-The unspoken truth: a good percentage of backpackers eventually get robbed. Most robberies don’t take place on the street or even at knife or gunpoint. In-your-face robberies are rare. The big surprised is that most backpacker robberies occur at cheap, fleabag hostels and backpacker hotels. Its mostly petty thievery. Items like mp3 players, flash drives, pocket water filters, and Swiss Army Knives go missing all the time yet rarely get reported to the management…not that it would do any good. Yes of course passports, credit cards and entire awkward 50 pound backpacks occasionally go missing too… but nine out of te...
-The unspoken truth: a good percentage of backpackers eventually get robbed. Most robberies don’t take place on the street or even at knife or gunpoint. In-your-face robberies are rare. The big surprised is that most backpacker robberies occur at cheap, fleabag hostels and backpacker hotels. Its mostly petty thievery. Items like mp3 players, flash drives, pocket water filters, and Swiss Army Knives go missing all the time yet rarely get reported to the management…not that it would do any good. Yes of course passports, credit cards and entire awkward 50 pound backpacks occasionally go missing too… but nine out of ten times it’s the small stuff that walks.
-I’m always being asked about English teaching jobs. Yes, they’re very available and easy to get, but I also know that 95% of gringos who start out with teaching jobs just use them as stepping stones. Eventually almost all expat teachers move on to other more lucrative opportunities as their “gringo advantage” kicks in- it doesn’t take long before the business ideas begin to percolate in our heads. But what about that tiny percentage of expat English teachers who never move on? Some are simply very very laid back and easily satisfied. And some teacher gringos are just NOT entrepreneurs or motivated to do anything else but teach and get a salary, so they keep on make a career out of it. Now, there’s nothing wrong with teaching (other than the crap pay). But a little known fact is there are certain perks for gringos with private school teaching jobs that you couldn't imagine...
-Expats living in detached single family properties often travel, or just go away a lot. If that fits your lifestyle then having an outdoor guard dog of some kind is often a good security measure. It shows that someone is looking after the place. Here are a few words about that, as well as another strange but true story that really will take you for a wild ride!
-My January 2014 “Expat Wisdom” seminar is almost filled. To get one of the last 2 spots available, check out the agenda and the signup details by clicking on the Latin American Seminar link on the top of the www.ExpatWisdom.com mainpage.
-Follow the link on the main page at www.ExpatWisdom.com to schedule a private consultation 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.
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