Papaya: Eat It, Don’t Do It

If you’re like me, you probably grew up feeling relatively safe and a bit careless. Where I grew up, no one thinks twice about wearing a fancy watch, expensive chains, jewelry, or clipping the newest blackberry to the side of your belt.

But some places are different, Latin America included. In Colombia, there’s a saying that goes something like this: “No de Papaya” which translates into “Don’t give Papaya.” That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t share your papaya with anyone. It’s a saying in Colombia that basically means “Don’t be careless and attract unnecessary attention to yourself or get taken advantage of.” Basically it means to have your wits about you, and have some street smarts. Don’t get taken advantage of by women, thieves, sales people, taxi drivers etc.

I’ll give you a couple of examples of giving papaya.

Example 1: You’re in a club and you have your phone on you. You leave your phone on the table and go to the bathroom. If you were at the table alone, you’re really giving papaya, but even if you’re with a group, leaving it there would be a bit careless, it’s still giving a bit of papaya, especially if it’s an expensive phone.

Example 2: You’re paying for a taxi and you take out a wad of cash in front of the taxi driver or when you step outside to pay for the taxi. Your giving papaya because anyone passing by will see you reach into your pocket and pull out a nice big chunk of cash, and you’re attracting unneeded and unwanted attention. Chances are nothing will happen, but you’re still giving papaya.

Example 3: It’s your first night in Cali, Colombia and you don’t know the city well. You get all dressed up and wear a nice shiny, expensive gold chain. You’re going out alone you call a taxi service (not giving papaya), but you fail to take a cautionary step and leave the fancy stuff at home, because first you need to get a feel for the city and the places you’re going to frequent. Not leaving the chain at home is giving papaya. You’re compromising your chain, money, and maybe even your safety.

So what happens when you give Papaya:
Eventually if do it enough times, you’ll run into someone who’ll want to take advantage of you. Leave your cell phone on the table and someone will snatch it when no one is looking. The taxi driver that sees your wad of cash might say he doesn’t have change to give you because now he’s seen you have a lot of money. Your gold chain attracted the attention of the wrong person and as you walk from Club A to Club B a young kid runs by and snatches it, or worse threatens to attack you if you don’t give it up.

Moral of the story: Don’t give Papaya

How Much Does It Cost To Live In Brazil?

Costs of living depends on various factors. First of all, as a foreigner one of the most important factors is the exchange rate between the currency you hold vs. the currency where you plan to go. Next comes location. If you live a small and medium size city the costs will be lower then living in one of Brazil’s mega cities like Sao Paulo and Rio. But location also matters within a particular city. You’ll spend more living in the high class part of town, then in the middle class, and you’ll spend even less living in the poorer parts of town, although this isn’t recommended because of safety issues. The final aspect of cost comes down to lifestyle. If you’re willing to live modestly you won’t spend much. However, if you want to ball in the city of Rio you’ll need a nice chunk of change.

How To Make Brazil Affordable, Even Cheap:

For those who are looking to take advantage or the lower cost of living in Brazil obtain a comfortable lifestyle for a lower cost, it can definitely be done. Like I mentioned above, you’ll want to rent an apartment in a middle class part of town. Don’t rent in the fanciest part of town. If you’re staying long term, don’t rent a furnished apartment. Rent an unfurnished apartment and get in the news papers and buy some used furniture found through the adds in the paper. Take public transportation and don’t rely too much on taxis. Don’t eat out at all or very little, instead shop for your groceries and cook your own food. If you live in one of Brazil’s smaller or medium size cities the cost for rent, utilities, cell phone, internet, transportation, food, health insurance, medical costs, clothes, haircuts, gym and miscellaneous expenses could range anywhere from $2,500 dollars to $4,000 per month. You can increase these costs by 50% if you move to the larger more expensive cities in Brazil.

Here’s a sample budget to show you how much you would spend per month in a small, medium size city with a comfortable lifestyle, taking some taxis, going out on weekends, having internet at home, etc.:

The Expensive Side of Brazil

Brazil use to be a lot cheaper because Brazil’s currency the “Real” was a lot weaker a decade ago. Since then, Brazil’s currency has appreciated greatly against the dollar and modestly against other currencies. For this reason, the cost of living in Brazil has increased greatly for foreigners who rely on currency differences to get great bargains. If you’re the type of person that only likes to take taxis, or wants to by a car, live in a fancy apartment, eat out often, and treat yourself lavishly in Brazil’s most well known cities you’ll find that the costs add up. Although you might save some money compared to say, the same lifestyle in New York, places like Rio and Sao Paolo wouldn’t fall to far behind on cost.

So How Much Does It Cost?

Although Brazil is not as cheap as it was, say 10 years ago, there are still various ways to live comfortably at a lower cost then most places in North America. However, it all depends on location and lifestyle. If you want a penthouse in the best part of Rio, and give yourself a lavish lifestyle, you could end up spending big bucks. By applying a more modest lifestyle you can end up living comfortably in Brazil at a very affordable cost.

Why My Friend Hated Brazil

Couple of years back when I worked in cubicle, I found out one of my co-workers had been to Brazil. At this time I had already been to Brazil, so I was eager to talk with him to see how much he liked it. I had no clue that he not only didn’t like it. He hated it. But before I approached him about it, I thought it would be impossible for a guy to hate Brazil. But he did, and I wanted to find out why. After a long conversation I was able pinpoint exactly why he was so miserable in Brazil:

#1 He stayed locked up in his apartment.
He didn’t go out at all or very little. He told me he spent most of his time in the apartment because he didn’t know anyone or where to go. If this was 1970 I would accept that excuse, but today with the Internet, the wealth of information and all of the free social networking sites, there’s not reason you should not have friends to just about anywhere you want to travel. And there’s no reason you shouldn’t have some idea of where to go and what to see, at even the most remote of destinations. All you have to do is a quick google search and bam!

#2 He didn’t learn the language:
One of the reasons he didn’t want to go out was because he didn’t know the language and he didn’t even know how to ask for directions or the most basic of phrases. Apart from that he was miserable in the apartment because since he didn’t know the language, he couldn’t understand anything on the television.

#3 He didn’t meet new people there
He didn’t have any online friends before he got there and he didn’t go out to meet any new people. In this situation, who wouldn’t be miserable. He probably felt like he was in a jail cell.

The moral of this story is that there are some basic things you must do in order to have an enjoyable trip. If you’re traveling alone and not with a buddy or a group these things are even more important. Go meet foreign women online. If you didn’t know already, foreign women make the best tour guides and provide you with a lot of safety. Do your research and find out as much information on a city as possible, including restaurants, shopping centers, tourist attractions, bars, night light, clubs etc. Finally and most importantly, get some conversational fluency in the language. If you’re in a group some of these things might not be as important, or you may have someone in your group that is taking care of these things, but if your a lone traveler, you need to your homework.

On a side note, don’t let one bad experience ruin the entire trip. I was told by a friend about a guy that traveled to Brazil and he got robbed the first day he got there right outside of his hotel. He ended staying in his hotel for the entire trip. Don’t let this happen to you. If you take my 13 steps to a safe trip you should be ok, but even if you do get robbed, or stood up by a girl or something, don’t let this ruin your trip.

Is Venezuela Too Dangerous?

Being so close to Venezuela, here in Barranquilla Colombia, I’ve thought about traveling to one of the Venezuelan cities that’s closest to the Colombian boarder. The one that made the most sense for me was Maracaibo Venezuela. From Barranquilla, Maracaibo is only about an 8 hour bus ride, but the entire time I’ve remained undecided because of safety concerns.

There are a few reasons to travel to Venezuela right now. First of all it would be a new adventure. I’ve never been to Maracaibo, and I enjoy exploring new cities and countries. The second would be the high inflation that venezuela experience (25% in 2009), which means the Venezuela is currently at a very steep discount for foreigners with foreign currencies. Finally, I can’t deny that one of the top reasons to go to Venezuela is because of the Venezuelan women.

The last time I was in Venezuela was about 3 years ago. I remember when I went to Caracas that some people had told me it was a dangerous city. I took the normal safety precautions when I traveled there, but it didn’t seem anymore dangerous than other Latin American cities I had already visited.

Since then I know for a fact the Economic situation in Venezuela has declined immensely. In 2009, the official inflation rate in Venezuela was 25 percent — the highest official inflation rate in Latin America. The economic hardship in the country has increased the crime and violence across the Capital city of Caracas, but also across other parts of the country.

One of the benefits of being here in Barranquilla is that there are a lot of people here in Barranquilla who have family in Venezuela, or who have traveled or lived in Venezuela themselves. There are also many Venezuelan people who live in Barranquilla. Anytime I come across someone with ties to Venezuela I ask them if it’s dangerous, and about 60% of the time I’ve gotten reports that it is dangerous.

However, you have to take into consideration that the majority of the Colombians who move to Venezuela move in order to find work. Most of the these Colombians are working class people, who tend to live in the poorer sections of town. These poorer sections of town are undoubtedly the more dangerous sections, but are not sections of any city which I would consider staying in.

Overall, I do think things have probably gotten more dangerous then before in Venezuela, as far as crime goes. However, looking for information on the Internet, I’ve seen that there are still many foreign travelers who venture into Venezuela without a problem. I would only consider traveling to Venezuela if you’re fluent in spanish, and are a veteran traveler. Even still, I think a trip to Venezuela should be taken with extra safety precautions and good planning and research. I still plan on doing some more research including making various online contacts before I make my final decision on traveling to Maracaibo.

How To Renew Your Tourist Visa In Colombia

I’ve been in Colombia for almost two months now. When I arrived, immigration gave me a 60 day stamp on my passport. This means that I can stay legally for 60 days within the country. Since my 60 days are almost up, I have to renew my Visa.

What happens If I don’t renew my visa? What happens is that I end up staying in the country Illegally, and I’ll have to do a whole bunch of paperwork, get stuff notarized, and pay fines in order to get my proper paperwork to be able to leave the country. It’s too much of a hassle, not to mention more expensive, so I recommend just renewing your visa the proper way which I outline below.

Most likely you’ll also get a 60 day stamp, which means that if you get close to your 60 days in Colombia, you’ll have to go to the D.A.S. which stands for “Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad” which translates to “The Administrative Department of Security.” Most large cities in Colombia have a D.A.S. agency within the city, but if you’re in a smaller city you might have to go to one of the larger ones to get your paperwork done.

If you have a local agency in your city all you need to do is hop in a taxi and tell them to take you to the D.A.S, pronounced “das”. Once you’re at the agency you’ll have to go past security and let them know you want to extend your tourist visa or “extender mi visa de turista”.

The agents in the office will ask you to photocopy a your passport as well as the original entry stamp. You’ll also have to fill out a form which should only take about 5 minutes. You’re going to have to sign the form and also take a few photocopies of it. Finally, you’ll have to go to a bank and pay a fee, based on the details they give you in the D.A.S. agency. Usually this involves going directly to a bank and paying with a certain code that you’ll be assigned.

Once you pay the fee at the bank, you bring the receipt back to the D.A.S. agency and they will process the final paperwork. All in all it took me about an hour and half to complete everything including taxi rides. Unfortunately, after your first initial stamp is up, you’ll have to repeat this process every month.

How To Build A Basic Travel Budget

When you’re thinking about traveling it’s always a good idea to build a budget. First you have to figure out how much you can spend and how much time you want to be away. This is a very simply guide to building a basic budget, and this is what I use most of the time when I plan on traveling to a new location.

You can build a budget in two ways. The first is go build a cost estimate based on where you want to go, then you know how much you need to save up for a certain trip. The second is to build a spending estimate based on how much money you plan to spend, if you already have the money.

Lets start with what I call a spending estimate:

First figure out how much you want to spend or can afford to spend. This will be your “Available Funds”. Divide this by the total time you plan on traveling (in days):

Available Funds / Total Time = Daily Budget

For example, if you currently had $2,000 for a 15 day trip, this would look something like:

$2,000 / 15 days = $133 per day

Once you have your daily budget you can get a better idea of how much you can afford to pay for a hotel every day, as well as how much you’ll have in your pocket for other expenses. The most common things you’ll have to pay for on a daily basis are food, transportation, and lodging. Anything extra like beers, cover charges for bars and clubs will be extra expenses that will vary throughout each week and each day. I like to break down expenses into three different areas:

#1: Lodging.
#2: Food and transportation
#3: Extras (Beers, cover charges, tourism excursions, souvenirs etc.)

Generally speaking I allocated one third of my daily budget to each of these categories. So if we go by the above $133 daily budget, I’d probably be looking for a hotel or hostel that costs $44 or less. If I cut back on the lodging costs then I have more to spend on food, transportation and extras. At the same time, I allocate about $44 per day for food and transportation and another $44 per day for extras.

Once you have a basic budget you have a better idea of how much you can afford to spend each day. Once you get to where your going make sure you at least keep a mental note of sticking to your budget. A budget isn’t any good if you don’t stick to it, and the whole point of making one is to make sure you don’t overspend.

I’ll be making a more detailed budget creation tutorial in the near future but this should give you a better idea of how to budget and estimate costs before you travel.

Travelers: How And Why To Protect Your Assets Against Inflation

You might be wondering why I’m writing a blog post on how to protect your assets against inflation? A couple of months ago I wrote a blog post about Why American Men Should Be Worried About Inflation And The Dollar. This is the follow up post and I think it’s a very important one for certain guys who want to keep traveling in the future.

This particular blog post is directed towards American and English men. Both currencies and economies are in trouble and both the Pound Sterling and the Dollar will experience massive inflation in the short, medium, and long term.

For all of you who live in these two countries, inflation means a loss of your purchasing power which means many things get more expensive, including travel costs. As your purchasing power decreases against other currencies you’re once might dollar or pound will no longer go such a long way in foreign countries.

So the bad news is that your currencies are going down the toilet, but you don’t have to let your assets and savings be eroded away through inflation. One of the best investment options available to you right now is to invest abroad in countries which have better fundamental economies. You want to base your current investment strategy on owning real assets such as commodities, utilities, real estate (in certain places), precious metals, etc. You also want to own these stocks, bonds, and assets in countries that own a lot of commodities, as well as countries that have sounder economic policies then the United States and UK. Some of these countries include Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China to name a few.

If you listen to economists that predicted this current recession: Guys like Peter Schiff, and Jim Rogers, you know that the world is heading for inflationary times. Some countries like the United States are headed there in much worse shape and will get hit much harder. However, by investing in commodities and real assets abroad you guard yourself against inflation and you position yourself to prosper from inflation.

If you have your money safely stashed away in foreign currencies, stocks and bonds. You will at least preserve the current purchasing power of your savings and assets, and you may very well increase it. This means that you’ll be in a very good position to keep the same standard of living, and keep traveling, while many of your other country men will unfortunately be wiped out through inflation.

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How To Dress When Traveling Through Latin America

Throughout my book The Global Dating Revolution, I give a lot of tips and advice for those of you that will take the leap into International Dating and actually travel abroad to see what the women are like in other countries.

On Page 250 of The Global Dating Revolution I give the following tips on dressing while your traveling through Latin America. I feel most of these will be applicable to Eastern Europe and South East Asia as well:

Don’t dress like a tourist, with shorts, loud Hawaiian shirt and camera around your neck. Dress casual or business casual with a nice pair of khakis, jeans and either a nice button down shirt or nice t-shirt. Dress for your body type. If you’re very thin, you might want to wear more then one layer, and don’t wear clothes that are too loose fitting. By the same token if you’re a husky guy, no horizontal stripped shirts and nothing that’s too tight:

In my book The Global Dating Revolution, I give advice on where to go to meet foreign women, and how to go about doing so. I outline all the obstacles and challenges, and give you step by step instructions so you can meet amazing foreign women through international dating. You can find out more about my book, plus all the bonuses by clicking here

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Taking Taxis in Medellin, Colombia and Latin America

Most likely the best way for you to get around any city in Colombia or Latin America will be in a taxi. I’m going to go over the best rules to follow for taking taxis based on my Colombia experience. However, based on my other travel experience, the general rules apply to just about every other Latin American country and will give you a good overview of taxi etiquette no matter where you’re heading in Latin America.

First of all, in order to be 100% safe it’s recommended that you call a reliable taxi company and give them your location so that they can send someone from their fleet.

If you find a taxi driver you really like and trust, get his cell phone number and give him a call whenever you need a ride. I would generally not trust any taxi driver who does not work for a taxi service, or who you did not meet through a taxi service. But, even if you do meet someone who you think you can trust always be cautions and on alert. If you go out with the taxi driver as a companion make sure you don’t drink too much, and keep on eye on your cell phone and wallet. Most taxi drivers will be available as companion or tour guides for about 20,000 an hour. Keep in mind that after they pay the taxi fee and gas, most taxi drivers make between 30,000 and 50,000 pesos per day (in Medellin Colombia).

Specifically in Medellin, I’ve found that best taxi service to be available at this local number 444-000. You can even speak to a dispatcher in English. However there is another taxi service called “flota bernal”, which has a number of 444-8882. You can also find other taxi fleet numbers in the local phone book or just ask someone. The phone numbers for taxi fleet services are usually made easy to remember on purpose.

The Do Nots of Hailing Taxis

• Never take a taxi that is not yellow.
• Never hop in a taxi that already has two guys in the front seat.
• Never let someone hop in the taxi while you’re being taken somewhere. If this happens tell the taxi driver “no”, or just get out and catch another taxi

Other Things To Watch Out For
Be cautions when haling taxis off the streets. Sometimes hailing a random yellow taxi off the street is necessary but use you’re judgment, if you something doesn’t feel right just hail a different one. Generally speaking younger guys will try to hustle more then the older taxi drivers. When hailing a taxi off the street and not through a taxi service you should take a look at the drivers face and demeanor. If you’re not sure about it, just wave him off and stop another one.

There are generally three ways taxi drivers will try to hustle a little extra cash out of you. The first playing a taxi meter, or “metro”, trick on you. They either don’t erase the meter from the last customer, or they start it way before they get to your location. In Medellin the meter should start around 2000 pesos, but it may not be the same in other Colombian cities, this is something you have to find out on your own. Don’t ever fall for the meter is broken trick either. If the meter isn’t working, just get out and get into another taxi. Sometimes the taxi driver will start the meter the correct way, but he’ll turn it off as soon as you get to your location and round off the taxi fair to get a little extra out of you, don’t fall for this one either.

The second is by taking the long way to your destination, or even taking you out of your way to run up the meter. Most taxi drivers won’t do this, especially those that pick you up from the taxi service, but you should be on the lookout for that. The third and final way is that they will tell you that they don’t have change for your bill. When this happens you can ask them to get out and find some change “consiga cambio”, it’s their obligation to find a local store, small kiosk, or even gas station for them to find some change.

In order to avoid change problems, try to always have small bills and coins to pay for the taxi. It’s not a good idea to pay with a 50,000 peso bill for a small taxi ride, because most likely the driver will not have change for such a big bill.

In order to avoid being hustled, always make sure they restart the meter. All you need to say is “el metro” and point to it. In Medellin Colombia the meter starts at 1,900. Keep in mind that the driver might start the meter as soon as he gets to your location so if you make him wait a minute or two the meter will already be running so if you notice that it’s a 2,000 or a bit higher and the driver has been waiting, that’s the reason. Currently the meter starts 1,900 pesos approximately one dollar. If the fair falls under 3,900 pesos you have to pay the minimum or “minimo” which is 3,900 pesos, approximately 2 dollars.

Finally, all taxi’s have two form of identification, a fleet number that the fleet uses to identify them and a license plate. If you ever run into a problem with a driver, make sure you get both numbers and call up the taxi service to file a complaint against the driver. This is the main reason you should always try to call a taxi service, because in the event of a situation, you can file a complaint to the service and possibly get some type of compensation.

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How To Access Your Online Accounts While Traveling Abroad

Accessing your online accounts including banking and email accounts from hotel lobbies and internet cafes can be a good way to get your information stolen. You can never trust other peoples computers, you never really know how good the security at any given location might be. I’ve only gotten my information stolen one time and that was in the Dominican Republic when I used the computer in the hotel lobby.

If you’re planning on traveling and you’ll need to access your online accounts I recommend you take these few precautions just to make sure your information doesn’t get stolen by some keylogger, or some packet sniffing program installed on some foreign network.

Always use an https:// before the intended address. If you need to access your gmail account, use https://www.gmail.com instead of just http://www.gmail.com. The HTTPS means that the connection between the web browser that you’re using and the website you’re accessing will be encrypted, and if anyone happens to capture the network traffic, your information will be safe. But this step doesn’t safeguard you from keyloggers.

There is really no way to defeat a keylogger effectively. The only thing I recommend to be 100% sure your accounts are not compromised is to access your bank accounts only via phone. Most banks have international numbers you can call, but it’s not hard to reach the 1800 customer service numbers from foreign countries. Wherever you are, just ask how to call the United States, or whatever country your from, and they’ll give the codes to dial before you enter the number. In this way you avoid access your banking accounts from an infected computer.

Email is a different story. You won’t be able to access your email via phone, but what I recommend is to set a temporary password before your trip. Use this password while traveling and accessing your email from computers abroad, and then change the password as soon as you get back. If you’re traveling for an extended period of time, I would suggest changing the password every two or three weeks, or every month at the most. Although changing the passwords might seem like hassle, it only takes two minutes and it can give you piece of mind and save you headaches in case you do use a computer that was compromised with keyloggers or trojans.

I would also the the same for chat clients. If you’re going to be accessing chat clients abroad you can use a temporary password while chatting and never share personal information such as account numbers or other important identifiers over chat programs while traveling abroad. As with email you can change your password once you get back home.

Finally, remember to always close all sessions including email and chat. And if you know how to remove cookies or clear private data, do this as well before you leave any computer you might be using.

What if you have your own computer?
If you bring your own laptop, and you run good security on your laptop including a firewall and antivirus, then things will be much safer, all I would suggest then is to access HTTPS urls only.