Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Expat Files”
-Expats and gringos arrive in Latin America as newbees: not registered or tracked by any agencies or databases save for their entrance on immigration computers. It’s a real gift to be free from Big Brother’s microscope and that means we all start out in Latin America with a clean slate, a low profile and with a very tiny footprint. So …
-More tips and suggestions when applying for Latin American residency
-Today a discussion that will be of interest to any listeners who might be considering a certain type of Latin American residency called “pensionado”. Yes this special residency plan does have its small advantages, but also a few restrictive disadvantages… and at least one very serious drawback.
-Another Latin Residency avenue employed by many expats is the so-called residency by qualified investment. This is just as it sounds, meaning the applicant must make a substantial monetary investment in some kind of govt approved venture. Depending on the country, the investment can be a few hundred thousand bucks with very strict rules and monitoring, or the investment can be a very small one and the rules quite lax.
-More outrageous eye-witness examples of idiot Latin showoffs with more money than brains. Of course wealthy showoffs with bodyguards and bulletproof SUVs making pompous asses out of themselves in public may be twisted and even morbidly funny sometimes (it’s their forte). After all it’s their often stolen public money and thus their own business- kinda . Unfortunately it’s not all that amusing when the average public is inconvenienced by their stupid escapades.
JULY 2015 -LATIN AMERICAN SEMINAR NOTICE: Make your plans today for the next Latin American Expat Wisdom seminar. Just go to thewww.ExpatWisdom.com main page and click on the Latin Seminar link for full details. The seminar will take place from Saturday, July 11th through Thursday July 16th, 2015.
-CONSULT WITH JOHNNY- SCHEDULE A CELL OR SKYPE CALL: Follow the consult link on the main page at www.ExpatWisdom.com and Johnny will help you sort out your Latin American plans.
It just might happen that a Latin friend or acquaintance will try to get you to support a local scumbag politician. Remember, it’s a huge feather in a politico’s hat to have a real live gringo at his or her event. Its considered a 1st world stamp of approval. No use telling a Latin that after a while, no matter …
A few pointed gringo/expat stories of how they’ve been ripped off or gouged by their own Latin lawyers. Sometimes clueless gringo schmucks never find out they’ve been scammed and sometimes they do, but only when they try to sell or mortgage that little piece of paradise. -Did you know that many Latin country land border crossings (the ones out …
-Slowly but surely Latins are becoming more and more security conscious and with the usual lag time they are taking baby steps. For example, many guard shacks checkpoints at upscale exclusive neighborhoods will demand a visitor’s driver’s license upon entering, photograph it and often hold it till your stay is done and you drive out. To me that’s too intrusive. …
-As promised, you can now send an email and get a free copy of the new e-book, “Fast Spanish” written by a faithful listener and Expat Wisdom seminar attendee. Better hurry though, the free offer is only good for a week or so. -Every day enlightened first world people are getting a plan “B” lined up as they …
-Is Spain a good starting place for would be expats? Today some comparisons between living in Spain versus Latin America.
-Get ready for another chapter in the crazy life of Expat Eddie. This time he’s got the maid and her 14year-old daughter living at his house. You’ll be a be surprised and perhaps shocked at the circumstances… and how its all been unfolding.
-Have you ever heard of a bruja? Every middle and lower middle class Latin neighborhood has one. It means “witch” in Spanish and also the name given to the neighborhood fortune teller/soothsayer, potion mixer/spell caster.
Yup, Latins are very, very superstitious. When all else fails in the love, romance, health and money departments the person makes a date with the local bruja and pays a fee- whether she gets the desired results or not; note the bruja clients are nearly always women! By the way, the word “brujaria” describes the acts and spells the brujas’ perform.
-More on safely moving your gold, silver and precious metals across borders and how to stay as anonymous as possible while doing so.
-A word on bank safety deposit boxes: their availability and use in Latin America
-If you’ve been watching the international news over the last few weeks you may have noticed a rather big top level political shakeup going down in Guatemala. It’s just the most recent billion dollar corruption scandal collapsing the present government. Along with the country’s first female vice president, dozens of high level politicos are in jail or under house arrest and a dozen politicians now fugitives on the run from Interpol.
That said, how does all this political turmoil and unrest affect the expats and gringos living in Guatemala? What do long term expats have to say about the situation? Are they nervous, frightened and ready to pack up and leave? You’ll be surprised to hear that talk of corruption and scandal rarely comes up in casual conversation amongst gringos and expats. Why? Because every administration is thoroughly corrupt. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the only ones really affected by such massive corruption and thievery are the common people, the 80% who must ride the chicken buses, attend horrible free public schools (no desks or running water). Its the poor people who must go to the pitiful but free public hospitals (with not enough beds, gloves, medicines or syringes to go around). They’re the ones that suffer- while expats and gringos continue to live like first world people no matter which corrupt leaders are in office.
-In the last two years nearly all Latin American countries have adopted their own sort of local Craig’s list clones… as well as many free classified ad websites. Of course there’s been the usual lag time of a few years but suddenly these sites are springing up and becoming quite popular- fast displacing the traditional newspaper classifieds which can be too pricy for the average Latin selling low-priced stuff. That said, wannabees and gonnabees should take advantage of such sites as much as they can; not only to find good cheap stuff but also as a nice side effect, pick up bits of commonly used Spanish terms along the way.
– If you live in Latin America long enough and as your Spanish skills improve, soon enough you’ll start to understand there’s a very odd subservient classist relationship between Latin Americans and their so called “mother-country” Spain. Do remember that it was the Spanish conquistadors that came over to rape, pillage, kill pagan priests and extract gold and silver at any cost. And do remember that, most of today’s present Latin Americans have a high percentage of the local indigenous blood (unlike the long term residents in the USA and Canada) …. which is why the majority of Latins are short and brown- not white and tall like their Spanish conquerors. In short, real Spaniards fro Europe believe their Latin cousins to be lower-class rabble who will never pull themselves from the muck they have created.
