Gringos Doing Crazy Things in Latin America

In my time living in Latin America, I have arguably done some dumb shit from time to time.

Like this one time here I stumbled into the Bolivian city of Potosi that was locked down by a massive protest and ended up pissing off one of the protesters when I left.

To this time here I got caught fucking a Dominican chick in a public bathroom.

Or like when I pissed off some pimp dude who wanted to stab  in the DR me like here.

Among other things here and there that seemed a bit careless in hindsight.

But, when we look at the examples out there, I suppose I really haven’t been that careless with my safety when compared to other gringos out there.

Because every once in a while we get a story out in the media…

Of some craaaaazy gringo doing craaaaazy stuff somewhere in Latin America.

And, for our entertainment, we get to hear about it!

So what are some entertaining stories of other gringos doing funny, crazy, dangerous or dumb things down here in Latin America?

I tried to include an example of all of the above that I found interesting.

I did some research and brought together here some examples that I could find.

And if you have any examples yourself…

Examples out in the media or shit you or people you know have done…

Throw them in the comment section below this article!

Would love to hear a good story.

Anyway, let’s get to it.

Making Friends in a Bolivian Village

The first example that comes to mind is this Youtube account called Bald & Bankrupt.

Basically it is a Youtube channel of this British guy who runs around the world doing entertaining things in various countries.

Sometimes he hits up Latin America.

Some of my favorite content of his is when he goes to this Bolivian village to essentially make some friends.

But, as you can see in the first video, the locals are not very receptive to him as some guy in a motorcycle drives up to him and has him leave the area.

However, he ends up coming back to the village a bit more nicely dressed and with a suitcase that has some coca leaves as a gift.

As well as some money to bribe his way in.

Despite the fact that he seems to be getting more accustomed to life down here by learning the art of a bribe…

It’s also funny how his Spanish seems very rudimentary.

Just makes it even more entertaining for me.

Along with the fact that these folks probably have never seen a gringo just stumble by in a suit and pay money to go “let me film your house!”

Here’s the videos below for you to enjoy.

The Killing of a Spiritual Leader

Perhaps a bit more sinister than telling the locals on how to better follow Jesus or making friends in rural villages…

Here is a story that you can read in much greater detail and analysis here about this Canadian guy named Sebastian who went to a Peruvian village to study ayahuasca.

While doing his time there, supposedly the son of an elderly woman owed the Canadian dude about 4,000 bucks.

Later on, the elderly woman (who is a spiritual leader of the village) ends up getting shot and killed.

From what I have read, supposedly there was sufficient evidence that the Canadian guy might have been behind the killing but there were also plenty of folks skeptical about that claim.

Nonetheless, the Canadian guy gets judged as guilty by the village and ends up getting killed by the locals.

There used to be a video of him getting killed from what I remember seeing online. I think it was on LiveLeak but I can’t find it.

Anyway, did he kill the elderly woman?

I can’t say for certain but it seems to be evidence that points to that.

More information again in this article here.

And here’s a video on the subject for those curious.

With a second video after that showing authorities finding the body of Sebastian. 

Prostitutes, Drugs & Murder in Belize

This is probably one of my favorite stories of gringos doing crazy stuff in Latin America.

For those who somehow don’t know, John McAfee was originally known for his company McAfee Associates and the antivirus software.

After his time in the company, he ended up buying some property in Belize.

And supposedly he took a lot of attention for his behavior and presence in the community he went to due to various reasons, including spending time with teenage girls and having armed security and aggressive dogs on his property.

At any rate, he had an issue with some neighbor who took issue with his dogs. Eventually, one of his dogs got poisoned from my understanding and then the neighbor was found dead later.

To which McAfee had to escape from Belize before authorities could properly question him.

He was later captured in Guatemala for illegally entering the country but was sent back to the US after claiming to have faked a heart attack.  

Anyway, some interesting articles to read on the subject are here, here and here. 

Well, here’s a video anyway that is a documentary on that life he had with more details than I have provided here.

Grandpa’s Homemade Cocaine

To continue on with the theme of Colombia…

We can’t talk about this lovely country without bringing up cocaine, can we?

Of course not…

In this case though, we aren’t talking about a big bad criminal like Pablo Escobar.

Instead, here is a story in this article talking about how a 81 year old woman from Spain was arrested as she was trying to smuggle 17 kilos of cocaine in her wheelchair out of the Jose Maria Cordova international airport in Rionegro.

At any rate, the authorities were investigating her wheelchair when they basically noticed a few issues with it.

First, there were irregularities with the color and structure of the chair.

Second, they noticed a strong odor that was similar to what they usually find with drugs after noticing a white substance inside the wheelchair.  

Apparently this isn’t the first time that they have noticed drug traffickers using people in wheelchairs to get drugs through.

Because while woman in particular appears to be Colombian from what I could find out…

Apparently it is a tactic by drug traffickers to now be using “narcoabuelitos” to traffic drugs into other countries around the world.

For example, according to this article, there were 11 people arrested for this, including a British and a Spanish dude.

The reason for why these drug groups have people older than 65 do this in wheelchairs…

Is because plenty of older people are in desperate need of cash at times…

But also because Colombia has a rule on the books that says that anyone over 65 can’t be sent to jail but has to carry out their terms where they live at.

And so it happens to be that some of them also are foreigners.

I imagine having an older foreigner do this is probably more valuable either way given there might be less suspicion on them and maybe better passports to get around.

Anyway, here’s a video of one of these narcoabuelitos getting arrested.