Dear Reader,

As many of you already know if you are in my private Facebook group, my wife and I gave birth to a little boy a week ago today, so I thought I would give you a very quick update on how everything went and what we have going on at the moment.

In my book Expat Secrets from back in 2018 (still very relevant today), you may have caught a chapter where I talk about giving birth in Brazil as a way to get PR and eventually citizenship. Well, my wife went ahead and did this :)

For me it is not enough to just research and write about stuff as an armchair traveller, it’s important to go out there and actually try it. I think that is one of the main differences between my work and some of the other people you might find in this space; I live this stuff and have been living it for the last 21 years straight, I don’t just talk about it, I do it and so does my family. 

From the birth side, we have had a great experience. My wife, from start to finish, took 2 hours in labour (compared to almost 17 hours with my first child when we gave birth in Abu Dhabi). The staff at the hospital were lovely and very very patient with us as we speak literally no Portuguese (don’t listen to anyone who says you can get by with just Spanish, it’s not true). We used a private hospital just focused on maternity and the hospital was clean and nice, we were really happy with the staff and facility.  

Side note, I am thinking about doing a special report or ebook on Birth Tourism; if you or a family member have also done this please feel free to share with me your story, just hit reply and I will get your email.

Getting into Brazil for this trip was a bit of a nightmare and you can listen to all the drama in my episode on travelling to Costa Rica during the pandemic (hint: it’s all about having to travel to another country to get a tourist visa because our embassies were closed in Panama, and a ton of drama that entailed).

And to hear about us trying to wade through all the documents for Brazil and what it is like to travel to the country during the pandemic you can listen to this episode.

Our next big step is actually getting the birth certificate for my son, we have been told we have 15 days to get this done, which is scary considering our documents are still in Canada getting authenticated. I am not sure I want to find out what will happen if we don’t get the birth certificate in the first 15 days... I do know that we can’t fly home to Panama without the birth certificate as we will not be able to get my son his Passport/s. 

There are worse places in the world to be stuck than Brazil, but still, my daughter is in Panama so we are super keen to wrap this up and get home to her. We have already been separated from her for over 3 months now and it’s been very tough on us.

About Brazil; from our experience, the country is wide open, there are very few restrictions here with covid and zero lockdowns, mandates, curfews, etc. Most people are just living their lives and enjoying themselves. The food has been beyond excellent this time around and we are living like royalty eating the nicest, freshest meats, seafood, fruits and vegetables every single day, and it’s costing us pennies on the dollar compared to any one of the other 9 countries I have lived in in my life.

This I expect, is because the Real has collapsed over the last year or so. Since we arrived a couple of months ago we started looking at real estate to buy. In the South of the country where we are staying right now, we found a beautiful place to live. It has 4 bedrooms, a nice sized piece of land, a pool and amazing views, It’s $81k USD. I am not sure we will get this particular place but we are shopping for a second (technically 3rd) home, and the deals are amazing.

I think Brazil is a stunning place to live for quality of living, people, culture, and food, really it is just amazing. I will say the taxes are brutal though, so not sure I will ever spend more than a few months a year here, but the months I do, I promise I will make the most of Buffet Kilo, Churrasco, and of course, lots and lots of Caipirinhas with my friends. 

That’s my update for now, I hope you are doing excellent!

Talk soon,

Mikkel

PS. Check out below... I have redone all our merchandise for the Expat Money Show. To win your merch, all you have to do is click the button at the very bottom of this email and share your special link with friends or family members who would get value from my podcast, forum, book, or newsletter. 

I appreciate you helping to spread the word! Go share those links and I will bribe you with cool stuff ;)