels and find the path of least resistance They can't do that with a carbon block. It's a solid piece So basically if you use a system that I recommend you can put it together for under a hundred bucks But do it yourself thing and your replacement costs every year to keep it maintained Generally around 10 to 15 bucks if you don't screw up and break the carbon filter while you're cleaning it

[19:44] However, if your water is really mucky and trashy You might have to change that first stage sediment filter two or three times a year Remember, it's only two bucks a crack So no big deal and the filters all available at your local pool supply store in whatever Latin country or city you're in Also in most big hardware stores, and if not, you can get them right on Amazon. All right, speaking of food and water This comes from the from what I've been saying all along department Here's a little snippet from an article in Spanish again entitled alimentos. No se manipulan bien Translation street food is not being handled Well Subtitled Manazuma's revenge the gift that keeps on giving this one comes from a Ecuadorian rag it says those of you who are queasy about food in the large and small Mercado's and

[20:32] Street vendors might want to apply the ignorance is bliss principle and stop reading this article now It says recent research by a group of professors at the University of Cuenca Ecuador found a large proportion of the food sold on the streets and in the Mercado's Contained salmonella and be callus bacteria You pointing out in the case of meat and chicken the food is not normally eaten raw and proper cooking should kill the salmonella and fecal Bacteria, but the techniques in manipulating that food before it gets to you and your mouth is the unknown And what is called in question here? All right me Johnny here You know every time I read an article about food poisoning high levels of salmonella or fecal bacteria I keep reminding myself that cooking does not eliminate salmonella or fecal bacteria. It just kills it

[21:22] It's still there and you're eating it only it's dead you hope and it won't multiply in your digestive track So let me repeat this once again Seems like almost everyone who comes down to Latin America eventually gets Montezuma's revenge and sometimes over and over again Especially common with backpackers and people who stay in hostels and people who eat street food, man I can't tell you how many times I've walked past one of these street chaos and there's some backpackers sitting there Shuggling down some greasy concoction up to his knuckles and taco sauce and mayonnaise Then he'll stop and pause for a second to lick the juice off his fingertips And you know a lot of these guys are tree huggers vegans and vegetarians And yet when it comes to settling up and paying the bill though lick those same fingertips to count out their funny money These are the very people who will tell you that getting Montezuma's revenge is an occupational hazard for

[22:12] Travelers, they'll tell you the locals are immune. They grew up here They've gotten used to their own particular brand of bacteria and we're not and you know It's the same in reverse if they come up to the United States They'll tell you they're not used to our food and our bacteria and they're gonna get our version of Montezuma's revenge Known as the Hershey's squirts Anyway, this article ends by saying the research scientists believed those high levels of salmonella and fecal bacteria were due to bad Food-handling with respect to hygiene and poor and inadequate use of cleaning implements in a shortage of purified water Which begs the question anyone for tacos? Alright enough said about that now we have this from the gringo go home department this one also from that Ecuadorian newspaper entitled

[22:59] elexiones de la reina translation electing the Queen Alright, it's time to stop and explain a few things first before we get on with this You know a long long time ago probably five years ago now I did an expat file show talking about how important it is to Latinos and Latinas To elect beauty queens for this that and everything in fact Not only does every grade school middle school high school college, etc Elect a new beauty queen at least every year. Oh, and by the way, they don't elect kings only queens You've also got almost every major company be it a flower exporter sugar tobacco Pineapple company even a company like Bayer or Nestle or UPS Latin America Electing a beauty queen every year and making a big deal out of it

[23:44] Not only that every time there's a holiday or a weekend fair called the Ferriado. They have a competition to elect a queen All right. There's the background on with the article elexiones de la reina electing the Queen It says the last time the requirements for the candidates for the Queen of Cuenca Ecuador were changed was in 2009 and to change the rules It takes the current Queen who is by the way Christina Ortega and a commission of ex-queens to vote on and make any Pageant changes then it says this year for the first time in ten years taking their cue from the gringo slash gringo Expat culture influencers and I don't mean that in a good way the pageant commission has been working to change the statutes and

[24:30] Application procedures to eliminate anything quote discriminatory or on PC. Oh No, here it comes, huh? Then it says some of the new changes include liberalizing the height and weight and body size requirements of candidates again to appease the gringo gringo jumbo first world body type plus size trends as Well as the fact that beauty pageant candidates no longer necessarily have to be single Then it says the present controversy started when the fundación de reynas de Cuenca That's the Queen Foundation listed the requirements on social media The first requirement was that the candidate quote a bird nasi though mu hair means must be born a woman That'd be you know for the uninitiated having two ex chromosomes

[25:18] How odd what an unusual request by the way, it's not chromosomes with an end It's chromosomes with an M. Then it says that statement caused a reaction from the nascent Cuenca Ecuador LGBT WTF community then it says the Commission of Queens backed off They responded by saying they respect the LGBT WTF community and are open to helping them But they pointed out that this year it must be taken into account that the LGBT WTF community in Cuenca is having their own Reina de Cuenca Pageant and thus can apply to their event any rules and regulations they wish all right now I'm jumping down this article to read the listener comments at the bottom of the page It says and this one's apparently from a bilingual gringo. He says wow. I don't believe it could it be jealousy

[26:07] I invite you to take a drive down the red light district any night and check out the transvestites Gyrating on the street corners looking for fun or tricks or whatever and tell me that an LGBT contestant wouldn't have a chance of winning a conventional beauty contest Wow Some of those travesties will make you drop your jaw and not a pudgy one in sight I think maybe it's sour grapes and what the traditional pageant people are worried about meaning the stiff competition No pun intended and the subsequent publicity then he says in the end It makes you wonder how much time effort makeup padding and yards of underwire it takes to transform yourself into one of those tall Beautiful street corner travesties then there's this comment from I'm sure another gringo He says I admire beauty in all its forms as much as the next guy anyway

[26:56] Even when the next guy is not quite a guy But what isn't so obvious though more so now is that when do-gooder gringos arrive on the scene and spread their cultural Activism and snowflake ism around that's where our problems with the local cultures begin It's ironic considering. We're always complaining about when foreigners land in the USA and don't want to or bother to assimilate Alright me Johnny here. So what's the bottom line? Well, maybe there is no bottom line, but you could see the unintended secondary effects when gringo start piling in That's why I've always preferred to live well off the tourist trail 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

[27:46] 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 get the perfect plan B blueprint by going to the expat files.com Academy