#926 – The Expat Files: Scams, Climate, and Construction 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 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 So I've been getting some emails from people saying they can't get to my website. It's not connecting Well as mentioned last show my new and permanent website for now and ever after is expat plan B Com that's expat plan B. Com by the way

[00:48] You know, I never send out mailings to people asking them to buy this or that product. I don't sell or push products I don't need to do that. So if you ever get an email from any site at all that resembles the expat files It's not coming from me. It's coming from some scammer. That's trying to sell you something using my name or my reputation Hey, that's what this internet world has come to You latch on to a good thing and people like it Then after a while people figure ways to copy and steal from you and or try to ride your coattails And that's one of the big reasons why I'm not using the expat files calm anymore or the new expat calm Because they've been compromised and infiltrated So if you get any kind of mailings at all that aren't coming from my new site expat plan B. Com, they're not coming from me

[01:34] They're not legit. They're coming from copycat scammers You know, it's a fact that almost everyone who's got a presence on the internet gets scammed in some way or another I'll give you an example of how it's happened to me. Turns out there was a guy I knew But not that well at all who as it turns out was doing a lot of traveling around the world Who somehow just kept getting free hotel rooms and free meals at restaurants. So how do you get all these freebies? Well, he hooked on to a good scam He would check into a hotel and say he was part of the expat files part of Johnny Mueller's crew And how he'd get freebies is he'd say look if you give me a free hotel room during my stay or free meals in the Restaurants, whatever I'll make sure that Johnny Mueller gives you a plug on his show or in some of his reports and writings Of course what he promised him never happened

[02:21] Now the fact is I don't know how long that had been going on probably a couple of years Until finally one of those hotels sent me an email asking about this guy Well, of course at that point his scamming days were over though. He's probably on to a new one by now funny thing You know karma whether you believe it or not happen to bite him right in the ass Now I didn't know him very well, but once he said to me before I found out about any of this He said Johnny, I've got about five grand Have you got any ideas on how I might invest that and I told about this thing called Bitcoin at the time? It was around a hundred dollars a coin Which means at that time he could have bought 50 of them and today that 5k investment would be worth close to a half Million bucks, but he and so many others I told about Bitcoin back then said they'd do it over and over again

[03:08] They said it but never got around to pulling the trigger Perfect example of human nature Han why probably 95% of Americans when they finally hit retirement age Don't have enough money to live in the way. They're accustomed to oh by the way way back when when Bitcoin was around a hundred bucks Or so almost everyone I spoke to got the message, but they didn't do anything about it So I just quit talking about it except to my nerd friends and you know me I don't plug anything on this show unless I personally use it or I absolutely feel a need to give you guys a heads up Like for example the Sawyer water filter that I use then there's the RFID blocking hidden passport pouch and the little computer I carry with me everywhere I go my portable indestructible coffee grinder and coffee maker and that cool little meter that detects dirty electricity around the house

[03:58] Now I give you the heads up on that stuff because I use it myself and I don't make a dime when I refer Those products to you. I'll give you the links and I'll tell you where to get them But I don't ask you to click through my website so I get points or a percentage I don't do that. I send you right to their site or Amazon. Whatever. Yep. That's right Amazon even though I hate Amazon and what they stand for I still use them nearly every expat gringo does and you know I dislike Bill Gates immensely too, but I still end up using Windows. Why it's pre-installed these days on every non-apple computer Oh, and I don't much like Apple products either sure Some of them are pretty good and of course they're cool looking and that's really the selling point, right? But to me and almost all the engineers I know

[04:43] Apple is kind of a cult for show-offs and their technology really isn't any better than their competitors And the worst thing is you're stuck going to the Apple store for everything Sometimes it seems they have half the population brainwashed. They're in second place behind big brother, but I digress. Where were we? Oh, yeah I'm no longer affiliated with or using the websites the expat files calm or the new expat calm Both of which have been hacked and messed with so again If you get any kind of unsolicited mailings that seem to be coming from me or any of those sites They're not coming for me because my only official website is expat plan be calm And of course, if you have any questions or comments, you can send them to my usual suspect email the expat files at Gmail calm

[05:31] Yeah. Yeah, I know I thoroughly dislike Google too But I'm kind of stuck like you are in probably half the world's population So yes, I do have a Gmail account, but it's for non-essential non-critical stuff But I also have a couple of encrypted email services, too But they cost anywhere from 30 to 50 bucks a year and because they're paid services They don't collect data on you or sell it off like Gmail Yahoo hotmail and all the other free services, too Another thing I really like about those paid email services Is that you do not get any pop-up windows because they're not selling off your data Just remember nothing's for nothing talk is cheap and you get what you pay for just like this show All right, then let's move on. Remember on the previous show

[06:19] I mentioned that I had a big backlog of emails and questions, etc. So let's finish off some of the more interesting ones This is from one not obi-wan. Just one He says I heard a recent podcast of yours late December I think and you talked a little about climate change or the new political slogan for climate change Global warming and never heard you mention anything about the grand solar minimum or the grand solar maximum Fact is we are in the grand solar Minimum end of the ten-year cycle right now and in ten years from now will be at the end of the four hundred year Grand solar minimum end of cycle. So if people think the weather is weird now wait till 2028 through 2030 Then he says did you know Johnny that the Chinese have measurements of these solar

[07:06] minimums and maximums going back thousands of years and in the US We only have records going back maybe 250 years. It all revolves around the sunspot activity and solar radiation I encourage you to look it up and report to your listeners as I have not found one person yet Who knows anything about it except the person that told me it works like this There's virtually no sunspot activity right now, which is why there's so much volcanic activity You can look it up volcanic activity on the earth tracks minimal sunspot activity also severe droughts in some areas and flooding and others and Extremes and cold and hot temperatures too like the record low temperatures set in Utah a few months ago minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit coldest temperature ever recorded in the US. Of course, it was all over the news, right?

[07:56] I doubt it then one says the jet streams have also changed as a result of this too Among many other things that affect and modulate the weather Oh and about that famous bean deal our infamous leader made with China there in China That is corn crops were decimated and they lost millions of pigs to some new flu virus or whatever So China's needed to buy crops from us to feed their people. They don't have a choice However, I'm not sure how we're gonna supply it all to them since we're having a hard time growing anything here with our own climate change issues We'll see but one thing's for sure growing your own food will turn out to be a very good custom in the coming years Adios for now Johnny signed one dollar

[08:43] Hmm, you know one dollar doesn't get you much these days By the way one the female version of your name is Juanita or Juana. So you could have signed it if you're a female Juana dollar Why not ten or a hundred or a million? Well, you know a million dollars ain't what it used to be, huh? Anyway, just one. I absolutely do know about the Grand Solar minimum and Grand Solar maximum Because they're closely related and have a lot to do with those dangerous Solar mass injections that can wipe out the electrical grid of an entire country even an entire continent Yep I've researched those things in the US back to the 1800s and all the way back to what they called a little Ice Age Which happened all over the earth from 1645 to 1715 and that all happened during a Grand Solar minimum, too

[09:33] In fact, it was such a long solar minimum. They gave it a special name The monder minimum it lasted well beyond the normal 11 year sunspot cycle. And how do we know that? Well back then people did have telescopes and they looked up into the sky a lot Probably because they didn't have smartphones and back then scientists were very good at cataloging sunspot activities Of course, you can't look at the Sun, especially not through a telescope, but you can project it on a screen By the way, and I touched on this a bit Grand Solar minimums and maximums run on an 11-year cycle not 10 It's all very complicated and even mathematicians cannot write this stuff out an equation There's way too many things that affect the climate way too many data points

[10:19] But one thing is true solar minimums and maximums have a huge effect on climate In fact, if you look it up, you'll see the little Ice Age that occurred between 1645 and 1715 Produced so much cold around the world that for the first time in history the Thames River in London froze solid and It froze for so long They would hold ice and frost fairs right on the river and that's never been done before or since Which brings us back to the topic of growing your own man, talk about digressing now in my mind the best place to be if you're considering or worrying a lot about climate change is In an altiplano region and here's something really important that almost no one talks about except me I know I mentioned this just once before in a previous show

[11:06] But you never hear or read about it in the lame stream or the alternative news And that is the fact that for every thousand feet you go up in elevation The temperature drops about four to five degrees Fahrenheit And if it's cloudy or raining the temperature drops about three and a half degrees Fahrenheit for every thousand feet So what's that mean and why is it so important because when you look up the facts, you'll hear Climatologists saying the average temperature on the earth has risen something like a degree and a half Fahrenheit in the last hundred years and They're expecting with all this climate craziness for it to raise another degree and a half in the next 50 years for a grand total of three degrees increase since the days of the industrial revolution and that according to so

[11:52] Many talking heads in the news will make for grave consequences, especially with growing seasons Rainfall and crop yields. So then what's that got to do with gringos and expats and they're playing be well It's like this if you choose to live in the altiplano Which is anywhere from three to six or even seven thousand feet above sea level and you know There are a number of Latin American countries with altiplano regions Not just Guatemala either though Guatemala's got a very extensive altiplano In fact, it's got more percentage of altiplano for its area than any other Latin country But you know Colombia Venezuela Ecuador and Mexico have their own particular altiplanos, too But they don't have extensive regions that go on for hundreds of kilometers. They're generally spotty and spread out

[12:37] Anyway, you don't have to be a genius to realize if you live in the altiplano Let's say at 4,000 feet your temperature is gonna be around 15 degrees cooler than sea level and that's a big difference In other words, if it's 90 at the coast, which is uncomfortable. It's 75 at 4,000 feet That's why when I hear people freaking out about so-called climate change and what it's gonna do or what they think it's gonna do To their lives. Obviously, they don't know about the altiplano nor have they read too many science books Probably not but then again, what can you expect from a population that doesn't read least of all science books or science articles? What's the last time you read one? However, if you got a so-called STEM degree science engineering technology and math Then you obviously like science and just might have read a book or two without it being assigned by a teacher

[13:27] By the way, I'm just looking at a table right now that says in the US from the year 2015 to 2018 the percentage share of bachelors and above Science technology engineering and math degrees STEM degrees is around 20% of the people graduating The other 80% being liberal arts humanities and business degrees Most of whom you can assume have never read a science book in fact And it's a sad fact most people who graduate from University never pick up a book again and some are happy to admit that It's no wonder the vast majority of people swallow everything they see in the lame stream media and it's not so much They don't know how to differentiate between real and fake news. It's that they don't really care to do any further investigation It's priorities. I get it. It interferes with that quality fake book and Instagram time

[14:15] Though if you're really worried and freaking out about climate change Goose up your plan B get it in turbo drive and move to the altiplano You know I've lived in the altiplano off and on for more than 25 years and I have to admit unless you're stuck in a Car with the windows rolled up and there's no air conditioning You almost never break a sweat though You really have to watch out for the Sun because you know if you're three to five thousand feet above sea level and the Sun is More directly overhead because you're near the equator and the atmosphere is thinner The Sun is actually stronger than at sea level the rays including ultraviolet are very penetrating You could get a sunburn in 10 minutes You'll get fooled when you first visit the altiplano. You'll feel the Sun on your skin All right, it'll be hot but the air around you will feel very comfortable

[15:02] Maybe 70 to 75 degrees So you learn to be cautious But don't be fooled like so many gringos and expats have been the fact is many times You'll be out and about doing errands in absolute comfort going from place to place Only to find later in the day when you get home that your lily white arms face and neck have been pretty well sunburned Then when you think back on the day as to how you got it. Well, you just can't put your finger on it That's what the weather's like in the altiplano All right, let's move on. Here's an email from mr. Ed Horses a horse, of course, of course. Am I showing my age or that I watched Nick at night? No, it must be old age I don't watch TV. Mr. Ed says Johnny I'm trying to do a lazy man's paint project with the concrete cabinets in the kitchen area of my studio apartment

[15:53] Yep, I'm in the Antigua Guatemala altiplano My landlord did a cut rate project with the same paint that he told me was waterproof But it was so weak that when I rub over it with a paper towel soaked in anything even a bit of saliva It'll come off. I'm trying to use some spray paint to coat over the old junk, but so far it's no better I'm using some peroxide and white vinegar mixed together in a 50-50 solution in a spray bottle as Wonder cleaner to for my crackpot and other things. It seems like this even cuts through the spray paint However, when I overcoat it with some clear paint, it seems to be basically waterproof, but who knows so Johnny I'm asking with your construction experience I'm wondering if you know of any spray on silicone solution or something which would work as a

[16:41] Waterproof overcoat so that I could finally get stable paint on the concrete cabinets without it coming off Seemingly on its own. I'm to the point now where I don't even care if it's natural slash organic Which was always my preference so long as it doesn't rub off when I go over it with a wet sponge or a damp paper towel Or try to spit shine it Me Johnny here, isn't it funny? Everyone else's saliva is gross except their own man are humans weird or what anyway, mr Ed concludes by saying Johnny Maybe something they sell at the hardware stores around here or even a boat supply store might do if you have any suggestions I'll need the name in Spanish possibly the brand name to muchos Thanco's signed Mr. Ed and there is a little hoof print attached nice touch there. Mr. Ed. All right, mr

[17:32] Ed and everyone else out there. I have a couple of suggestions for you They use a lot of concrete concrete black down here I mean tons of it and you'll find almost everyone uses the cheapest brand of paint around Yep, it seems every Latin American country has one or more of its own paint manufacturers With funky brand names like Volcan Corona or tinta. Yep Corona like the beer they make paint, too But I'm warning you stay away from all the non-name brands like Corona because they're really third-rate and technically speaking Suck that's not to say they won't look good after their first applied But believe me, they don't stick or last like more expensive brand names Sherwin Williams Pittsburgh paints Thomas Moore even Sears

[18:17] But the thing is you'll find the local generic brands are half the price or even less Then Sherwin Williams and it always kills me when I see someone start a paint job First thing they'll do is they'll get a five gallon bucket pour a gallon of paint in there Whatever brand and then proceed to pour a gallon of water in with it painters always dilute their paint down here Even though it says right on the bucket at least with the brand name paints do not dilute But this is Latin America, and you know when you dilute paint you can get it to stretch a lot farther Unfortunately, they do it with concrete too and down here since people make significantly less money It's all about the coin Which is why you move into a standard house built by standard builders here in Latin America things start deteriorating quite rapidly

[19:02] Especially roofs and walls that are exposed to the weather in the Sun now The trick is if you're gonna paint over a concrete or black surface That's already been painted if the surface underneath it is peeling or bubbling You'll have to strip that paint all the way down to bear concrete or black or the same things gonna happen No matter what paint you use even the real expensive stuff that claims to be waterproof There's a big mistake that everybody seems to make down here including gringos and expats They go out and buy some fairly expensive Waterproofing paint or a clear waterproofing liquid there's a lot of that going around and they apply it right on top of a painted surface That was bubbling or peeling before even though they removed most of the paint and the bubbles that were falling off wherever you didn't get it down to bear concrete or black is gonna be a spot where bubbling and flaking will occur down the

[19:50] Line the problem is there's a moisture source on the other side of the wall And if you don't go after that You're never gonna solve the problem and get this if you read the labels on those waterproofing products They'll always recommend that you apply to a fresh dry clean surface preferably bear concrete or black And even then a very good waterproofing painter product will only last a couple of years and note that the oil polymer based or two Part epoxy or polyurethane systems will last two or three times longer than waterproofing. That is water based Like that brand I mentioned in a previous show lanko lancl They've got a pretty good product and it's not that cheap But it definitely does not last through the 10-year guarantee they promise on the bucket I've had this stuff start peeling and chipping within two or three years

[20:36] But I'm a guy who saves receipts and that's something Latinos rarely do So I went back to the hardware store well prepared saying hey It's peeling and it's coming up on three years and it's guaranteed for ten What are you gonna do about it? And I showed him the photos on my phone Well surprise surprise I had the receipt so they gave me a replacement bucket But you know a lot of good that will do because now I gotta scrape it all down to Concrete or block again, of course, I won't do it I'll have my maintenance guy do it, but it's really not gonna solve the problem It's gonna come right back and it's a thankless job to have a guy scrape all that down to the concrete Only to reapply stuff that's guaranteed for ten years and will only last three But that's life here in Latin America

[21:21] Then again, you could buy the much more expensive oil based in two-part epoxy style polyurethane stuff a really good brand to get Sika Si ka it comes in a yellow can all their products are yellow In fact, some of the Sika adhesives and sealants are more than great because they're made in Mexico, right? wrong because they're made in Switzerland and Sika products could quite possibly stand up for ten years if you apply them to bear concrete or Black but those mixtures will stink to high heaven when you apply them So you better have a mask with a carbon filter if you're inside and the fumes could continue to bother you for a month Now the real basis for this whole moisture problem here in Latin America is that Latinos skip the waterproofing of exterior walls and floors Completely or do a half-ass job of it with cheap inferior products. I've come to the conclusion myself that they'll just never learn

[22:11] That's why it's buyer beware when you buy an existing structure though You could get lucky and have a structure that's got no seepage or moisture problems at all. It's rare But when you do see it, it's generally due to having a lucky break with the contours of the land But you can't really count on that your best bet being if you're interested in purchasing an existing property is to inspect it during the rainy season Because often what looks good during the dry season will be an ugly surprise in the pouring rain and speaking of drainage You'll find that most Latinos even good contractors and builders don't quite know how to slope or contour the land around a building for runoff And often you'll find a moisture leakage problem can be corrected easily by just doing some Excavation and dirt moving outside. However, once I got caught in a jam myself early on it was the third foreign country

[23:00] I'd lived in and the fourth house that I bought was brand new single-family Freestanding house with a nice lot in the Altiplano and I bought it in the dry season next thing You know the rain comes I guess they were trying to be first world cute. So they put in a sunken living room It sure looked nice Well within about a year and a half the whole perimeter of that room Measuring about a foot and a half from the floor on up the paint started bubbling and flaking and then came the mold So where was the moisture coming in below ground? Of course, and I figured maybe it would be easy I just recon toured the land lower the ground profile on the outside and when I checked around the building I found I could only partially do it because part of the outside wall of the living room Was only about two feet away from an eight-foot concrete fence So there was no way to contour the land in that tight space thus I found I'd have that problem forever

[23:52] Though I did come up with a partial solution. It wasn't functionally or structurally great, but it was aesthetically pleasing I called up a glass company and had him put floor to ceiling mirrors on all the walls in the living room Now that makes a room look really big and open. So that helped the room spatially and at the same time Covered up the space near the floor where the walls were bubbling and peeling in other words all that slowly Deteriorating nastiness it was now behind a set of full-length mirrors So I kind of cheated my way out of that mess then after staying there a couple of years then selling it and moving you know the thing that really drives me nuts is that Latin Americans have had 500 years to figure out how to handle moisture problems and they still haven't got it right. It takes a gringo

[24:37] Why is that do you think fact is I don't think I've ever been in a Latino house or office building That's not brand new. Of course that doesn't have some kind of obvious moisture mold or leakage problem somewhere I kind of think they just threw in the towel Generations ago and live with it But us gringos and expats with slightly higher standards little things like that just drive us nuts the evidence exhibit a Mr. Ed's email. Obviously, he's an expat gringo whose moisture problems are driving him nuts, too Alright enough said about that now for some news and three million reasons why you don't want to get on a Latin American National health care plan even if outfits like AARP and international living keep telling you what a great deal it is

[25:22] Well, the fact is national health care systems generally suck But they can be good when a bunch of money's pumped in and then a couple of years later or even a year later They get medieval on you again. For example, this article that just came out today title National health care hospitals in Ecuador are being investigated for a three million dollar loss of medical supplies It starts out by saying the director of Cuenca Ecuador's social security Hospital says that more than three million dollars of medical supplies Mostly medicine has been lost due to theft and poor inventory management control on top of that He says where medication has been stored due to lack of oversight much of it has expired and must now be discarded Then he states that because of the poor inventory system

[26:11] They have the hospital orders new medicine without knowing the same medicine is already in stock at another location Makes you wonder if they've heard of computers yet in addition to inventory problems He said the hospital is a victim of large-scale theft in one case He said thousands of dollars of medicine were found hidden in the ceiling of a store room ready to be spirited out Then he says several employees have been terminated as a result of our investigation Alright me Johnny here. The fact is most national health care hospitals in Latin America are absolutely medieval In fact, I've been in more than a few of them and I've taken pictures of the bulletin boards in some of the doctor's Lounges and hangout areas and my favorite posted announcement on those bulletin boards attention all doctors

[26:58] Please bring your own gloves and disposables because we're fresh out Which means of course their stock has been stolen So you still want to go down to Costa Rica Colombia or Ecuador and get on their national health care system You hear rags like international living suggesting that to prospective expats all the time Why because if you're a resident, it's virtually free that as opposed to private health care insurance Which is absolutely first-world quality, but it costs a hefty hundred bucks or so a month. Oh, what a tragedy You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B We can schedule a one-on-one phone or Skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com

[27:44] And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week-long expat insider seminar in Central America Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan B Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com. No spamos