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Embark on Your Expat Journey: Retire Early and Live the Best Life!
Expat Rebel, a weekly podcast hosted by Expat Chris, is your guide to becoming an expat and retiring early. Whether you're a wannabe expat or a seasoned one, looking to explore the world and enhance your lifestyle, this podcast is for you.
Tune in to Expat Rebel for the latest in expat news, where Expat Chris shares insights and occasionally invites lifestyle expats to discuss what's currently working for them.
Ready to kickstart your expat adventure? Grab your copy of the 'How To Become An Expat in 30 Days' guide at https://expatrebel.com.
4th of July in Mexico, US Passport delays continue, most LGBTQ-friendly cities in Europe and more Expat News
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[00:00:00] Chris: Welcome back to another episode of Expat Rebel today, I'm going to share 4th of July in Mexico, us passport delays. Continue. And the most LGBTQ friendly cities in Europe, plus more expat news.
[00:00:13] I created this podcast because I believe that being an expat is not for everyone. And that a lot of the expat advice out there is unrealistic. So I'm delivering news, motivation and advice that will make you an excellent expat. And enjoy a better life. And because I know you're busy. It just won't take up too much of your time. I hope this podcast gives you the support. You need to become a better ex-pat.
[00:00:33] And are you wanting to become an expat soon, then go grab our Expat Rebel guide to becoming an expat in 30 days. That's what I did over it. ExpatRebel.com/30. And if you just love what we're doing. You can please support us over at ExpatRebel.com/join. We're a community and we'd love you to join us. Now, let's start today's episode. We just had the 4th of July.
[00:00:58] Here in [00:01:00] Mexico. And I actually had someone ask me what it was like. And I celebrated by myself with other us American expats. As well in different places. Within Mexico and France. And I've had a totally blast. Now this year, a little bit different in that I did a private Maya. cacao ceremony with some friends, something that we like to do.
[00:01:26] And so that was fun. If you can go, the show knows that the picture of me and ceremony. That was a lot of fun, but I've also gone to fireworks. In fact, later that night, a nearby. I happen to be in port. Porto Adventuras, Quintana Roo, México. on a fun vacation. And that night one of the local resorts called Dreams. All-inclusive place. Never stayed there, but they had a bunch of fireworks. Only about a minutes worth. Now, when I lived in Playa Del Carmen, there was a ton of fireworks that once. a, another us American invited me [00:02:00] over to their house and they had a roof deck, and we got to see a 360 view of the fireworks and in Playa Del Carmen. There was quite a few, lots of resorts, of course, that have us Americans. I'm vacationing there. And so they have fireworks. And another experience I had in France. Quite a few years ago. We did a home exchange. With a family in Rennes. France, which is like north. west France.
[00:02:29] Away from pretty far away from Paris. And they actually got the mayor to shut our street down in front of this house. We were staying at the home exchange where we're staying at and the entire neighborhood, everybody on that road came out. Set up tables. And threw a party for us 4th of July party for us.
[00:02:50] The US Americans visiting France for. I think about a month. I think we were there. And it was one of the best [00:03:00] one 4th of July parties I've ever been to. They were extremely nice to us. The area of France, they tend to be like US Americans and the British a little bit more, I think because of World War II.
[00:03:13] And helping out. Up there. But they were just so delightfully fun with us and we got to taste everybody's town's wine that they're originally from Rennes fairly biggest cities. So there are a lot of people of course go there for jobs, like everybody else around the world. And so they had that and even had some homemade liquor that wound up in a glass. And it was just a complete total party and they had sanctioned by the mayor and we had a really good time. So basically. Being an expat really afforded you the luxury of doing whatever you like, whatever type of experience. That you like, I had the [00:04:00] high-end resort thing this year.
[00:04:02] And next year, I don't know what it'll be, but I've also stayed at home. And just been with my wife and things like that as well, but usually you can always find some other expats too. Celebrate or grill or anything like that you like to do. All right. Let's move on to some expat news.
[00:04:21] And all the links I'm gonna talk about are in the show notes. There is some travel advisories. The US State Department is issued quite a few recently, and they of course do it for the entire world, except for the U S which I find funny. They won't. They won't rate their own country, but they'll rate everybody else.
[00:04:39] Some of the advisories. I actually do I agree with not all of them and some places I've lived, they given out advisories. And I'm like, okay. C'mon cause if spring break was coming up or something like that, But a lot of their level of four do not travel countries are extremely unfriendly to any first world country person. [00:05:00] So you need to read the advisories in great detail. Some like I've seen in Belize are really a part of the Belize city. And not the whole entire country. And so people don't read that. Beliz is a little bit smaller. So I think they've missed that in Mexico it can be there's a lot of states.
[00:05:19] In Mexico that are not friendly and not good places to go. And then others that are actually safer than the US and almost all of Canada, except for Quebec. It's a little safer. And where I live here in Yucatan the state. On the beach. Mexico. It is the safest of course in Mexico, but it's safer than anywhere in the U S.
[00:05:42] There's some people that have actually ranked that stuff. Which is cool then, but just to make sure you read those advisories, I got a link in the show notes. It goes to the US State Department where they're listed.
[00:05:54] Also the US State Department and if you're you US American, so there's going to be some more passport [00:06:00] delays.
[00:06:00] Really because of the cut to pre pandemic levels until the end of the year. I think they're still ramping up. On handling that, before the pandemic, shut everything down.
[00:06:14] Bookings.com is launched a new trip planner incorporating Chat GPT. So if you're into travel and you want to try out their new AI tool. They have it. It's rolling out right now and should be available for everyone by the end of the month.
[00:06:28] But it's beta testing.
[00:06:29] I also have a link to the most. L G P T Q friendly cities in Europe. Nice little, list there for people like that. Also there's open for business city ratings, which ranks. LGBTQ plus city friendly ratings. That you can check out. As well. Expat TV. Is. Got it, a package when you're outside the US or Canada, you can get a lot of your standard channels that you're used to. On one box.[00:07:00] And it's a low fee per month. And you get access to a ton of things.
[00:07:04] I wanted to let everybody know about their alarming rise of voice cloning fraud. That's really targeting the elderly through a using AI. The stuff can actually have it sound like your kids. Or people, calling you up and begging for money because they're about to be thrown in jail or whatever.
[00:07:23] They basically script and they actually type this stuff out and this AI can talk it out. It's very believable. So have a key word. Or a way to be able to ask them who they really are, that only they would know. But good article that and SeaWorld is also introducing the VIP experience. Where for 500 bucks you get the go behind the scenes. I've done some behind the scenes at some zoos and their thing.
[00:07:48] Not quite that much, but and. I had a lot of fun
[00:07:51] Now on to Mexico expat news. The Mexico super peso is breaking the $7. Barrier the US.[00:08:00] And analysts are warning that a prolonged pace around could be more harmful than beneficial. As it pushes that export prices deflates the value of remittances from the US as well as impacting Mexico's large industrial sector.
[00:08:15] Hopefully right now we're not getting as much money when we exchange and we're hoping they'll go back to what used to be, which was around 20.
[00:08:27] Mexico is vowing to help migrants and offers to protect undocumented. Mexicans and Florida, because of a lot changed there. I've found that interesting that Mexico is stepping up and saying something about their citizens overseas, that they don't tend to do that too much, but it looks like that's happening because of some unusual circumstances in Florida.
[00:08:50] Aeromexico the CEO is anticipating a boost in FAA safety ratings for Mexico. Quietly back in July. There was [00:09:00] A degrading. From FAA. With the Aeromexico and it looks like some of the things. They fix to get that back or about to be implemented.
[00:09:10] Tourists with less money come to Cancun says, and Airbnb is getting the blame. I knew flights are connecting Yucatan two and under appreciated region of Cuba. As well, we can fly directly from Mérida Yucatan to. Cool. But now instead of having to go to ho how bad. Ricky Martin is going to be performing here in Mérida in September.
[00:09:32] This is a big kind of recently new, maybe not even the last year. Thing is some bigger artists are now starting to play in Mérida. Usually they would be of course, Mexico City, everybody in the world plays in Mexico City. And then some quite a few and Cancun just cause Cancun has a lot of tourists and it has a bunch of connecting flights. People that actually will fly to Cancun to see a big act. And now we're starting to see some [00:10:00] of these bigger acts come to Merida, which is cool.
[00:10:03] Progresso is nearby port town with the longest pier in the world and not official until just recently Recently the pier was finished in 1989. It had gone through i think three different builds and longer and longer but the guinness book of world records has now actually officially sanctioned it as the longest pier. Took them awhile but it is And. And. it's about four kilometers long it's quite big
[00:10:30] That's it for today's episode. And thanks again for being a part of expat rebel. This would not be possible without all of you. And thank you to our editor in chief. My love Nan, for helping me out on the podcast, the weekly newsletter. We're building a positive expat community and we are here to support you.
[00:10:47] If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review. We'd love hearing from you. And if you want to get our weekly newsletter, go visit ExpatRebel.com/newsletter. You can also check out our, how to become an expat and about [00:11:00] 30 days over at ExpatRebel.com. It shares with you how I went from idea to moving to a foreign country in about 30 days.
[00:11:08] And also shares you how you could say. Up to $3,000 on the mistakes that i made within the very first month
[00:11:15] So you guys next time bye