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A guide to moving to Latin America, finding work, and settling in.
Episodes
Friday Aug 15, 2014
Friday Aug 15, 2014
Sunday Aug 10, 2014
Sunday Aug 10, 2014
-Part II of gringos, gringas and motorcycles in Latin America: Motorcycles are cheap, dependable transportation all right… but when in Latin America should you dare drive one or even hop on as a passenger?
Friday Aug 08, 2014
Friday Aug 08, 2014
Sunday Aug 03, 2014
Sunday Aug 03, 2014
One of truly great things about living and hanging well off the gringo tourist trail(besides occasionally being treated like a B-grade rock star) is that there are literally thousands of spectacular ancient Aztec, Mayan, Toltec, and Inca ruins open to the public that are almost NEVER crowded. In fact there can be so few people visiting these sites and parks that you can't even locate a park ranger or employee once you've paid the initial entry fee. That said, gringos sometimes wonder how Latin governments manage to keep so many of these places open to the public at all.
Sunday Aug 03, 2014
Sunday Aug 03, 2014
One of truly great things about living and hanging well off the gringo tourist trail(besides occasionally being treated like a B-grade rock star) is that there are literally thousands of spectacular ancient Aztec, Mayan, Toltec, and Inca ruins open to the public that are almost NEVER crowded. In fact there can be so few people visiting these sites and parks that you can't even locate a park ranger or employee once you've paid the initial entry fee. That said, gringos sometimes wonder how Latin governments manage to keep so many of these places open to the public at all.
Friday Aug 01, 2014
Friday Aug 01, 2014
Sunday Jul 27, 2014
Sunday Jul 27, 2014
From the “be careful what you wish for department”: The Nicaragua Canal- PART II. Ask yourself, where are they going to put 200 million cubic yards of sludge and rock left over after dredging the proposed channel in Lake Nicaragua? And that’s just the excess stuff that must be removed to make the 90 foot deep proposed channel in the 60 mile lake route. Note that doesn’t include what's to be dug out of the 120 mile channel (twice as long) cut along the land route. And by the way, that 200 million cubic yards from just the lake dredging measures out to about 4 times the rock, soot and lava that blewing off as Mt. St. Helens erupted. Once again, where’s all that crud going to get dumped? That said, there’s no end to the engineering and logistics problems posed by this new canal…
-Time to find out when a “gringo” is not a gringo?
-How do Latins address “sensitive” hyphenated North American ethnic tourist types? Well, except for one particularly odd ethnic case, Latins just don’t make those distinctions or even get the concept when you try to explain it to them. Thus they follow none of the unwritten stateside PC name rules that pervade Cleveland, Danville and Cucamonga (yup, that’s a real place, and it’s in California).
-Besides being a cheap and dirty way to lodge, backpacker hotels and hostels offer young, free and easy adults certain things they can’t find in a traditional hotel setting- like shared bathrooms, bacteria and bedbugs as well as the extremely friendly company of other free and easy adults!
-Do follow the link on the main page at www.ExpatWisdom.com to schedule a private phone, Skype or Mumble consult with me. If you want to discuss the details of living, working, playing, doing business and/or retiring in Latin America. Now you and I can talk about your situation one on one.
Friday Jul 25, 2014
Friday Jul 25, 2014
Sunday Jul 20, 2014
Sunday Jul 20, 2014
-Now for a small report on the latest Expat Wisdom seminar. Since this show was recorded on Saturday, the day after the official last day “boots on the ground” experience- it’s still very fresh in in the minds of the attendees.
-Locals are complaining about Venezuela’s new $20 Airport “air quality” travel tax levied at Caracas International airport. Its ostensibly to pay for the new ozone air purifiers installed in the terminal- never mind that the airport bathrooms have no water or TP, the escalators have long since ceased to function, there are packs of stray dogs actually living inside the terminal and there are 70 plus broken windows all over the place. Duh? The only good thing is that most gringos and expats will never ever venture near the place. (Unfortunately I recently did)
From the “be careful what you wish for department”: First world people believe many Latin countries are socialist or have a heavy socialist bent. In fact, most halfway intelligent first-world folks know the names of a certain few standouts: Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador (and maybe Nicaragua). Then what about the other 15 Latin countries? Where do they stand politically? Well, sorry to say, they are all socialist leaning countries to varying degrees (yeah, like yours isn’t?) Here’s the scoop on that…
-Cameras are starting to pop up in all Latin American big cities. Many busy street corners now have them. Are we being tracked and cataloged? Should expats worry? Here’s the real story.
-When gringos and expats pass through Latin airports they’re almost always pleasantly surprised- find out why.
-Do follow the link on the main page at www.ExpatWisdom.com to schedule a private phone, Skype or Mumble consult with me. If you want to discuss the details of living, working, playing, doing business and/or retiring in Latin America, now you and I can talk about your situation one on one.
Sunday Jul 13, 2014
Sunday Jul 13, 2014
-Down here in Latin America there are little hole-in-the-wall upholstery shops everywhere. The fact is that many of the little guys operating these business are true artists that can repair or re-cover any piece of furniture or auto seat like new. Don't judge them by the condition of their shops, cloths or amount of scattered debris. Most can expertly re-upholster even a very common, cheap, chair or sofa, etc., in fine leather if you like. So, if it isn’t against your sensibilities to sit on dead cow parts- amazingly enough the cost of the leatherwork will certainly be less expensive than having the equivalent job done in cheap vinyl up in the states. Meaning, if leather furniture was always a bit extravagant or out of your price range in Cleveland- down here you can shoot the works and not feel guilty(except maybe about the dead cow).
-Did you know that most Latin families have a vacuum cleaner in the closet somewhere but almost no one in the family (including the cleaning lady) ever uses it? Why? Most all of them get terribly abused right out of the box and simply break down fast. And as for the rest? They're often too clogged to work efficiently. Again, it’s about the maintenance(surprised?). The fact is, most cleaning ladies and maids are afraid to use anything mechanical anyhow, lest the item break down and they get blamed for it(they do take the heat for broken stuff all of the time and often get docked for it).
From the “be careful what you wish for department”: If you play the piano, or have the desire to own a “real” acoustic model… we’re not talking about an electric keyboard model here… then there are some important things you need to know about having delicate instruments like that down here in Latin America. In fact any instrument that has a lot of real wood incorporated in it, be it a violin, guitar, viola, double bass, cello, etc., all need a certain amount of special care, attention and maintenance. As you know, these concepts that are foreign to most Latin folks.. even the educated ones (why do you think its called the 3rd world bub?)
-INSECT INVASIONS PART 2, Rule #1: Never attempt to swat an insect that’s bigger than your head.
-Do follow the link on the main page at www.ExpatWisdom.com to schedule a private phone, Skype or Mumble consult with me. If you want to discuss the details of living, working, playing, doing business and/or retiring in Latin America, now you and I can talk about your situation one on one.