Is Latin America Really Cheaper than the U.S.??

Every now and then, people ask me if Latin America is really all that much cheaper than living in the States. Or friends make comments about how I must be able to live like a king when I´m in Latin America. This is something I have briefly discussed in a previous post - Why I Like Latin America.

It is kind of a cliché idea that many gringos have - a dream of vacationing or retiring in a Latin paradise where the beer is cold and cheap. Well, that part is certainly true. The beer is cheaper... But the gringo dream encompasses much more than merely cheap beer - the gringo imagines a world where he can live a life of peace, relaxation and luxury.

I think most of us are somewhat familiar with this stereotypical idea of Latin America. Remember The Shawshank Redemption? Tim Robbins´s character breaks out of prison and makes his way down to a small coastal town in Mexico. Of course part of the reason he went to Latin America was to evade being captured and sent back to prison... But I´m just saying, Tim Robbins didn´t choose to hide out in Saudi Arabia or China - he went to Latin America... where the beer is indeed cold and the women are hot.

So, the question remains whether Latin America is really less expensive than living in the U.S... Well, the short answer is "Yes" - but the better answer is "it depends".

It depends on where you are coming from - are you moving to Latin America from Mississippi or are you moving from NYC, Boston, or Los Angeles??

It also depends on the lifestyle you are looking for - are you ready to live like an average Panamanian or are you accustomed to central A/C?

Maybe you live in a middle-class neighborhood in the U.S. - but what kind of neighborhood are you prepared for in Buenos Aires?

I´ll address some of these factors based on my own personal experience in the following posts:

Part 1 - Paying Rent in Latin America

Part 2 - Living like a Local

Part 3 - Goods and Services in Latin America

Remember this is not scientific data or anything - just my own observations and antecdotes.

Part 1 - Paying Rent in Latin America

So maybe you are thinking of moving permanently or temporarily to a Latin American country. You have heard that Latin America is supposed to be really cheap... so you should be able to live like a king, right? Well, yes and no. There are a number of factors to take into account in considering whether a gringo can really live all that much cheaper in Latin America.

One of the most substantial expenses in living in Latin America or anywhere else is RENT. Here are a few things to consider in anticipating whether or not your rent money in the U.S. will be sufficient to afford you a palace overlooking the Caribbean:

Where are you coming from? For one thing, it depends on where you have been living in the U.S. For example, when I graduated from the Ole Miss in 2006, I think that I was paying a little over $300/month for half of a 2 bedroom-2 bathroom house. Maybe it was closer to $350... Anyway, at one point I was paying about the same in Bocas del Toro, Panama. On one hand, I was not sharing the house in Bocas with a roommate. On the other hand, the place in Bocas was sort of sh*tty. But the rent was comparable to what I paid in Oxford, Mississippi.

Then I moved to Boston, where our 3-bedroom apartment costs $2,700/month. I share the place with 2 friends, so I end paying a little more than $800 in addition to my share of utilities. So you can see that Boston rent money would probably get me something pretty nice down in Bocas del Toro, compared to my rent money in Oxford Mississippi.

Where are you going? Of course it also depends where in Latin America you will be spending time. Like I said,

Part 2 - Living Like a Local

In determining whether your life in Latin America will be less expensive than in the U.S. you´ll need to decide how you plan to live...

Do you plan to be on permanent vacation in Latin America? Will you be jet-setting around all the time or clubbing every night?

Are you an overweight alcoholic or drug abuser? If so, then you´ll probably find food, alcohol and drugs to be cheaper in Latin America. But let´s be honest, gringo. You and I both know that this probably means that you are just going to consume even more...

Do you hope to integrate into the community? Or do you imagine your life in Latin America more like the people in the picture above?

Something I realized living in Panama is that I could live a whole lot cheaper there if I was willing to live and eat a little more like an average Panamanian.

Just a few examples:

A standard Panamanian meal may consist of lots of rice, beans, fried or baked plantains, and a relatively small portion of meat. It is work food - inexpensive and lots of carbs.

An average Panamanian does not necessarily need a huge quantity of beer and alcohol to enjoy a day at the beach.

In Panama City, thousands of Panamanians get around each day on packed buses with no air-conditioning, whereas most foreigners will opt for a taxi. The bus ride costs

Part 3 - Goods & Services in Latin America

I hope my posts have not discouraged you. Remember, I am a huge fan of Latin America - and one of things I like most is that I can afford a lifestyle that I really enjoy. I´m just trying to paint a slightly more informed, realistic picture of Latin America... Yes, in many ways it is a cheaper place to live, and it is certainly less expensive to travel here than in western Europe. But just how far your money really goes depends on a number of variables. I have tried to discuss some of those factors in this series of posts.

All that being said, there are certainly some products and services that are waaay cheaper here in Latin America. I´ll discuss some of my favorites:

Leather Goods in Argentina. Obviously, goods that are produced locally will tend to be less expensive. One great example is leather goods in Argentina. You see, Argentina has a bunch of cows - so that means a gringo can take advantage of great prices on cow products. Let me give you an example. In the picture on the right, you can see the Gucci´s famous Bit Loafer. The Gucci model costs about $500 retail. Other high-end shoe brands have come out with shoes of the same design. For example, the Allen Edmond model goes for about $300. Well, I bought a pair here in Argentina for less than U$S 100. They are made here locally, hand stitched and all of that - so this is sort of a mix of both a "good" and a "service".

And while the quality probably falls short of the Gucci model, I´ll get my money´s worth out of these shoes. You can also get great deals on leather coats, bags, purses, belts, etc. For U$S 15-20, you can buy a leather belt that would cost more than twice as much in the States.

Beef. Here in Argentina, this again goes back to the fact that there are a bunch of cows here. Argentine beef is world-renowned, and people eat a whole lot of it here. Iit is tender, juicy, comes in large portions, and doesn´t cost very much money. It is common here to go to a restaurant and order a giant steak and a simple salad of lettuce, tomato, onions and olive oil.

It is also interesting that here in Argentina, they eat all kinds of parts of the cow that we don´t usually think of eating in the States. One example is Chinchulín - which is the cow´s small intestine. On the left is a picture of a sizzling piece of cow intestine - it is actually really good.

If you are ever lucky enough to be invited to an "asado" in Argentina, you should definitely take advantage of the opportunity. As for some of the cow organs that you´ll be offered, I recommend that you just try everything and don´t ask questions.

Wine. I´m not much of a wine connoisseur... I mean I do drink it sometimes... When I go

Just a Few Things Falling Apart this Week

This week started off just fine. On Monday morning, I didn´t have to go to my International Private Law class. They were conducting sort of a "make-up exam" for people who didn´t do well on our mid-term a couple weeks ago. I found out last week that I did really well on that exam. As a matter of fact, the professor announced that I had made the highest grade in the class! I was pleased that I had done well, but I was also a little embarrassed. I´m sure some of my classmates were thinking, "Who does this gringo think he is?"

Of course, nearly all of my classmates work in addition to taking law school classes. Aside from school, my only other obligations are social ones ;-) On the other hand, it probably takes me twice as long as my Argentine classmates to

Visitors in Buenos Aires

I just found out the other day that my buddy Dan is coming down to Buenos Aires next week. Dan is another gringo that really enjoys being in Latin America. Dan and I met back in 2005 when we both studied together here in Argentina for a college semester abroad. Since then, we have stayed in touch on Facebook and chatting by phone every few months. I have only gotten to see him once, though - last summer when we were both in Houston. Anyway, I know he is looking forward to coming back down here, and I am pretty psyched about a 5-year reunion here in Buenos Aires.

Dan has gotten around quite a bit, too. He is originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, but he went to undergrad at Cornell. After college, he worked for nearly 2 years for Jones Lang Lasalle in NYC, but I think he got a little burned out on the job and the City. Then he moved down to Antigua, Guatemala to do some volunteer work for about 6 months. At some point he was offered a job with a hedge fund in Ireland and had planned to move to Dublin after Guatemala. The job was going to have him traveling a lot, and sounded awesome - but then the whole thing fell through as a result of the economic crisis. So he went back to Grand Rapids for awhile before finally moving down to Houston to work with a firm involved in real estate transactions. Like I said, the guy gets around.

On the right is a picture from a soccer game in Argentina back in 2005. That is Dan on the far-right.

Anyway, I haven't gotten to talk much with Dan since I came down to Argentina - so I am looking forward to catching up with him next week. He is coming down with a friend, and they will both stay at my place. This will be an opportunity to justify the additional bedroom that I am renting here for visitors! Anyway, Dan is flying in on Monday, May 17th. It looks like he'll be here through the following weekend when Argentina celebrates its 200th year of independence. It is going to be a great time, and I'm really pumped that they are coming down!

Anibal's Story

Before you read this post, I want to warn you that it will not be a "funny" post. As a matter of fact, this is a very sad story. Please understand that I am not setting up a joke here - this story has a really tragic ending. A young man dies.

This story has been on my mind for the last 2 weeks. I woke up one morning thinking about it and could not get it out of my head all that day. Since then, it has sort of stayed on my mind, and I have debated whether to write about it on El Gringuito. If you have read some of my other blog posts, you know that I usually put a light-hearted spin on the stories I tell.

My stories usually go something like this:

Part 1 - Ryan & friends prepare to do something weird.

Part 2 - Ryan & friends do something weird (often making questionable decision).

Part 3 - Ryan & friends luckily walk away - usually relatively unscathed, maybe a little embarrassed, and hopefully having learned something from the experience.

Well, like I said, this story does not have a happy-ending where everyone walks away unhurt and a little wiser. This story just ends in tragedy, and a light-hearted spin is not really possible.

Nevertheless, I believe it is a story worth telling. For one thing, it had a pretty substantial affect on me personally. The story also serves as an example of how a bad or even a merely questionable decision can have huge and lasting implications.

So based on what I have told you, you can decide whether or not you want to click the link to the full-post. If not, there is plenty of other material on El Gringuito that is not quite so heavy.

Have YOU Seen My Dopplegänger??

DISCLAIMER: This post has been written for satirical purposes only. It is a joke. The conversations and investigations I describe have been exaggerated and embellished for entertainment purposes only. Of course this man is not really evil - and he has not actually instilled the level of fear at BU Law that I have described. He is just a student and a guy that my friends decided looks a lot like me. Or maybe I look like him. Anyway, apparently we sort of look alike. The point is that this post is a joke and not meant to offend anyone - especially not my Dopplegänger. That being said, on with the post...

Have you seen my Dopplegänger? Do you understand what it means for a guy to have a Dopplegänger? Here is a link to a relevant Wikipedia article. Basically, a Dopplegänger is someone who looks just like you. Well during the fall 2009 semester at BU Law, I began hearing reports that I had a Dopplegänger in the LLM class. Many of our LLM students at BU Law are foreign, and initial reports suggested that my Dopplegänger may have been from Germany, Austria or Switzerland. We later found out that it was, in fact, from Dallas, Texas.

I'll never forget the first time I saw my Dopplegänger - it was getting onto the elevator at the Law Tower, and we made eye contact. My Dopplegänger's hair was quite a bit longer than mine. I'm also pretty sure that I am slightly taller than him. But I instantly knew that this had to be the Dopplegänger that I had been hearing about...

This all sounds like fun and games, but some people believe that encountering your Dopplegänger can be an omen of bad luck or even impending death. Some people believe that if a person is generally "good", then that person's Dopplegänger will be "evil" - and vice versa. If I am the good one, then my Dopplegänger is to be avoided. Even worse - what if IT is the good one...?

While several of my friends got a kick out of seeing and even meeting my Dopplegänger, I decided to stay away from it. The fact that

Little Franquito

Hey I have some great news! If you have read some of my past blog postings, then you may know that my buddy, Francisco's, wife has been pregnant. Well, not any more - on Friday, April 16th, little Franquito was born. Francisco sent me a text message, and I went to the hospital to visit the new family of three. I took a taxi, because I didn't know exactly where the hospital was located. I was a little embarrassed when the taxi pulled up to a hospital 3 blocks away from my house! Anyway, here is a picture of Franquito taken at the hospital. You can see that he is already wearing a San Lorenzo hat!

Until tonight, I haven't gotten to see Franquito since the hospital, because I have been busy studying for exams. Anyway, it looks like Francisco and his wife, Laura, are adjusting quite nicely.

Let me tell you about the gift I gave Francisco and Laura just a few days before Franquito was born. Initially, I was going to give them a baby-monitor, but then I realized that a baby-monitor would not be very useful to them, since Franquito's crib is in their bedroom. They are very excited and devoted parents, and they want to be able to jump out of bed and tend to Franquito when he awakes in the night.

Instead, I decided to buy them an "egg". I'm not sure what the word is in English, but Francisco calls it an "egg". Bascially, it is one of those removeable car-seats that the baby sits in during car trips, and then you can take it out and carry the baby in it when you go to a restaurant or to your friend's house. Anyway, Francisco and I met at a store on the Wednesday before Franquito was born to choose which "egg" to buy.

We walk into the store and find three different car-seat models to choose from. We start debating the pros and cons of each of the different models, which colors we like most, etc. We were in the store for more than an hour looking at car-seats. The sales associate even entered the discussion, offering his opinion on the benefits of each of the different car-seats. I am confident that we chose the best one in the end. Then we went to the register - and Francisco explained that I would be paying. As we left the store, all the sales associates were smiling. That was when I realized that I was wearing sort of a pink shirt - I am pretty sure that the sales associates thought that we were a homosexual couple who had adopted a baby.

Anyway, tonight I went to Francisco's house for dinner and to see little Franquito. We had a really nice time. Francisco and Laura call me as "Tio Ryan" (Uncle Ryan). I really hope that they will continue to refer to me as Tio Ryan, as it makes me feel really good. I'd like Franquito to grow up knowing me as Tio Ryan.

Of course, I'll understand if things don't work out that way. I am already an uncle, and here is the thing I have realized about Tio Ryan - he is a lot of fun, but he never seems to stick around long enough. Anyway, tonight I got to hold Franquito, which I really enjoyed. I cannot tell you how happy I am for Francisco and Laura - they have been really excited about starting their family, and they are going to be great parents. Little Franquito is lucky to have them as parents.

Niño del Mar

This is a really cool article about my buddy, Bolivar Andres, who lives in Bocas del Toro, Panama. That is him on the left in the picture I have robbed from his Facebook.

Bolivar is originally from Chile, but arrived to Panama many years ago on a sale boat with his father. As the article explains, Bolivar is an experienced sailor - a true seaman, but Bolivar is also well-known in Panama as one hell of a surfer. In crossing paths with him, though, you'd never know it - because he's not at all boastful. In fact, Bolivar is one of the most genuinely good people you'll ever meet. Anyway, I was impressed with the article and wanted to share it with you all. DEFINITELY CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE.

At the bottom of the article there is some good footage of Bolivar surfing. Here is a link to Bolivar's video on YouTube. I was going to embed Bolivar's surf video directly in this post - but while searching for it I found this other YouTube video of a conversation between Bolivar and my friend, Scott Balogh - discussing the bungalows that Scott built and that he rents out on Bastimentos island in Bocas. Lemme go ahead and plug into this post the Red Frog Bungalows, a place worth checking out when you are looking to get away from the sad U.S. economy and be able to step directly out of your room onto a beautiful beach. Actually, if you check out the El Gringuito Slideshow (in the upper left-hand corner), you can see several images of the very beach where the Red Frog Bungalows are located. I can guarantee you'll wish you were there. Anyway, I'm glad to have the opportunity to give a shout out to both Bolivar and Scott in Panama.

Only the very beginning of the video is in Spanish, and then Bolivar and Scott switch to English - so stick with it even if you don't speak Spanish. I'm not sure when the recorded this, but I got a kick out of it - so I have included the video here:

Bicycle

I have just been told by my friend, Josh, that he received a ticket today for running a red light on Commonwealth Ave. up in Boston. He says there were no cars in sight, but of course we all know that you still are supposed to stop... Here is the kicker, though - he was on his bicycle. The ticket will cost him U$S 150 and will have an adverse effect on his insurance.

I'm studying for a test, so I won't take the time to look into what the current law applicable in Boston, Massachusetts actually says about this. Nor will I get into the policy arguments about whether a bicycle should constitute a "vehicle" - or other relevant terminology - while on the roads and/or sidewalks of an urban community. But you should feel free to debate:

Should driving laws and regulations should be equally applicable to cyclists?
What are the arguments?
Maybe for the sake of synergy between all the operators on the roads?
Maybe to help ensure the safety of community members?
Should cyclists be required to apply for a license to operate their bike or unicycle?
Should cyclists pay for a license plate to put on their bikes?
If so - should the license plates be full-sized like we put on cars - or maybe the little key-chain sized license plates? Maybe something in between...?

Actually, I take it back - don't feel free to debate this here. I'll just end this post by saying that this is one more reason I am enjoying being out of Boston and in Latin America for the semester :-)



UPDATE: Well, the law students decided to debate anyway. Hehe... Therefore, the floor is open again to comments and arguments for anyone who has something to say about this.

Weekend Report - 04.25.2010

This past weekend was a lot of fun. I already told you about Reggaeton Night on Friday. Well, on Saturday I spent most of the afternoon studying, but that evening I went with some buddies to a birthday party. The girl hosting the party was from Italy, and pretty much everyone there was from Europe or different parts of Latin America. I enjoyed this crowd a good bit more than the last ex-pat party I attended several weeks ago. That last ex-pay party was part of the inspiration for my very first blog post - see "Gringo".

Anyway, on Saturday I started out the evening with my friends, Felix and Sebastian. That is Felix on the left in the picture. He is a buddy from my Maritime Law class at the UBA. Felix is a great guy and lots of fun to hang out with; however, I do not think he will be be helping me out a whole lot in preparing for exams because he doesn't show up at class half the time. I've also seen his handwriting, which is complete sh*t. I'll be much better off studying with a nice girl - a strategy I have discussed in a previous post.

Sebastian is the guy squeezed in between me and the skeptical-looking girl with big hair in the picture above. Sebastian is one of Felix's best friends, and we hit it off pretty well when we all went out together a couple weeks ago. Sebastian is one of those guys who seems to know everybody. For example, in Buenos Aires the stores stop selling alcohol at 11:00 p.m., but Sebastian always seems to be on a first-name basis with the owner of the Kiosks. He generally walks in and exchanges some jokes and banter with whomever is working, and then they go ahead and sell us

Belinda

This is a picture with Belinda Peregin. She is a 20-year-old popular singer from Mexico, and pretty good looking in my opinion. I saw her at Reggaeton Night where she was interviewing people for MTV. Actually, I didn't know who she was. My friend Consuelo told me I take a picture with the MTV girl, so I did. Then when I got home I realized that I have some of her music on my computer.



Anyway, this picture doesn't do her justice - so check out one of Belinda's music videos:

Reggaeton Night

On Friday, I went to Reggaeton Night here in Buenos Aires. Reggaeton is a music genre that has developed as sort of a mix of reggae, cumbia, hip-hop and rap. Most of it is in Spanish, although there will occasionally be some English thrown in there.

Reggaeton has developed in countries through Central America and the Caribbean, and it has actually gotten pretty popular in the U.S. Many people consider it a "guilty pleasure". This is because reggaeton isn't always exactly "good" music - the lyrics are often cheesy (with some exceptions - see Calle 13), the rhythms and melodies repetitive, and the singer is usually decked out in platinum chains and other over-the-top bling.

But it is feel good music, and it is great for dance clubs. I guess people start considering it a guilty pleasure when they leave the dance club and start listening to reggaeton on their iPods.

Well, I listened to a whole lot of it when I lived in Panama. As a matter of fact, I still listen to a lot of reggaeton. I listen to it on my iPod in Boston, and I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. Anyway, I need to get back to telling you about what happened at the show.

The 3 singers on Friday night all came from Panama - Eddy Lover, La Factoria, and Makano. None of these guys

Getting Stuck - A Series

I have several friends who are stuck in different parts of western Europe right now because of the volcano eruption in Iceland. Basically, each of them was on vacation somewhere, and now they cannot get back to their families, jobs, and lives because all flights have been canceled and delayed. Huge pain - it has even lead a girl I know to move "volcanos" down to almost last place on her list of favorite natural disasters.

Anyway, the Facebook Community has been responding to this unfortunate predicament by saying things like, "Well, you have a few more days in [INSERT BEAUTIFUL EUROPEAN CITY] - could be worse!" Being stuck on Europe vacation is a huge inconvenience and probably quite costly for these folks, but I guess the Facebook Community does have a point. There are worse places to be stuck. At about 6:00 a.m. this morning, this got me thinking about some of the times I have gotten stuck (or almost gotten stuck) in crappy places and situations. I'll tell these stories in the next three posts below this one. Here are links to those posts:

Part 1 - Stuck in a Cave

Part 2 - Stuck in the Darien Gap

Part 3 - Stuck in Panama City at 4:00 a.m. with no Wallet, Money or Identification

This is sort of "filler" material, because I am studying for another exam on Thursday. These stories happened a little while back when I was in Panama, so I have had them filed away in my head. When I am studying like this, I can still find the time to hammer out a quick blog post, but studying keeps me from going out and doing the weird stuff that I like to come back home and write about. So I just don't have as much new material to report. Don't worry though, I'll be out there making questionable decisions again in no time.

Part 1 - Stuck in a Cave

This is a story from about 4 years ago when when 3 friends and I spent a month in Panama and Colombia after graduating from college. The only other piece of background info you need to know is that we were on an island off the coast of Panama, and found a local Guaymi indian who said that he and his brother could takes us into a cave there on the island. Of course, this sounded like a great thing to do.

Well, we were able to come up with 3 hard-hats and a few flashlights. Of course there were 6 of us (4 gringos + 2 guides), and the flashlights were not water-proof (this is an example of "foreshadowing"). Feeling semi-prepared, we sat off on our adventure. We took a short boat ride through a small creek into the jungle, walked about 20 minutes to the entrance of the cave, and walked in.

The roof of the cave was covered in bats, and the floor of the cave was covered in water and bat droppings. During our first 10 minutes in the cave, we came across a caiman. I'm no animal expert, so I'll just say that these are like smaller versions of the alligators we see in Mississippi and Louisiana. Anyway, my friend Drew decided that he wanted to grab the caiman's tail.

Part 2 - Stuck in the Darien Gap

This is another story from 2006 when 3 friends and I spent a month in Panama and Colombia after college graduation. We decided to rent a car and go hiking into the Darien Gap. For those who don't know, the Darien Gap is the 30+ miles of dense jungle that separates Panama and Colombia. It is the one and only reason that it is not feasible to drive a car all the way down to South America. The Darien Gap is inhabited by the Embera indians, a few VERY small little villages, and roaming FARC guerrilas and other Colombian rebel militias.



Our plan was to hike into the Darien Gap to a ranger station called Rancho Frio. We would spend the night there and spend the next morning seeing animals, taking cool pictures and exploring the jungle. Then we'd hike back to our car and return to Panama City.

So we rent the car and set off down the Pan-American Highway. Well, the Highway eventually turns into more of a road, then a dirt road, then just dirt. Finally, you are bumping along a pitted dirt path that cuts through the jungle. We went through no less than 3 different police checkpoints before we finally arrived to a small little village called Yaviza. This is where the Pan-American Highway stops. We asked some local police if we could leave our rented car at their camouflage-covered police station, and they obliged. Then we found a store to stock up on some "supplies".

Most guidebooks recommend that you do NOT go to the Darien Gap. The guidebooks then give you helpful advice in case you decide to go anyway. I think our guidebook recommended that we take plenty of food, water, a First-Aid kit, satellite phone, camping equipment, etc. Well, here is what we took into the Darien Gap: a bag of rice, a can of mixed vegetables, 4 cans of tuna, some bottled water.

Not the least bit prepared for our hike, the 4 of us set off on a 1-and-a-half hour canoe ride

Part 3 - Stuck in Panama City at 4:00 a.m. with no Wallet, Money or Identification

This is a story from just a couple months ago. I was in Panama and had gone out for the evening with a friend of mine. We had dinner, then went for some drinks, then went to an apartment in Paitilla where several of the her friends were having a little party. Well, at about 3:00 a.m., we left in a taxi. The taxi dropped her off at her house in El Dorado, and then the taxi driver was going to take me to my buddy Ben's apartment where I was staying for the night. I was about half-way to Ben's place when I realized I didn't have my wallet.

I had the wallet earlier in the night when we went for dinner and drinks, so I thought it must have fallen out of my pocket back in the Paitilla apartment. I asked the taxi driver to take me back to to the party. Well, the wallet wasn't there. I now had 2 immediate problems: First, I didn't know how I was going to get back to Ben's apartment, because I didn't have money for a taxi. That leads to the second problem - I had a taxi driver waiting for me downstairs who expected to be paid for driving the girl home and then taking me all the way back to the Paitilla party.

I asked the people at the party if someone could "loan" me a few dollars to pay the taxi driver. I managed to find one guy who gave me $5. I went downstairs and asked the taxi driver how much I owed him - $8 he says. My reply was, "Well, all I have is $5." The taxi driver called me an "awebao" (read "dumbass") and squealed his tires as he sped away. It is interesting how squealing your tires is an international way of saying "I feel very angry with you". Anyway, as the taxi sped away, I knew that one of my problems was now gone.

Then I started trying to think of how I could get back to Ben's apartment, which was several miles away.

Clubbing with a Kingpin

This is a picture of me with Guillermo Coppola taken in the VIP area of the Terrazas del Este club, in Buenos Aires Argentina.

Your first question may be, "What was Ryan Bullock doing in the VIP area of a club in Buenos Aires?" Well, the explanation is that I was not Ryan Bullock that night - I was "Chip Duracell". That's right... of THE Duracell family. My great grandfather started the Duracell battery company, and I am the an "heir to the Duracell family fortune". Of course that is ridiculous - there is no Duracell family. But Chip Duracell gets to step into the VIP area.

The next question is who is Guillermo Coppola. Well, here in Argentina he is known as "El Rey de la Noche" (the King of the Night). Basically, he is a major socialite, politically-connected celebrity, and womanizer who many believe has had links to organized crime here in Argentina. Coppola was Diego Maradona's manager for years. For those of you who don't know, Diego Maradona is a former Argentine soccer player and the current manager of the Argentine national soccer team. Many people consider Maradona the best professional soccer player in the history of the game. He is certainly one of soccer's most controversial figures.

Coppola was arrested back in the mid 90s after police busted him with more than 500 grams of cocaine in his Buenos Aires apartment. He was initially charged with drug possession with intent to sell. Police claimed that he may have been part of a drug ring that sold drugs in resorts along Argentina's Atlantic coast, and Coppola was potentially facing up to 20 years in prison. Here is a New York Times article from about a week after the incident. After he spent over a year in prison, it turned out that the drugs may have been "planted" in Coppola's house by an undercover police officer. Anyway, they let him walk.

There is certainly a lot more to tell about Guillermo Coppola. Back in 2009, he released an autobiographical book full of stories and anecdotes about Maradona, power, drugs, jail, women, scandals, and nightlife. The book cover is pictured here:

Diego Maradona used to say that Guillermo
Coppola could "smoke under water", which is
an argentine expression that means that he
can do anything and everything. That explains
the picture on Coppola's book cover.

Cargo Partnership between Mississippi Gulf Coast and Panama

It is not that often that I get to talk about Mississippi and Panama at the same time. On the surface, one of the few things that the two places have in common is that Ryan Bullock loves them both. Anyway, I am excited to report that representatives from Panama's Tocumen National Airport have been in Mississippi this past week where they signed a cooperation agreement with the Gulfport/Biloxi International Airport. Here is a link to an article from the WLOX News station in South Mississippi.

Rafael Flores, general manager of Panama's
Tocumen International Airport, inks an
agreement with Bruce Frallic, the Director
of Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport

The agreement will allow international cargo coming through the Panama Canal to be flown into South Mississippi, where it will subsequently be stored and transported out of an air cargo facility at the airport in Gulfport. Interstate 10 runs through the Mississippi Gulf Coast, providing access to 10 primary north-south interstates between southern California and Jacksonville, Florida.

The possibility of a synergy between the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Panama has excited me for several years. In October of 2006, while I was living in Panama, a proposal to expand the Canal was approved