#927 – Expat Life in Latin America: Security, Culture, and Practical Tips

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 now Here's the boots on the ground story. I forgot to tell you about happened about a month ago in Colombia Medellin Colombia to be precise, you know, most of my friends know in a past life I was an engineer and that in a past life. I constructed quite a few houses and buildings

[00:47] So naturally friends being friends they lean on your first stuff once in a while and you oblige if it's not too excessive They don't lean too hard and they buy me lunch Anyway, a gringle friend of mine who's been living in Medellin Colombia for a couple of years now He has a Colombian girlfriend and all that well He decided to finance a little business venture hers a hair extension and wig shop of which he knows nothing about doesn't care about But his girlfriend knows everything and anything about that stuff and she wears extensions herself Believe it or not hair extensions are a huge business in Latin America, especially with Latinos who have hair on the kinky side In fact, if you come down to the Caribbean side of Latin America, you'll find there's a hair extension joint It seems on every corner though Not so much at all on the pacific side of Latin America

[01:33] And of course all the ladies want real hair extensions and those things really cost though admittedly middle and lower class Latinas will use the fake synthetic hair extensions because the real stuff's not within their budget So anyway, she set up this little hair extension place in a busy little middle class latin middle class That is business district with lots and lots of car and foot traffic though It's not a place i'd recommend because well, it's known to be a bit dangerous But you probably figured this up by now latinos and latinas have a different vision of what's dangerous and what's not That is different from what us gringos and expats perceive dangerous to mean for example If you've been living in a Milwaukee or Cleveland neighborhood in the suburbs And you haven't heard of a single break-in or assault in let's say the last five years

[02:20] Well to us that's a pretty safe neighborhood However, when in latin america in a so-called latin american middle or lower middle class neighborhood Practically everyone knows of someone who's been robbed in the last year or so Yet most of them will still tell you that their neighborhood's pretty safe But remember we're talking about middle class up in Cleveland and Milwaukee versus middle class here in latin america big difference Because middle class in latin america is pretty much the way we see lower middle class trailer parks and white trash Not that there's anything wrong with living in or being brought up in sub standard housing or a lower middle class or substandard neighborhood Hey, it's luck at the draw You're born where you're born and you're brought up where you're brought up In fact, a lot of my best friends came from substandard neighborhoods and housing In fact, my own family had its ups and downs and over the past 50 or so years

[03:07] We oscillated between middle and lower middle class, too But you know, some people pull themselves up out of that and later on fly pretty high and some of those Later on get their wings clipped pretty good, too But I digress as usual. Let's get back to the story Anyway, I was asked to help my gringle friend set up security cameras in his girlfriend's new hair extension business So we went down to the local electronic shops where they sold security equipment And couldn't find anything that was the latest and greatest in other words 4k That means eight megapixel resolution for each camera and that gives you ultra high definition And that's what you want because when you zoom in then you see things very clearly and from a great distance So anyway after hitting three electronic shops We found out that there were no 4k cameras to be found only two three and four megapixel cameras

[03:57] That's high definition, but it's not ultra high definition So we ended up ordering a complete system from the us online Now I know of a certain us security camera company that was running a 50 off sale on almost everything During the two weeks leading up to christmas So he ended up buying a complete eight camera system with a two tetra byte hard drive which allows you to record Continuously for about a week and it included the plug and play and vr cables and connectors too All except the monitor then you just buy an hd or ultra hd tv set and you're good to go And what's very cool these days when you buy security systems is you can see your cameras on your smartphone That's the way to go Especially if you got your camera set up for motion detection Then the system will shoot you a little message on your cell phone saying something's up

[04:44] You never know there might be a rat in your store at two in the morning furry or otherwise So then what's something like that cost an eight camera ultra hd system? Just slightly less than 500 bucks. But remember that was a half price two week only deal Then he had that system shipped to his mail and package forwarding service in miami And it landed in medellin in about two weeks Oh and remember I was telling you if you use a mail forwarding service in miami If your purchase is under two or three hundred bucks depending on the latin country you're sending it to You pay no government fees or import taxes And the good news for my gringo buddy Well the company he ordered that stuff from in the states gladly sent it out in three packages So they split the 500 bucks so that each package nicely slipped under the minimum taxable limit

[05:32] So then after it arrived we went and picked up the system We installed it took us a whole day to guys because you know You have to make it look nice when it's in a business establishment at least gringos and expats do However, most latino businesses don't seem to care They want the cameras to work, but they don't care what the installation looks like They don't seem to mind a rat's nest of wires even when it's dead obvious But on this particular project there were two real live gringos working on it. So we had to make it look appropriately first world like sure we could have done the job latin style in three or four hours But it took us the whole day something like 10 hours and miracle of miracles after plugging everything in and flipping all the switches It actually worked a hundred percent Right down to the last detail the very first time I was surprised because it seems like every project I've been on

[06:21] You have to do some tweaking here and there after you flip the switches, but this time perfect I was truly not expecting that now as far as the camera setup We had six cameras inside the business and two outside one covering half the parking lot and the big busy street out in front And the other covering the other half the parking lot and the other half of the big busy chaotic four-lane street out in front And man with those 4k cameras, it was crystal clear So anyway, it was getting late. It's time to go So we flipped the switches on started recording and the next day around noon we came back You see we promised we'd come back the next day to train her girlfriend and her two workers how to use it And while we were doing that and downloading the apps so that the cameras could be seen on their cell phones Suddenly two guys rushed in obviously upset. I recognized them

[07:09] They were the two guys that worked at the paint store, which was right next door Then the little pudgy one said in a kind of a panic. I saw you installing cameras yesterday. Are they working? I said sure they work fine. He said oh really do they record? And my buddy said sure they record. He said did they happen to be on this morning around nine o'clock? And my buddy said yeah, they've been going since yesterday. They record for a couple days at least maybe a week He said oh really can I see the playback from around nine this morning because you see we've got a big problem Someone stole a motorcycle from right in front of the paint store Then he said we figured it happened around nine o'clock when we were both in back unloading from the paint truck Then he shook his head raised his voice and said it was a brand new motorcycle, too

[07:55] My boss's motorcycle and he's pissed off at us because we were in the store when it happened Then he took his phone and punched in some text and said that's him right now and is he pissed He's down at the police station right now reporting it Then my gringo buddy said well, let's have a look at the playback Of course all this is going down in spanish because we're way off the tourist trail and a part of medellin That's not even close to poblado The poblado district in medellin being the place all the gringos and expats are piling into And my buddy. Yeah, he speaks spanish And he like me came down here to latin america not knowing a lick of spanish So how'd he learn? Well the best way possible. He has a columbian girlfriend Who speaks about six words of english? So he instantly got thrown into the fire and you do burn for a couple of months

[08:43] It's no fun But after those first two or three months of high anxiety suddenly your conversational spanish starts kicking in and that's by the way Why so many gringos and expats never do learn their spanish because they're never thrown into the fire They take the easy way out relocate on or near the tourist areas and find themselves a bunch of gringo expats to hang with Or a latino girl or boyfriend who speaks english But again, I digress. Sorry about that. Where were we? Oh, yeah So then I started setting up the playback and said to the guy you mean a brand new motorcycle got stolen He said yeah, it was a nice kawasaki model too Not one of those cheaps tata or gili bikes from india. He said then my gringo buddy said well How'd they do it? They throw in the back of a truck or something? Then we looked at the playback and sure enough both of the cameras caught the guy in the act

[09:32] Was a tall skinny guy with a baseball hat and a pink sweatshirt that said baltimore aureals on it Yeah, like I said latinos just love any clothing with english lettering on it Even though 95% of the time they don't understand what it means In fact, that was the topic of discussion just a couple of days ago when I was sitting in a car repair shop Waiting for him to mount some tires I was sitting in the lounge and the big screen tv had a latin music channel on Of course, it was that infantile retarded music they call ragaton That's just beyond painful for us gringos and expats to listen to anyway me and the gringo is with who also the former musician He said johnny Why is it that all the latino bands you see whether they're playing in a concert somewhere at a bar or even on tv? They're all wearing t-shirts sweatshirts sweaters, etc

[10:19] With english letters phrases and sayings on them Now what does that really say about latino culture or think of it this way You'll certainly never see a bunch of american rock and rollers music groups Whatever wearing t-shirts jackets and sweaters with spanish words and letters and phrases on them. Will you? Though I guess there's one chance in a thousand. They might be wearing a corona or quervo gold t-shirt You get the point. It's the idea that 99.9 percent of latinos are extreme gringo wannabes They love everything and anything that comes from north of the border Which means they really don't understand what it's all about do they have a very incomplete education on the subject What it very strongly implies is that they much prefer gringo culture to their own so in the end I guess we'll never know

[11:05] What it's really like to grow up in a culture with people telling you over and over again that you're from a third world country It's gotta be taking its toll on people's self-esteem But again, I digress but that's normal for me, right? So anyway, we played back the video and saw the guy steal the motorcycle And no, he didn't throw it in the back of a truck He pulled out a key and in five whole seconds had it started and he was off Then the little pudgy guy said oh He's got a key. He's got a master or a copy from the dealership. I said what he said Sometimes a mechanic will make a copy in the dealership and sell it or give it to a bad boy in his family And since every dealership has a file on its customers From there, it doesn't take much work to track down a guy's house or place of business

[11:52] So anyway, we made a little snippet mp4 file for the guy sent it to his email Which he'll give to his boss who will certainly take it to the cops who will do nothing because this is latin america I kind of think it's much the same up in the u.s Too since conditions up by you are degrading rapidly or you wouldn't be listening to this show So anyway, the mystery was solved and thanks to the fact the cameras were 4k, man We had that guy dead to rights and i'm sure in the future all cops and law enforcement agencies even here in latin america Will have facial recognition so they'll be able to nab guys like that and this guy he's certainly involved in other crimes I mean he's got a system down stealing bikes is probably his full-time job. Hey, i'm not advocating facial recognition It's a huge invasion of privacy But I believe there's absolutely nothing wrong with having a database of faces that have already committed crimes

[12:41] That should be a given but as for the regular law-abiding public not good So anyway, the bottom line here is as I watch that guy Casually steal that vehicle. The first thing that popped into my head was my vehicle kill switch Now I haven't mentioned that kill switch for probably five years now The fact is every time I buy a car I install one best place to put it is down near the bottom edge of the dashboard Near to that lever that pops up your hood and it's so simple Just one heavy duty switch and two 14 gauge wires that lead right to your car's fuse box now it's simple but might take an hour or two to install because you'll have to drill a couple of holes and Feed those two wires through from the dashboard to the engine compartment But it is foolproof and dead easy to install and the cost no more than five to ten bucks in parts

[13:31] So who do you get to install one of these things and how does it work? You do it yourself or call your brother over and feed him some chips and beer and if you want the exact Step-by-step instructions. I put a little report together myself along with diagrams And if you want it, just shoot me an email the expat files at gmail.com I know I know everything's youtube these days, but you know what? I don't feel like doing that So if you install one of these switches using my method go ahead and film it and put it on youtube Get your 15 minutes of fame. Actually, it will be a lot more than 15 minutes. It'll be evergreen People will be downloading that thing forever. So how does it work? Well, I guess I should tell you that, huh? All you're doing is putting a switch Between either the positive wire that goes to your gas pump or the positive wire that initiates your starter

[14:17] You can pick either one of those connections off your fuse box So for example, when you pull the cover off of your fuse box in your car There's usually two fuse boxes one down by your brake pedal or right above the lever That pops your hood and the other under the hood very near your battery Anyway, when you pull the cover off your fuse box and look at the inside cover, there'll be a legend there In other words, it'll say which fuse goes for what? So you locate the fuse that either goes to the fuel pump or to the ignition I usually pull out the fuse for the ignition myself and run two 14 gauge wires from there Right to a heavy duty single pole single throw switch that I've mounted in a hole I've drilled far down at the bottom of the dashboard near the lever where you pop the hood Each car model is a little different. So you'll find the area that's most convenient for you

[15:04] Now here's how it works When you start your car, the switch has to be in the on position And you leave it in that position all the while you're driving your car. All right So now you're going to park you turn off the car's ignition But before you get out of the car flip the switch down to the off position And now if anyone has a key or tries to hotwire your car or is trying some kind of hack It just will not start In other words, no one's going to be able to steal your car unless they know that switch is there So don't tell anybody and even when you go to have your car worked on new brakes Getting a paint job, whatever don't tell the mechanic anything. Just leave the switch up in the on position He'll never know what it is He won't care because the car will start and stop fine Just as if it didn't have the switch as long as it's in the on position Now I also know that probably 95 percent of you listeners out there don't know what a kill switch is

[15:52] And I just explained it to you and though you probably wouldn't think of putting a kill switch in your car up in states canada or in europe because People have full coverage and a stolen car usually gets found. The thing is here in latin america It's more like the wild wild west and in some ways that's very desirable Although it's the wild wild west in a couple of negative ways, too For example down here. There's a much greater chance of car and motorcycle theft So then knowing that why not spend five or ten bucks and put in a kill switch It's great security and a kind of a fail safe extremely cheap insurance policy Though you might just say and a lot of gringles and expats do i'll just get full coverage insurance for my car and if it Gets stolen. Hey i'm covered Why not? It's cheap problem is and you long-time listeners have probably heard me mention this when you buy full coverage here in latin america

[16:40] They generally have a 3 deductible for collisions and theft In other words, they'll take the present value of your car multiply it by 3 percent Let's say your car is worth 20 grand. That's 600 bucks, right? That means if you get into a fender bender You'll have a 600 deductible and if they steal your car You'll have a 600 deductible against the present value of your car too The thing is if you have a kill switch in your car and you actually use it That means when you leave your car you flip it to the off position The result there's really no way in the hell anyone's going to be able to steal that car unless they tow it away I know. I know some of you are thinking what if someone sticks a gun in my face and says get out I'm taking your car Well, you may have heard rumors of that happening But i've been down here something like 30 years now and don't know anyone that's ever happened to nor has anyone

[17:27] Never told me of anyone they knew what's happened to though I have heard cases of people who pull up to a stoplight Oh, and this only seems to happen when people are totally consumed with their smartphones Where a motorcycle with two passengers pulls up knocks on the window points a gun and says give me your phone What they won't say is pull over and give me your car Because you see the more common scenario of two thieves on a motorcycle is strictly grab snatch and get the hell out of there Whereas stealing a car or a motorcycle involves a lot more planning and logistics So again, my suggestion for algringos and expats coming down who are going to own a vehicle Fork out the five or ten bucks dig deep in your pocket and put in a kill switch So if you want the plans for the switch i've used on practically every car i've bought here in latin america

[18:13] Send me an email the expat files at gmail dot com Oh, and you know, even though I don't recommend buying or using a motorcycle here in latin america That's kind of suicidal that kill switch works equally. Well It's a great deterrent when someone tries to steal a vehicle and it won't start even if you have the master key So what happens then? Well, they'll just walk away and target an easier mark and probably punch the mechanic in the face That sold them the master key and yes when I talk about a master key I'm talking about a regular key and those electronic keys, too You know how a lot of cars have those electronic remote fobs that you put on your keyring Now there's an odd word for you fob every car with a start button has one Just know that standard keys and those keyring devices are hackable In fact you can go right on the internet to the pirate sites and find programs that allow you to hack those things

[19:03] Or just go on youtube and put in how to hack your car keys Oh, and while you pull up the list, you'll see there's a youtube video showing some bad boys in england Who took only 30 seconds to hack and steal? 110 000 Tesla Okay, let's change gears now and hit on an email This is from an expat insider a seminar alumnus miss l she says johnny I've been enjoying your recent podcast on dirty electricity and how to measure it I've read that led lights However will damage your retina and that they should have a filter on them Not sure if that's an option at this time So I pulled mine out of the house and replaced them with the old edison style bulbs incandescence Someone also indicated to me that led lights were originally part of a weapon system

[19:49] And that they don't produce very good light. Anyway, have a good one johnny signed miss l Well, thanks for that miss l and you know being that i've studied up a lot on dirty electricity and I try to minimize the toxic things I put in my body or have to breathe or even look at Which is why I don't watch tv or listen to rap hip-hop ragathon or even post 1980s rock However being down here in latin america you'll soon enough see everyone's got their tv on all the waking hours Anyway, and there's music blasting from everywhere. And if you have anything like the normal american tastes You'll be curious, especially since you don't know the language and for that certain case, it's a good thing, too But like rap and hip-hop if you listen to the words and can actually understand them

[20:35] You'll soon see it for what it is toxic noise pollution even worse because it's a kind of insulting and degrading type of noise pollution I suppose i'm sounding like an old fogey, huh? However, for my money, it's one of the few big negatives I see with living here in latin america Because you're always bombarded with real horse Ragathon that means every car taxi uber restaurant bar disco and shopping malls blasting it too Now I suppose you could learn to tune it up as for me being that i'm kind of a b grade musician It probably irritates me more than the average guy because I know about music composition and structure I know what pure luck and lack of talent is when I see it But getting back to miss l's email we're talking about a different kind of pollution here light pollution We're talking led lights now

[21:23] I think they're great But only if you choose them correctly and as far as led is being originally part of a weapon system I remember way back when when I was in engineering school led lights were all red and were used first as timers clocks and counters So you have to imagine that one of the very first uses of led lights would have been an airplane and jet Cockpits and weapon systems simply because they were much more lighter and energy efficient than the old bulky mechanical and fluorescent numeric display systems They were using before now as far as led is producing not such a healthy kind of light Well, they do and they don't you just have to select correctly. So here's what you didn't know When you buy any light bulb look at the package. They have numbers and values on them The important ones being lumens, which is light intensity and one called warmth

[22:12] Which is measured in degrees kelvin and the range generally two to ten thousand kelvins That's actually considered a heat range But the higher the number the bluer the light the lower the number The warmer and more natural the light emitted and your so-called edison or incandescent lights that have a filament Are on the low end from two to three thousand kelvin, but low is good high is bad By the way, lord kelvin was the guy who developed the scale. That's just exactly like Celsius degrees centigrade except the kelvin scale starts at absolute zero with zero degrees kelvin where molecules are not moving at all Everyone knows that water freezes at zero degrees centigrade or celsius. That's the same as saying water freezes at 273 degrees kelvin because absolute zero is minus

[23:03] 273 degrees celsius Are you with me? Yes, no, maybe or are you checking instagram or looking at youtube better not Now, you know when you turn on an electric stove and it first starts getting warm You finally see it kind of red that'd be something like two thousand degrees kelvin And then if you were to crank the electricity way up and it got very hot finally The element would turn blue and then white of course, it would have been destroyed by then But in the blue to white range you're talking about 6 000 to maybe 10 000 degrees kelvin and as far as causing health problems or light damaging your eyes Fact is you want to have led lights or any kind of light as warm or yellow as possible low on the kelvin scale around Two to three thousand degrees kelvin the good news is you can pick your led lights by the kelvins

[23:50] They put out just pick something within two to three thousand. That'd be a nice warm incandescent looking bulb The problem is if you pick out an led that puts out blue light Your body starts producing a hormone called melanopsin. Yep It's got the word melanin in it and that messes with your natural sleep cycle screwing up your biorhythms and biological clack Oh, and there's one more thing on the label. You should pay attention to it's something called cri meaning color rendering index You should look for a high cri number because it's all about color accuracy In other words, you want your light bulb to produce an accurate rendering of the things that it's illuminating For example, when you walk into a hospital, you know, the lighting's making that place look institutional and that makes you feel terrible Doesn't it? However, if you have lights with a low kelvin number a low k number

[24:38] Let's say 2500 and a high cri number Let's say 90 if they had that kind of lighting in hospitals, you'd feel kind of warm and fuzzy I know that doesn't sound possible, but it is true There are thousands of studies that prove it by the way that cri number goes from zero to a hundred Pick something that's 80 to 100 and you'll be fine. That means whatever the light is shining on it'll reproduce the color accurately So by all means buy led lights, but always in the two to three thousand kelvin range Then you'll have a nice warm yellow light and pick a high cri number from 80 to 100 Do read those labels and remember when you see a light bulb that says soft or warm white That's the one you want. That'll be in the two to three thousand kelvin range

[25:25] My advice skip the led bulbs that say bright white those are from three to five thousand k and especially forget the ones that say daylight That's five thousand k to sixty five hundred k heavy in the blue range Which disrupts your hormones and your sleeping pattern and lastly they're all dc powered That's direct current meaning you can use any old battery to power one of them at the right voltage But most of us don't power them with batteries We power them off of one ten sixty cycle coming off your wall current So within each led lamp there's a little rectifier that turns ac 60 cycle to dc voltage Remember they run on dc and that's where all the dirty electricity comes from not the light itself It's the switching back and forth of 60 cycles a minute to produce the dc voltage

[26:12] Which is why when you hold your electromotive force meter up to an led bulb And look at the measurements to see what's safe I've checked it and you usually have to get at least a foot away from an led source However, let's say you're out camping and you're using a battery operated lantern Well that produces no dirty electricity at all because it's running directly from a 6 9 or 12 volt battery It's not taking 60 cycle house current and rectifying it and turning it to dc That's the dirty source we're talking about though admittedly some led manufacturers Rectify ac to dc much more smoothly meaning without peaks or spikes than other manufacturers So the dirty electricity component will vary a lot from company to company Which is why you should pick up an emf meter if you want to know the one I recommend and use myself

[26:58] You can get it on amazon. Just send me an email the expect files at gmail.com Oh, and by the way Try not to use dimmer switches that cause the dirtiest electricity of all. All right, just a plug here My new and permanent website is expatplanb.com Very soon. I'll be posting my upcoming july 2020 seminar information there and My newly revised latin american health care report You'll want to have that report if you're anywhere along in your plan b so Be sure to go to expatplanb.com and check it out 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 nos vemos