Mike Cobb | Freedom Living In Central America, ECI Development, & The Best Expat Options

00:07 The planet's puppet masters almost surely have a plan. There clearly may be something there beyond the realm of man, until we've thoroughly tested every last closed chested view and find the more you think you know unless you really do. We without THC! We know they're lying to us just don't know what degree. Back in the saddle and ready to ride from sunny San Diego, I'm Greg Carlwood. And if you're fortunate enough to see through the thick fog of meaningless distractions Netflix dating shows superhero movies sporting events and whatever the big new video game is this week it seems like a serious storm is coming for the American empire and the Western world in general

01:21 The Capstone Cabal seems hell-bent on breaking everything from creating toxic clouds of vinyl chloride in Ohio that are causing acid rain two states over, to sucking up every last cent in the vault for the military industrial complex and the orchestration of World War III. Add in that the chasm between housing costs and a living wage has never been wider, the complete corporate harvesting of everything, the sad state of our food supply, the arrival of medical dictatorship. A new round of regulations before you can even process the last one. A culture spiraling downward and a population so frustrated angry emotionally raw and unstable that even navigating the public through one's daily routine or sharing the road with them can seem a bit sketchy

02:03 Take a look at any measurement, like the World Happiness Index or any list that measures quality of life and you'll find very few American cities even make in the top 50. The situation is so dire and corrupt that an entire young generation has just given up on even trying to climb the ladder! And the older generation is in such denial they can't even see why So add it all up and I'd be surprised if we all haven't at least considered an expat lifestyle, and what it might be like to strategically relocate to a more affordable place with a slower pace in a simpler more freer lifestyle with a smaller target on its back from the big machine. Well, that is what today is all about as our guest Mike Cobb the co-founder and CEO of ECI Development has been educating people on emerging expat communities and helping folks obtain residency acquire property. And even just make investments all across Central America since he first started exploring such things in the mid 90's

02:58 Now, ECI development can help almost anyone looking to escape the rat race and prove their standard of living or get out of what seems to be an empire in decline. And if like me you've been thinking about a plan B well ECI development should be option A Coming in hot from his paradise outside the American bubble The real Freedom Convoy coordinator Optionality expert and international man-of-industry Mike Cobb welcome to The Higher Side Wow, what an introduction. Thank you! Good to be here. I try all in a day's work and that's it this is really going to be great man as i've dug into your various offerings they seem more and more appealing and I laid it on pretty thick in that intro but most people listening out imagine

03:43 have at least daydreamed about becoming an expat in a tropical place. But the unknown can be scary and there is a type of conditioning in America that we're A number one, nowhere else matters and everywhere's unstable, scary and poor. And even when you know that's not true it's still hard to imagine making a commitment to get out kind of devil situation so Many are making what feels like a step in the right direction and getting out of the major cities or moving to the states that seem to value freedom more than others. It's probably still a half measure, but I think it is safe to say these ideas are swirling around in the minds of Americans maybe more than ever, right?

04:25 Absolutely. And in your introduction, you really hit a lot of nails on the head, you know, empire and decline and medical dictatorship. These are some of the major drivers that are really causing people to start to look overseas, look outside of North America. And truly it's refreshing I mean we've been around...we started our business 27 years ago and so over the years we've seen different reasons that people were looking overseas you know 27 years ago when we first started ECI it was a group of people looking for a higher quality of life and the lower cost of living sort of that baby boomer retiree that can't

05:01 afford Florida or simply doesn't want to afford Florida or California, one of the more expensive beach locations. And people were looking at property in Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize and so we started serving those people but very interestingly in the last maybe in the last decade but certainly in the last four years since you know the COVID lockdowns and the draconian impositions of authority across the United States, Canada. But we actually have people from New Zealand, Australia and Europe who are seeking our properties as well because quite honestly it's scary. It's really scary and people are saying whoa! Nobody believed it could happen you talk about the devil you know versus devil don't know but I think for so long people were just like what just can't happen here? It's not going to happen here that's a kind of stuff that happens somewhere else

05:52 But lo and behold, like it happened here. It happened in Canada, it happened in Australia and Europe and all of a sudden people started to wake up and go I'd better get a plan B because i'm not sure plan A is going to work for me much longer, right? And so yeah it's been incredible the number of folks in the last three four years who have just stepped up and said gosh help me help me find something. It's not even helping find something and so much as at the beginning What's out there? What can I do, how do I do it?" And we really do a ton of education in the space. Look, a lot of people buy from us but many times more people buy from somebody else and that's okay. I feel really good when we help somebody make a great decision overseas because it's what they're looking for. They're looking for a solution to a very serious challenge in their lives and again now it's a lot more urgent than I think it's ever been before Gregg

06:50 Yes, well said. Well said and I do appreciate focusing on various creative solutions because oftentimes on shows like this it's just doom and gloom it's just going over the bullet points once again of all the things that are screwed up and we are often ignorant of our options or we just don't get that far down the chain to start thinking well what are we gonna do about this maybe we can't change the big system but change our position in it and our orientation to it. And, it's great to be able to make a living where you are aligned with the good. You're aligned with helping people instead of just being stuck in middle management at one of these companies doing the damage to the world so kudos to you for all those things and more!

07:35 we should get at least a quick version of how you actually learned so much about Central America, formed this company and kind of what the goals and offerings of ECI developments really are. What can you tell us in that regard? Yeah, sure. I was in the computer business. I graduated college in 86 moved to the DC Northern Virginia area was in the computer business and a buddy of mine from college called me up it was 1993 called me up one day and he said hey Cobster what are you doing this weekend? And I'm like I don't know why I'm going to Belize. You want to come with me? And I'm like, absolutely! And then this is pre-Google right there was no Google 93. I'm sitting there scratching my head going police, police, police where's police? Anyway, I had to fess up. I'm like all right dude i have no idea where belize is where are we going and he told me and so we went

08:26 And what was interesting was it was fun. I mean, he's a lawyer and he was doing asset protection trust for physicians that get sued by ambulance chasers that kind of stuff right? So he's helping doctors protect themselves from the ambulance chasing lawyers and anyway so we had a great time. I said Joel just next time you're coming back let me know. He said well i'm coming back in couple months do you want to come like absolutely! So we planned it, went down, spent a few extra days And while we were down there, we just started putzing around looking for property. We ended up finding a couple of condos that were about to go into foreclosure. They were side by side and so we bought them right? What's interesting Greg is that I have a saying that pretty much was coined way back in 93-94 which is, ''We don't know what we don't know.'' Right? We don't know what we don't know

09:15 And what this developer didn't know and what many developers didn't know in Belize and throughout the region was that there was no mortgage money. So, imagine this. So, this developer comes down his name is Jim. Jim comes down he buys this piece of property. He's got on a three or four million bucks and he builds 10 buildings of four units each so he's got 40 units around a pool and he's getting ready to start the second group with ten buildings and he's out of money but he never really thought about why would be out of money because it came down with whatever three or four million bucks He spent it on, in order to sell these condos most buyers coming out of North America expect financing. They're not ready to write a check for 100, 150 grand. I mean they might write a check for 25 or something 30 or 40 but not the whole thing right? And so the problem was is Jim and many developers in the region they

10:05 They didn't know what they didn't know. They didn't know that no bank in Belize was going to lend a foreigner money, and certainly no bank back up in the States or Canada was going to lend you money on a condo in Belize. And so they got stuck. So in order to sell they would end up self-financing like they do developer financing but very quickly they ran out of money And so my very first business going back to the end of 93 and into 94 was a small mortgage company. And we basically went around to developers and we bought the paper that they were holding, so that they could get the cash back in their business and keep developing, keep building more stuff right? And it was a great business I'm still at the computer company and we're still doing whatever we're doing but very quickly it became apparent

10:51 If you had, back then if you had 350 400,000 and up. You were buying a really nice quality product. You were buying the North American standard product but if you are writing to check for 100 150 like even in our condos I think the construction itself was good. It might have been solid and good, the problem was is there were just a lot of things that didn't make any sense so for example lighting in the bathroom right? There's a couple lights in the bathroom but instead of having it directly over the mirror or alongside the mirror where it lights up your face like it was behind your head so like your face is in a shadow and right or the countertops were too high or too low and

11:31 I remember that in our place, they were too low. You'd bang your knees every time you tried to take your bar stool and sit at the kitchen counter right? I remember one condo that I looked at for a collateral like I was the guy that walked around and went in and inspected the collateral that we were going to buy the paper from so this one developer had built some condos And I remember there was one outlet on one wall in the living room and it was a resale, right? The people were already living there. So they had put two outlet strips, one going each direction extension cords that ran to outlets strips to get power around the living room, right? Greg is just... And I just thought to myself as talking to Joel and like man we

12:13 We can fix all of these problems for basically free, right? Put the lighting in the right place. Fix the countertops, you know adding a few outlets I mean that's 10-15 bucks apiece but generally free, right?" I said, for almost free we could offer an American standard product and really beat our competition significantly with a better product, a more familiar product to a North American client And so that's the genesis of our business. We formally launched our development company in 1996, And I left the computer business a year and a half after that full time. And it's just gone gangbusters ever since we started in Belize, we went to Nicaragua then we were in Costa Rica and Panama now we have projects in Honduras and a budding project you'll like this one when we can go back and talk about it A Bitcoin community of village a bitcoin village in El Salvador that Mike Peterson asked us to build and we're in Honduras so we've really grown our business over the years because

13:14 Here's the reality. There are different strokes for different folks, not everybody wants the same thing when they move overseas. For example even just as simple as I want to be on the ocean All right, in Central America you've got three oceans. You've got Caribbean, you've got Atlantic and you've got Pacific and they're all very different, right? Your in California or San Diego, so your in the Pacific and if you said I want San Diego but I want more freedom and lower cost of living, all right, I would say well look at Guanacaste Costa Rica, look at Nicaragua, look at El Salvador because basically you've got San Diego climate, you've got cactus palm trees beautiful Pacific Ocean and it's warm enough he can swim

13:53 The temperature is 75 to 80 degrees in the ocean, right? It's warm. Some people want Caribbean and some people want Atlantic. Other people want highlands, right? The springtime all the time climate, the cool where it's 60 at night and 75 in the day every day of year. It's where they grow coffee, right? And so Central America in Latin America generally but even you know, in this little area called Central America there are just so many geographies and so many different climate types So, we made a decision very early in our business back in 2002 that we were going to be serving people where they wanted to be. And so, we started to add properties and communities so that we had a real variety of offerings for the widest set of customers that we could serve.

14:40 I love it. And I have been looking at a lot of houses lately, so those elements of intelligent design and those little details they certainly do matter and when you sign on the dotted line of a place and you overlook some of those details, you're just like damn it! I guess I'm dealing with this for several years before I move on. That's right And a lot of those things are kind of the easy things to see. We do publish a consumer resource guide that we get into a lot of the more granular things, but one of my favorites actually is, is the house or condominium plumbed for hot water in all the bathrooms? In Latin America that's not always the case

15:20 Many times the master bedroom, master bath will have hot water. There'll be one hot water heater to be somewhere outside the master bedroom either on a wall outside or in a closet somewhere but the whole rest of the house maybe there's a guest bathroom, guest shower couple bedrooms whatever kitchen you know there's no hot water in the house and I mean again these are the kinds of things that we as a consumer we don't know what we don't know We need to actually see if there's really hot water and all the bathrooms right? It's kind of crazy It is. So for people who are worried about the future in America and are a little expat curious as to their options for living in a tropical location, an area with a lower cost of living where they can actually feel like they're thriving and most likely working remotely

16:07 Paint a picture of some of the options that you think might get them excited, because if you go to your website, you have several communities. You have tiny homes. You have things that seem more like a resort and other things that seem more like your standard condo but talk to us about those range of options. Sure but can I actually back it up Greg and just go a little bit higher level at the beginning? Because When you get down to actual product type, like we're pretty far down the road for somebody who's just kind of expat beginning. Sure and there are some other things that are really important for people to begin to think about right? And so let me just frame it in two big areas and then we can start to drill it down a little bit. One is this concept of am I running from

16:56 Or am I running two? And it's a spectrum. It's never one or the other, it's always some of both right But primarily, am I running from a situation in the US and I'm looking for a plan B? And a plan B for most people is that. It's a Plan B. Plan A is to stay here and hope it doesn't get any worse or ride it out because whatever we have family friends, we have a job blah blah blah so we're going to ride it out here as long as we can but Plan B is sort of that okay It's there if I need it or when I need it, right? Versus running two which is hey you know what my job is portable. My boss said it's okay if I work from home so home can be anywhere where I have good internet or phone service or access to an airport or whatever the conditions are right? So now all of a sudden that's a whole different analysis because plan B is sort of what I would call the least cost

17:53 way to get what you're looking for, which is a backup plan. Running towards is actually a real lifestyle decision where you're saying, I'm going to really try to find a place that I want to be that's a beautiful home for myself and my family maybe my children? Are there schools nearby? Is there a church nearby that we can attend? Where's the grocery store? How far do the gas station How am I going to make new friends? Is there a Rotary Club, Lions club. Whatever it happens be is their soccer or martial arts for my kids to get into her ballet. I have 2 daughters and they were ballet right so.

18:32 It's a whole different kind of set of considerations. And so what we normally do is when we start to engage with somebody who's looking right in the early stages, we kind of walk through some of those things and help them think about it. We have great survey that we send out to folks so they can kinda do it themselves. You know, where you kind of walk through some of those what I'm going to call bigger picture. Kind of questions because what will happen is depending on how you answer those questions and where are in your life small children adult children empty nesters single person? All those kinds of things will kind of make some options not very practical and other options very practical. And then once you've figured out what those practical options are, then you can start to layer in things like well do I want to be on the Caribbean or the Pacific?

19:23 Do I want to live in an urban environment or more of a resort environment? Do I want a tiny home, do I want a single family home, or is a condo what I'm looking for?" And so we can really move from the bigger questions down into more of a product specific kind of discussion. But we really like to help people get through that because at the end of the day What we're really after are very, very happy neighbors. And we've served well over a thousand folks over the last 27 years and many of them are neighbors they've moved full-time many or investors or vacation property when they rented out when they're not there too right? So we've got that element but many people are either full timers or snowbirds and so creating that real sense of community and having happy neighbors but by the time we get to product discussions

20:13 we're pretty sure, usually the person's pretty sure that we're a good fit. But early on in that discussion, we tell people frequently hey you know what by the way you've answered these questions on the survey Medellin Colombia would be perfect for you or Santiago Chile or somewhere else and we don't work there but we say based on the information you've given us here's where you should probably be looking that would be a good fit for you You know and they go off and presumably you know go do that right But by the time we get to product, it's probably a pretty good fit. But yeah tiny homes, mid-sized homes large homes estate lots condos and we really offer a very wide variety of products as well once we get to the point of knowing that that's a good fit for the person who is in the process

21:04 That makes sense. And so, yeah to build a foundation and maybe back up to getting people's mental wheels turning about where might be right for them you mentioned Nicaragua, Belize Panama Argentina Costa Rica El Salvador and Honduras well A lot of people listening probably just don't know much about the nuances of these countries, how would you compare and contrast some of them in terms of economic stability? Political stability? Corruption level? Some of the things that might separate them from each other. Yeah boy! That's a pretty wide field to try to compare all of them but let me make some big broad generalizations one of the reasons that Belize is so popular with US and Canadians is that English is the official language

21:55 And it's, you know whatever hour and a half from Miami two hours from Houston about five hours from Toronto. So it's lots of direct airlift but English is huge And also English common law, right? Which is the legal system. It's 49 of the 50 states Louisiana has civil law and in Canada it's all the provinces but Quebec is common law so it's kind of how we think legally you know we've all read contracts and So, we have a sense of kind of how it works. Civil law is very different. Civil law was written by Napoleon, of all people physically the good man wrote civil law. They still have what he wrote but anyway it's a very different type of legal framework and so when you get outside of Belize into the rest of Central America and South America you're into civil law

22:49 and then Spanish or Brazil Portuguese, right? So you've got language issues but you've also got this legal framework issue that's different. It's not bad there's no good or bad to it it's just different it's not familiar right so I would say that from that perspective that's an easy one I think that's why Belize has become an easy first step for so many people the language and then the common law, and then similar culture to it. Culturally it's much more familiar. It was British Honduras so again culturally there is some alignment there as opposed to other places that were Spanish or Portuguese which are a slightly different cultural alignment. Economically I would say Panama is the most economically stable of all of the countries in the region

23:38 The Panama Canal, I call it the ATM machine for Panama. Like literally every day they just go and I think it's about four or five million bucks every day. They just withdraw four or five million dollars every day from their Panama Canal ATM machine like every ship that passes through pays them and they're just everyday, everyday, everyday so they've got real money As a basis of stability, it's got a relatively low population. The population of the country is about 4Million and then they've really done a tremendous job of leveraging the canal into logistics. They are an incredible logistics center.

24:19 Dell, Caterpillar many other companies have their kind of Latin American headquarters there. They become a center for call centers because of the bilingual nature of Panama. There are financial services center I know the Panama papers gave him a black eye but that was sort of like sticking an ant in front of a semi like, yeah. Okay there was a bump in the road but it just kept on going. Corruption's everywhere. Yeah right so economically Panama is very stable The downside to Panama was of all the countries in Central America, they were the most draconian in their COVID response. They locked down severely, they enforced it, they gave people two hours every other day to go shopping so life's always trade-offs right? Nicaragua on the other hand is probably the least economically

25:13 I think it's actually economically stable, but it's the poorest country in Central America and South America. Only Haiti is poorer right? So it's Caribbean but in central and South America Nicaragua was the poorest country But I lived there for 14 years. My wife, went there with Carol my wife, my two-year old daughter Amanda we had another little daughter Emily who came along and you know the population is about six million people but about five between five and ten percent of the people are pretty well off And some percentage of those people are you know millionaires right probably three four or five percent of the Population of Nicaragua has a net worth of a million bucks

25:53 So, you've got this population of 300 to 300 thousand people who are all really wealthy. It's kind of ironic it's a weird contrast but Nicaragua has world class medical care They've got the burn hospital for all of Central America. Like every other country flies their burn victims to Nicaragua for treatment and they're in the Vivian Pellis Hospital, and we did all of our medical there. And I mean it's truly world-class medical care because you got a couple hundred thousand very wealthy people who want very high quality medical care

26:31 But the cost of living is insanely inexpensive. And from a political standpoint, they were the country that locked down the least. They did not have masking mandates. They did not have business closures. They left it up to individuals to decide or businesses to decide if you wanted to close your business, close if you want to spread your tables out at the restaurant, spread them out. You want to wear a mask? Wear a mask! If don't wanna wear a mask, don't wear a mask. So it was really interesting to see that kind of, I would say at either end of the spectrum. Panama economically stable draconian response to COVID Nicaragua, you know, economically stable but very poor as a per capita income per person but still on the other side very free in how they responded to COVID and and i would put the other countries kind of in the middle Costa Rica probably was a little more draconian Belize is a little less so

27:27 But they all kind of fit on that spectrum somewhere, but either end. That's what I would say those are the bookends of that particular economics freedom versus lockdown and that kinda thing so yeah well that's a great crash course for sure and i've been saying that's kinda this silver lining of covid is we did get to see when the shit does hit the fan who responds in which ways and where do we want to be in coordination with the general response. Obviously, things can change but that's why a lot of people are moving from one kind of state to another right now because maybe their worldview only encompasses the 50 states but they're assessing who responded in which ways and where do I wanna be? And maybe we just need to broaden our

28:13 our horizons out a little bit into Central America and look at some of those things. And really it's the vaccine requirements would be something that I would think about, obviously just...I'm sure your whole interest in what you do has exploded since COVID but are there places where the people who chose not to get the shots would probably want to avoid or can they navigate regardless? You know, that's interesting. I think right now navigation is pretty easy throughout the region without a vaccine. I know that if you're flying to a country like Nicaragua for example you have to show that you either have the vaccine or you've taken a PCR test but there's no vaccine requirement and i don't think there's a vaccine requirement anywhere

28:58 in the region now. At one point, it was either the test or the vaccine and a lot of countries don't even require to test anymore. Good good yeah I mean it's silly to have to ask I can't believe we do but I do and you know you mentioned the cultural familiarity and also the language barriers those are certainly factors that I think a lot of people consider Which one of these countries or even developments that you've been a part of, would you say are some of the largest expat communities and what would their size actually look like? Yeah. Well in terms of countries and we haven't talked about Mexico but Mexico's been drawing expats for whatever 100 years or longer right

29:44 But since the 60s, when they started doing the movies down there in Acapulco and Elvis and that whole gang were down there. I mean it started to really take Mexico and put it on the map for an expat destination. So Mexico's really done pretty well with pulling in expats and creating wonderful communities for them whether whether it's Guadalajara or Puerto Vallarta, Merida or the Riviera Maya. Those are certainly places that have done well and we don't work there by the way. We don't work in Mexico at all but we admire what they've done The prices are a lot higher because again, they're much more popular. They're further up what I call the development slash popularity curve so when you've got places that are more developed and more popular well prices are higher right than places that are less popular

30:33 Costa Rica probably came in second. They started really promoting themselves as a retirement destination, as an expat destination in the 80s and they jumped on it hard and they had some great retirement laws pensionado that's what they call them pensionado visas, retirement visas that you could get into Costa Rica with $800-$900 thousand dollars a month social security payment or pension payment get a visa, get a permanent residency there. And so they did a tremendous job with that and so San Jose the Central Valley that's been really popular as have the beaches in Guanacaste which is the northwest corner of Costa Rica In fact it's so popular we now have Four Seasons Resort JW Marriott Westin resorts I mean all kinds very high end resort properties

31:26 residential communities. And again, it's very popular the prices are pretty high The Caribbean side of Costa Rica has kind of been the redheaded stepchild and so we own a property on the Caribbean We've not developed it but were currently partnering with a guy that's got a beautiful community there and were helping him finish it out So thats one we're starting to see some real traction on now that we've gotten our arms into it. But Costa Rica, very popular with expats for whatever 50 years since the 80s 40-50 years Panama, probably right there right after that just because of the canal. Many people in the US military were stationed there at one point or another they did a lot of training and rotations through the country and so a lot of people have been to Panama, a lot of us citizens and so there's sort of a familiarity and comfort with it I think that has let Panama kind of rise very quickly in the program They have great residency programs pensionato visas

32:26 Belize a little bit later to the game, they really started hitting it hard in the mid late 90s. So we're talking last 30 years say and they also have some great visa. They have what's called a q r p qualified retired persons program, the Q R P program It's excellent in terms of permanent residency programs. Again, it's easy to get it's easy to maintain you only have to be in Belize a couple weeks a year and you can maintain a permanent residency there so it's a great plan B by the way the Belize QRP is a great Plan B because you only have to be there either two or four weeks I can't remember anyway but it's not long I mean a couple vacations you maintain a permanent residency so you have that in your pocket

33:12 And then they've got investor residencies that are pretty favorable as well. So I think that's sort of the gamut of where people have gone and Nicaragua, probably a lot lower on the list not as many folks living in Nicaragua as expats. That number is probably maybe 10,000 and let me just run some numbers Mexico several hundred thousand maybe as high as 1 million Costa Rica probably 100,000 Panama, maybe 50-60 thousand. Belize 20-30 thousand. Nicaragua 10 thousand. So you can just see the number of expats kind of indicating the popularity but also how long they've been in the game right? The longer a country's been pulling in expats and building communities for them, you know, more folks that come there it's interesting Greg where we've actually seen the most traction is Nicaragua because I mean

34:09 I don't know we have about 200 addresses that are up or almost finished. We have about 80 homes under construction and they'll wrap up here by August, but when those 80 homes finish will have over 200 addresses on property And I'm guessing that about half of them are going to be occupied either by snowbirds 6 months out of the year or full time so Our Grand Pacifica community is really, you know it's a community. It's a village now and what drove the sales and drove the really the relocation right that's what's happening it's not just sales I mean if somebody buys a house and puts in the rental program as an investment property that's great and overnight guests are wonderful but they're really not part of the neighborhood right? They eat at the restaurant you might see them at the bar or whatever go surfing with them or play golf or whatever right

34:57 but they're not really part of the community per se. What really drove so many people to decide to own a property and then live at Grand Pacific full time was the response to COVID around the world, and Nicaragua's laissez-faire like hey come on down here we're not going to bug you And people looked at that and they were like, really? We're like yeah. Really? And probably of the hundred sales that happened in 2000 say 20 to early 21 so maybe that 16 18 month period about 100 sales three quarters of them were in response to COVID and many more than half of those people are moving full time So yeah it's been an exodus

35:48 I don't know, I feel fortunate that we were in business. We knew what we were doing and had enough capacity to serve those folks and we did and we are. Wow! Well your passion is quite contagious. I'm almost ready to go one foot out the door so come visit that's a great idea And we actually got connected through a listener named Karen, who is actually a San Diego local who I've met before. Nice kind lady. She is really active in the stop 5g movement and Southern California because she is EMF sensitive and has been feeling more and more ill because of the increased density of all the electromagnetic pollution. Yup. And I don't know how often you work with people in that sort of situation, but some of these communities

36:33 As I understand, they might be Wi-Fi free or at least better places to live for people with EMF concerns. Wouldn't you say? Yeah, absolutely in fact Karen and I have been going back and forth now for four or five months really working on the design of a neighborhood at Grand Pacifica specifically for folks like her who are EMF sensitive I'm careful not to use the word no EMF because i don't think that exists in the world anymore but sure very, very low EMF right? And yeah so we're actually working with her and some other folks to design a neighborhood that will be very very low emf. A couple things one is the physical location of the site

37:21 It's kind of a little bit of a bowl. So it's down low, we've got teak forest on one side. We're also in the teak business. We started planting teak back in 1999 and but anyway, we've got to take for us on 1 side of the area and then we may continue with Teek and wrap the neighborhood and T because obviously trees are great reducer of any ambient EMF. But the other thing that I think, the thing that got Karen even started in this was the fact there's an incredible way back in 2004-2005 we decided that we were going to run fiber to every address at Grand Pacifica

38:01 And so we actually were the first fiber to the home project in Central America and the second in Latin America, which is incredible. Wow! Yeah 2005 I think we had it installed and somehow she well whatever we published that with a bunch of press releases and all kinds of stuff she found out about it and because we've run fiber you know we have the ability to wire homes with very very high speed internet But we don't have to depend upon Wi-Fi. So, we're able to run the fiber put that in the neighborhood and then you know the homes I've been learning a lot apparently there are a lot of building methodologies and a lot of very simple things instead of using plastic conduit for your electric wire use metal conduit right? Just something like that shielding reduces the EMF coming off just your general electrical wires in your wall

38:55 You know, concrete construction which we do is another shielding apparently low E windows. Do a pretty good job as well so I mean there's just a lot of things that we've been learning about construction methodology some of which we already do concrete construction and low glass and things like that but then the shielding and other hate to call them tricks but other techniques that you can use and employ to reduce the emf Yeah, it's pretty exciting Greg because we never would have thought about this but this is a great example of somebody finding us and us in this case really being able to build something that's important for them and really serves a need in the marketplace that I don't think anyone else in Latin America is doing. It. I haven't seen it so to solve a problem for folks that were able to do it, it's pretty cool

39:49 Yeah, yeah. I'm so impressed with this and somewhat related another thing that I think would interest listeners of this show. I've heard you mention agro resilient communities being built and I wouldn't call them prepper communities exactly but sustainable permaculture communities that focus on growing their own high quality food. Yep talk to us about that being in the mix with some of these options? Yeah We haven't done much in the formal sense of that, but our property is 2500 acres. It was a farm basically when we bought it and so we've continued to farm large swaths of it. You know, we lease it to farmers who come in and they plant sorghum and corn and we run a bunch of cattle on the property and have for years. We've been into beekeeping I can't remember how many hives we have now but we've been into beekeeping for maybe about 10 years

40:41 20 years ago, we started planting various kinds of fruit trees. Noni, we planted a ton of noni very powerful antioxidant they smell like crap and they taste even worse but they're really good for you so but we've planted orange soursop ton of mangoes limon which is kind of an interesting hybrid of lemon and lime in Nicaragua We've done a bunch of orchard stuff and just recently last summer, we started to do. More of what I'm going to call vegetable gardens and we dedicated some land. We plowed it. We ran water to it. We're building some fencing and some other things to make it easy for folks who want to do their own gardening.

41:27 But the next step for us, and we're probably still 12 months away is to actually bring in hire or partner with some kind of agronomist who really understands the resiliency piece, because it's different. I mean we do produce a ton of food and the cattle and the bees and you know all that kind of stuff but to create that resiliency piece is a specialization that we don't have and we want to bring that in so sometime in the next 12 months We're gonna layer in the resiliency piece to the agro piece we already have And we know we need outside expertise and talent To do that

42:05 Stay tuned. We'll keep you posted as that gets some reality on the resiliency piece, but by its own nature the area I mean the area we're in was a subsistence agriculture area for I mean it's a farming area and many of the people who live there had very little cash economy they were subsistence farmers all over so the depth of knowledge on what it takes to subsist on agriculture alone in that part of Nicaragua is deep and rich. And we will certainly be tapping into that as well, it's just not its micro and that's the difference I mean we're going to tap into the wisdom and knowledge and we already employ about 300 people in the local neighborhood but how do you take it and scale it? That's the piece that we need to bring in the outside talent for

42:57 The area itself, yeah we're right on the ocean and you know we have a farmer's market every Saturday and the local farmers bring in their produce. The fishermen bring in the fresh fish that they caught the night before and they'll fillet it and they offer it so It's already mostly there, but we just need to really get the intelligence of resiliency kind of factored in. But that's coming Gregg, that's coming right on yeah it's just all about fine tuning and there's just something about certain personalities that are like well I don't know a ton about that but we're gonna go for it and we're gonna move towards achieving the goal or we're gonna partner with anybody who can help and you know I just think that's a beautiful thing thank you yeah it is about partnering by the way

43:42 We've always been about team because you know what? I don't know what, I don't know. And love this saying too that the more I learn the less I know. Yes indeed story of my life for sure right yeah So you mentioned the Bitcoin thing in El Salvador. I wanted to make sure we fit that into the first hour because it's creative and it is a curiosity of mine, but El Salvador people probably know as one of the countries that has decided...I think THE FIRST country maybe there are a couple others now that at least Bitcoin curious, but they've made Bitcoin a national currency and it's a bit of an experiment. And I hear mixed reviews, but how would you say it's going from actually being there? And how are you using it in what you do? Yeah well, there's a lot to unpack so let me just kind of say that the reason that we're even involved there was about six years ago now, we took our very first crypto transaction. It was Bitcoin transaction

44:44 It was a significant one and it was for some teak, all right? It was some of our teak plantation. And we got known as a developer who would accept Bitcoin crypto. And so we started getting invited to speak at various crypto and Bitcoin events. I guess coming up on two years ago now, I was speaking at the Bitcoin conference in Miami. I'd gotten done, I was back at our booth This guy comes up and introduces himself, and he says hey you're Mike Cobb. I'm like yeah so i was watching you and looked at your website because I own a piece of property in El Salvador in El Zonte would you be interested in developing it with me or for me? He said I'm in the food business. And he says would you be interested in developing it for me? And I'm like well okay yeah nice to meet you but here's what I'm gonna ask

45:35 When you get home from this conference, would you please send me a copy of your title? Send me a few pictures and send me if you have any maps to the property or whatever. Just send me a few things but I gotta see the title because I get so many people I'd probably get approached by email and in person, probably 4 or 5 times a month. Even today, I had some people talking to me about a property in Cabo San Lucas right? And so if it's interesting to me the 1st thing is give me a copy of your title. I want to know that I'm dealing with the owner of the property right? Truthfully, Greg probably three quarters the people I never hear from again. But you know whatever Tuesday Wednesday the following week in my inbox boom boom boom here comes three or four emails from this Mike Peterson guy The title some pictures pop up a pop and i'm like all right well good so he and I go back And forth for about six weeks and i'm talking to My business partner we're putting the letter of intent together

46:30 And so finally, my business partner he's a lawyer and he gives it to his secretary and says all right well Mary is going to put this into a formal letter of intent. All right you send it to Mike I'm like fine I'll send it to Mike. I get a call the next morning Greg this is beautiful! I get a call at 801 Mary's in the office spot on eight right? 801 I got a call from Mary she goes Mike do you know who you're dealing with in El Salvador And I'm like, oh shit. Right? I mean they're just like... Yeah because El Salvador's got a bad reputation. Like I have no idea but okay tell me Mary she goes it's Mike Peterson and I'm like uh yep i knew that already she goes do you know who he is I'm like no She goes He's the guy that got Bitcoin started in El Salvador! I just read an article about him in Forbes and bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop

47:22 And so she sent me the link. I read the article in Forbes about how he got it started and you know, Greg what went through my mind almost immediately was...I'm like wow this is exactly the kind of guy i want to do business with He never once tooted his own horn. Like he never was braggadocious, nothing I mean he never even said like, I'm Mike Peterson the Mike Peterson. You know right? It was just like yeah, I'm Mike Peterson and got this land and we worked out a deal and it was a good deal for him it's a good deal for us so it's a joint venture right? And yeah, Mike Peterson was the guy that got Bitcoin started and he did in a very interesting way Greg

48:05 I don't know if you know his background, but he has a food business in the States. But he moved with his wife to El Salvador, goodness 12-15 years ago now But they've been surfing there. He's a surfer and they've been surfing forever, and they set up a foundation to help other charities and missions who wanted to come to El Salvador to do charity work, right? Build schools or help out, do whatever they're going to do. So he built a foundation there to help these organizations who were coming to El Salvador to do good work to do all the logistics. He would arrange the buses, he would arrange the meals if they needed equipment, he would source it so when they got there, they could just do what they came to do. They didn't have to worry about all that on-the ground stuff that was all taken care of by him and I guess this is probably now five years ago pre COVID four or five years ago somebody came to one of his groups and said hey

48:59 You know, we have this huge Bitcoin donor. Do you know anyone who could? But the condition was, I'll give you this huge Bitcoin donation but you can't sell it. You got to keep it in Bitcoin and these guys knew Mike was into Bitcoin and crypto stuff so they reached out to Mike he said yeah I think I can do something So he looked at it He created this wallet He gave a thousand people in El Zonte the code They could put on their phones These thousands of people on their phone They set up the wallet And this guy came along and gave them all like 30-40 bucks of Bitcoin And it started this little local economy and people were using Bitcoin for everything around town. Then when COVID hit,

49:44 Mike went back to this group and said, hey can you go see the donor and see if he would be willing to continue to fund the people who have wallets because we're a tourist town. And the planes aren't flying and everyone's starving and if he could just help out? This guy said sure and I can't remember how much he gave a month that everybody who still had a wallet. President Bukele brother apparently caught wind of it came down and sat with Mike, and Mike was like I'm happy to help you but I'm not really your guy. You know? I did it here in El Zonte but you want to do it for a country

50:21 here are the people you should talk to and bop, bop, bop. And he handed it off." And you're right Greg September 9th of last year, September 9th of 2021 El Salvador became the first country in the world to accept Bitcoin as legal tender alongside the US dollar. It's a dollar economy and they now accept Bitcoin as well. You're right it's been a mixed bag I think just like FTX everyone Oh, not everyone. Many people look at crypto and Bitcoin as this gamble, the speculative I'm going to buy it and make a ton of money but nobody ever thinks for every winner there's a loser in every market transaction right?

51:00 I think that a lot of people kind of got burned out on the Bitcoin, then it went from whatever 60 to 20. And so people were holding it they saw a lot of their wealth evaporate So yeah, it's had a rocky start in El Salvador but the people who are fundamentally transactional with their bitcoin I think have done okay. Again, nobody likes to see it at 20 instead of 60 but it is what it is and again if its transactional medium which it is for so many people in El Salvador and think about this way there are a lot of reasons why I think Bitcoin is incredibly wonderful for a country like El Salvador you know? El Salvador has as many people working outside the country as working inside the country

51:46 I can't remember the number of El Salvadorians who live outside of El Salvador, but it's almost as many people who live in El Salvador. But I know the number of people employed outside the country equals a number employed in the country and so previously you've got a son when he's 20 takes off comes to the United States gets a job and is making whatever making okay money and it costs more to live in the US but still he's got a couple hundred bucks he wants to send home to mom every month right? And he has to go to Western Union and they whack him 40 bucks or whatever. Then mom has to get on a bus and go to San Salvador, take the whole day to go to the Western Union and they whack her another 20 bucks right? So now all of sudden 200 becomes 140 and she's had to burn a whole day and he's had to burn a couple hours over lunch right? It is just inefficient and expensive. Well now with Bitcoin in the wallet, the lightning wallet

52:41 Son can literally send mom $200 and she gets a hundred ninety nine dollars in you know, 94 cents or something Instantaneously on her cell phone. And for that reason alone I think that Bitcoin has been hugely transformative to the Unbankable or unbanked? I mean maybe they're not unbankable but the unbanked in El Salvador have benefited tremendously because now their bank is their cell phone And they don't need a bank account at a bank, you know and all the hassles to go get one and all the bureaucracy and on and on. They can just go to a store and they can buy address for their daughter or a pupusa for 25 cents with Bitcoin with their phone. Wow! What a huge incredible awesome wonderful difference that has made in the lives of so many people in El Salvador

53:38 But again, for many people who thought it was a way to get rich quick. You know they didn't and you know and so there's been a lot of bad press too but it's a mixed bag but I think on the all in all It is a far better more wonderful thing for that country than it is downside Yeah That is a great great detailed summary I always root for success when trying new things. It really drives me nuts to see so many people kind of trying to celebrate a failure in this regard, it's like look we are born into systems that have monopolies established little banking mafias everybody is getting their peace and there is so much corruption and inequality

54:23 really unfair. So when someone actually does try to disrupt all that and take a leap and make things better, I think it should be celebrated. And yeah, I'm fairly neutral on digital currencies because I know there's a lot of talk about how they're used for greater control and that's probably true but i think it'll be something more like a central bank digital currency where the old system adopts a new technology rather than Bitcoin itself. And who knows, but like let's throw some Hail Marys because there has been some established order for so long that is slowly sucking away people's wealth and it's just inconvenient to do anything and it's just like you know let's try some new things. So I appreciate it and I hope it does work out for them. Yeah! I hope it does too. For us as a company

55:15 We're going to build a wonderful community there in El Zante. We've named the community Gran Zante, it's a phenomenal piece of property that Mike owns its sloping hillside with beautiful ocean views it's right above the town so literally walk to you know whatever 20 restaurants and 15 minutes and all the services you need are right there but every home site will have a view of the Pacific Ocean And very few properties are truly that way. I mean, you've got front of the hill back of the hill, whatever this property is just incredible and we're excited to build this community for the Bitcoin community and every transaction will be placed in Bitcoin We will only accept Bitcoin for the sale of property. And once the community is up and functioning whoever the operators are it could be us It could be third parties

56:13 You know, Mike has stipulated that he wants all transactions on property to occur in Bitcoin as well. I don't think he can prevent dollar because dollars illegal. currency, but I think Bitcoin is certainly going to be encouraged for transactional purposes at the resort, at the property, at the restaurants rentals of homes and things like that. But it's exciting and I agree with you time to cheer the folks who are out there on the cutting edge bringing new things to market that are in this transformative for many people in El Salvador. It's been transformative in positive ways. I hope it continues to be because

56:52 I mean, again these folks are really they can't bank. They just simply can't get and maintain bank accounts and having a bank account on their phone really gives them a whole new freedom and a whole new economy that they've just simply never had before it's exciting it is a community of bitcoiners i'm sure the next bag there is something about the crypto bro archetype that. Is annoying there's that joke how do you know somebody has bitcoin will they've already told you ten times but there's also like a libertarian spirit to those folks and not,

57:30 I definitely have a lot of overlap in the things. I appreciate with those folks as well, so I just think it's cool people should be doing unique things we only live once this is supposed to be kind of like a sandbox playground do experience all kinds of innovative things and we just kinda get beaten down by the structures in the system that has imposed upon us and sometimes we go our whole life just being frustrated with our structure and environment, and we don't do anything about it. So that's really what all this is about is doing a little something about it. And man I know we're kind of getting to the end of the line here but I wanted at least ask you about due diligence because I hear you talk about it a lot. I know it's important. We want to know how to make good decisions and feel confident when we really don't know a lot about our region. I'm sure partnering with your company would help

58:22 a little bit in that regard, you know there's a trust situation there. You want to go with someone that's pretty established and you feel good about but what would you say about the importance of due diligence for the average person who is maybe thinking about getting involved in some of this stuff? Sure Greg, is it okay if I tell people how to get a copy of our consumer resource guide? Of course. Okay so the best way to get a copy is actually just send me an email mike.cobb It's mike.cobb, C-O-B-B at ecidevelopment.com If you just send an email to mike.cobb at ecidevelopment.com and in the subject line just write something about firesidechat slash consumer guide

59:09 Consumer Guide. But I always like to know where folks heard me as well, so if you can just write something in there about that too... Sure! We'll send you a link to download the Consumer Resource Guide it is a phenomenal book it's got 15 questions that we should ask when we buy property overseas and it's hard to remember 15 things So I'm going to give everyone listening right now three things to remember everybody can remember three things so remember these three things Buy what you see. If it's there, it's there if not there maybe will be maybe won't Number one buy what you see Second thing own community Are their people around? Is that the kind of place that you'll enjoy spending time and or if its an investment is at the kind a place that vacationers would enjoy spending time Is there tennis court? Is there golf course? Is there gym

1:00:08 What kinds of amenities are around right own community and then the last one, the 3rd 1 is. No, the developer we've been around for 27 years as I have been working in the region for 29 years now. You know, track records important but just simple things before I wrote a check for a condo or a home or property. I would just simply ask the developer to see a copy of their financials or see a copy of their business plan right? Just some simple things we as consumers can do to check them out because there is no better business bureau there are no regulatory agencies

1:00:49 And really what this consumer resource guide does with the 15 questions, and there are several articles in there as well. And by the way it's not a sales document I think the back inside cover has my contact information or phone number but I mean the entire document is truly a resource for a consumer to get it right the first time but the key takeaway is to change how we think because in the United States, in North America Europe We live in the land of seller beware, right? Seller beware. There's every kind of regulatory body and law and groups and everybody is looking out for the consumer, right? But when we go overseas, we are truly moving into a land of buyer beware because those regulatory bodies either A don't exist or even if they do exist they don't have a budget to do very much so you don't have consumer protections

1:01:46 But this goes back to my new favorite talk, which is freedom and personal responsibility. Two sides of the same coin I love the freedom. I love the freedom to live and work and make decisions outside the US but i have to take the personal responsibility for the due diligence to get it right because nobody's looking out for me. I have to look out for myself or truly we have to look out for one another right No man's an island kind of thing, but at the same time it does start with us. But if we don't know what we don't know and we don't know the right questions to ask, and we don't even understand that we're moving into land of fire beware lots of yucky things can happen in lots of yucky things do happen. And so I started writing this book about 25 years ago. It's been through many additions. It gets updated every year blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Basically the whole point of this consumer resource guide

1:02:40 was to help anybody, everybody looking at property overseas to get it right the first time. To do it right the first time because even if somebody buys somebody else's property but they love it they have a great experience They're going to tell people about the great experience of living as an expat or buying a property overseas Or whatever it is and that grows the marketplace And you know selfishly I win when the marketplace grows I guess maybe in a philosophical sense, I win because somebody made a good decision and they're happy. And I think that's good for the world and good for karma right? But yeah the Consumer Resource Guide gosh it's such an easy simple thing to request please request it read through it 15 questions will take you 20-25 minutes to look through it if you're looking for property overseas you absolutely need to read it understand it and begin to change

1:03:36 how you think. Buyer beware is a whole different environment and this book will help you begin to think differently so that you become the smart, wise consumer in a foreign land Nice, nice man. Cheers to that and I will certainly put the email address in the show notes so people don't have to rewind and try to find it. And of course the website is ecidevelopment.com It's a really well-designed website you got several communities i think i see over a dozen if i were to count them up and you got another section for properties and renting versus owning versus investing

1:04:18 The Teak stuff is on there too. So it is a real great resource in and of itself, and I don't think I saw anywhere what does ECI stand for? You had to ask! Ah... so the name of the three guys who started it? No, its worse. When we first started our little mortgage company back in 19.. I guess we corporately formed in 94 as a mortgage company but anyway We were on this little island and the islands off the coast of Belize are called Keys, C-A-Y-E. Right? And so we named our company Exotic Key International

1:04:58 And had we known that we were going to morph into all kinds of other things and whatever, we would be outside Belize and not on the keys. We would have named it differently but once we bought the property in Nicaragua, we realized well that doesn't work anymore so we shortened it to ECI Development. Right on right on Here's a big tip if you ever start a business Think big name. Hey, I picked a name that is a made up word so when people are looking for higher side and it can be spelled multiple ways and every other business is asking Can I get your email? I'm like you know, I really don't want to spell this thing out for you but

1:05:35 That's the way it goes. I should have just been a conspiracy show or something that nobody could screw up, but here we are. Yeah right? But the good thing is it's a broad umbrella and no one knows what the higher side chats is supposed to cover so one day you're talking about aliens next day you're talking about properties in Central America. Incredible yeah Greg this has been a tremendous conversation thank you so much for having me on I've enjoyed sharing with you, but sharing that the folks listening about the adventure that they can have overseas. I'm guessing that anybody who's tuned in for the whole 2 hours certainly has an adventurous spirit and I encourage that.

1:06:16 And Greg, thanks for letting us get out and talk about it. Yeah. Thanks for doing it! I thought this was really enjoyable and I know it's not for everyone but I like presenting options. It's easy to feel sort of trapped for one reason or another and sometimes we just need to be presented with some new options and take a leap if you can put yourself in your family in a better environment or make an investment that could break a cycle of barely getting by create some multi-generational wealth, it should be heavily considered. And Mike I appreciate all you do to help people in all sorts of different situations. I'm glad we were introduced take care out there too. Thanks Greg. All right guys how about it? Has to have been unexpected but I walked away from this interview really charged up about the possibilities

1:07:05 Mike even sent me some pictures afterwards of his girls having all sorts of fun growing up in Nicaragua, seeing the baby sea turtles hatch. Zip lining in the jungle and something called volcano sliding basically sledding on the sandy gravel on the side of a volcano wild stuff and I know every listener is going to be at a different point in their life. I can't help that so if this doesn't apply to your specific situation at this time, I'm sorry about that But these mortgages are cheaper than in the US, you are closer to the natural world. You have organic locally grown food as a norm and industrialization hasn't completely poisoned the environment! So for the adventurists who want to start a new life somewhere Mike brings about a dozen interesting options to the table I'm pretty committed to what i got going on right now but in five years? Who knows plus it's not always a song about me it's a song about YOU GUYS

1:08:05 It's fun to consider it and picture it and kinda day dream about it. Plus I have a lot more knowledge now than before this, so maybe I'll dip my toe in with the teak plantation! That just sounds so amazing as way of setting up each new generation of your family with a little cash infusion when its important. We have to get creative because the paths we're told to walk pretty much lead nowhere And sometimes when I'm on other shows, people ask me how we're going to stop all this stuff. Actually, I think that was also a question that came up in the Gramerica Mount Shasta event Q&A that I added to the plus members bonus page if you are a plus member look in the menu go do the bonuses page and scroll down and you will see the

1:08:52 Gramerica, Q and A. It's a lot of fun actually Darren had some great lines Joe Root made some really good points and I rambled on a bit like Russell Brand on the Bill Maher show but one of the questions even there was about stopping the world economic forum climate policy digital currencies climate credits etc like how do we win? How do we defeat The Big Machine And I'm always reminded in these moments of Gordon's line that not everyone gets to fight Sauron. Sometimes you aren't the hero of the story, sometimes it's not your role in life to be Hercules and you can't make people do anything or work together in any significant way so the way YOU win is NOT to stop it all from happening but to anticipate it and reorient YOUR life so it affects YOU less!

1:09:43 It's important to really grasp the reality that these things that worry us are coming. It's not a matter of stopping them, it's about how much freedom and autonomy you're going to have in your individual life despite all that stuff. And Mike added a few more feathers to your optionality cap today. Why not just step up and get the consumer resource guide he offered? Just email mike.cobb at ECI development.com the link is in the show notes and so we did cover a lot in the first hour, but I am really happy. I had to because in the plus show, We added more material about different paths to residency and visas or citizenship across central America comparing food costs quality and access first, the U S

1:10:33 Living in synergy with local populations, crime statistics and police corruption in these areas. Navigating South American bribe culture. Teak investment opportunities probably the best part and also the best investments and rental property opportunities with ECI development. Lots of really good info I'd get the seven day free trial just to hear about the teak thing man lots to like And sometimes the solution is just to move out of the way of a runaway train before it crashes. I hope you feel more educated on what this sort of solution would entail if it's something that swirls around in your brain from time-to-time In higher side news, we are in the last few days of the eBay Outline Auction Check it out at ebay.com slash USR slash Higher Side Chats Only about 20 outlines left

1:11:28 Up there and maybe two to four days left to get one. Other than that, well you know we're going to check the meetups calendar so let's see where the people are coming together next all right coming right up March 11th We have a Spooner Wisconsin Meetup also March 11th A Vancouver Island Beach Meetup Also March 11th One in Scottsdale Arizona March 18th Harrisburg Oregon March 22nd Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico. And March 23rd the Antler Hunt Campout on Pot Mountain in Northern New Mexico and that clears the calendar for the month of March! Good events all over this great land I like it Have some fun with the calendar guys make events anytime for any reason and meet some new people that also like THC probably in more ways than one

1:12:27 But that does it. Reach out to Mike if you want more information on any of this, he's a great resource and good luck out there! The dangers must be growing for the rowers keep on rowing and they're certainly not showing any signs that they are slowing... Thanks for listening I've done my part Your move expat enthusiasts central america contingency planners and abandoners of the collapsing empire your fucking move ribbon round the oak tree. They've worn out all their prayer and they're alone, thought they were rooting for the home team as they're sent to the game and torn apart We twist this tourniquet upon a pipeline that it carries all the pain and looms As we blindly clap and cheer from the sidelines It's clear on a losing streak from the

1:13:32 And that's where they found me In the cemetery A smoking gun and mom down for THC The hurricane scream They took that faded ribbon off the oak tree Worn out open their arms I long thought i was doing a lying in a pool of my blood And thats where they found me

1:14:28 in the cemetery a smoking gun in my land of the free sing with me and that's where they found in my cemetery a smoking gun in my hand now I'm down from the land of the THC American scream, American scream! And that's where they fou- In my cemetery A smoking gun

1:15:37 I'm going to end up with me the game