Bitcoiners - Live From Bitcoin Beach

Is El Salvador real estate overpriced, or is everyone who called El Zonte a bubble two years ago now wishing they’d bought? Lexi Cross thought prices were already too high back then, and they’ve gone up again since!

You’ve seen the headlines about El Salvador tourism and the apartment projects going up along the coast. What you can’t tell from outside is who’s buying now, what it takes to run a rental there, and which months are worth the trip.

Mike sits down with Lexi, who runs Good Life El Salvador with Chimbera and is on the show for the third time. Since her last visit they’ve started a rental management company, a hardwood furniture shop, and a free concierge service for people who want to see the country before they buy anything.

The buyer mix has changed. Lexi is taking more calls from Salvadorans coming home from the US, and they ask about San Miguel and Sonsonate while foreign buyers only ever ask about the coast. Then an email arrived from a client who went to her high school in Washington State.

Managing those units turned out harder than selling them. The railings rust and get cleaned every week. Guests want to bring pets. People negotiate the nightly rate, which Lexi never knew you could do. The cleaning fee on a two bedroom came in close to a hundred dollars, far higher than she’d planned. She’s also decided which properties she won’t manage, and she’s honest about why.

Then there’s timing. The best time to visit El Salvador depends on what you came for, and rainy season is the one most people skip for the wrong reasons. Mike and Lexi walk through when the rains arrive, what the waves do, and why bookings no longer collapse in the wet months. Mike’s place in punta mango had no rooms open on a weeknight in the middle of it.

For all the modernizing, Lexi says living in El Salvador is still an adventure, and that’s what makes this country special.

Whether you’re weighing moving to El Salvador or just trying to pick a week to come see it, listen before you book the flight.

—Bitcoin Beach Team

Learn more about Lexi Cross:
Web: https://www.goodlifeelsalvador.com
Web: https://getawayselsalvador.com/
X: https://x.com/goodlife_sv
X: https://x.com/getaways_sv
IG: https://www.instagram.com/goodlifeelsalvador
IG: https://www.instagram.com/getawayselsalvador/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/zontewoodshop/

Support and follow Bitcoin Beach:
X: https://www.twitter.com/BitcoinBeach
IG: https://www.instagram.com/bitcoinbeach_sv
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livefrombitcoinbeach
Web: https://www.bitcoinbeach.com

STAY AT BITCOIN BEACH:
https://www.stayatbitcoinbeach.com/punta-mango-villas

Browse through this quick guide to learn more about the episode:
00:00 Intro
02:09 Is El Salvador real estate a bubble and are Bitcoiners still buying in El Zonte?
04:44 Who is buying property in El Salvador right now and why are Salvadorans moving back from the US?
08:29 Where to stay in El Zonte, beachfront condos with a kitchen or surf hotels?
11:07 How hard is it to own a beachfront rental in El Salvador with salt air and rust?
12:18 What is it like running a vacation rental in El Salvador, pets, haggling, and cleaning fees?
15:46 What is the best time to visit El Salvador, rainy season or dry season?
19:19 Who manages vacation rentals in El Zonte and what properties do they take?
22:28 Where to buy custom hardwood furniture in El Salvador?
27:28 What is living in El Salvador really like and how do discovery trips work for moving to El Salvador? 
Live From Bitcoin Beach

Before anyone was buying property in El Salvador with Bitcoin, Mike called a lawyer to ask whether giving Bitcoin away in El Zonte could put him in jail.
You’ve heard the country made Bitcoin legal tender. What you haven’t heard is what that did to one law office, one land deal and one very stubborn banking system.
That lawyer is Carlos Gil, partner at the Salvadoran office of ECIJA, an international law firm. He’d never heard of Bitcoin when Mike called around 2011 or 2012. He read the paper, and a few months later he was on board.
Then came the day Bukele announced legal tender. Carlos’s phone rang nonstop the next morning with international clients asking about taxes, capital gains and how to keep their books. By 2022 he was at a Bitcoin conference where strangers bought him lunch just for being Salvadoran.
Then Mike bought land. The closing took six hours because QR codes on the Bitcoin Beach wallet expired every minute and the seller’s brand-new custodial account couldn’t hold the full price. Carlos explains what self custody turns that into, and why a wire from the U.S. still gets flagged while Bitcoin doesn’t.
Through all of it, the banks were the slow part. Carlos tells foreign clients to keep Bitcoin off their corporate documents because El Salvador banks wouldn’t open accounts for Bitcoin companies, and his first one waited three months. Here’s where it gets strange. Banks from Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala are now the ones getting licenses, and a bank president who once turned people away called Mike a year ago asking for a favor.
Where that leaves the El Salvador economy today, in Carlos’s words, is a sandbox where international chains and El Salvador real estate companies come to test the technology, while a bank officer still can’t process a man who held Bitcoin for 15 years and wants to retire in La Libertad.
That same financial innovation grew his firm from two people to 64 lawyers and gave a Salvadoran born in the ’80s something new. For the first time, his country was known for something good!
Whether you’re moving to El Salvador to set up a company or just want to know if the legal side holds up, listen before you decide. The lawyer’s answer starts with “it depends.”

—Bitcoin Beach Team

Learn more about Carlos Gil:
X: https://x.com/carlitos_gil
X (Law Firm): https://x.com/ECIJA
web: https://www.ecija.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecija/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/ecija_law/
Email address: cgil@ecija.com

Support and follow Bitcoin Beach:
X: https://www.twitter.com/BitcoinBeach
IG: https://www.instagram.com/bitcoinbeach_sv
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livefrombitcoinbeach
Web: https://www.bitcoinbeach.com

STAY AT BITCOIN BEACH:
https://www.stayatbitcoinbeach.com/punta-mango-villas

Browse through this quick guide to learn more about the episode:
00:00 Intro
02:12 How did Bitcoin Beach get its first lawyer in El Salvador on board with Bitcoin?
06:24 What happened in El Salvador when Bitcoin became legal tender?
13:09 How did Bitcoin change how the world sees El Salvador and Salvadorans?
17:26 How did the Bitcoin Beach wallet work in El Zonte before any regulation existed?
20:44 How to buy land in El Salvador with Bitcoin?
22:13 Self custody vs custodial wallet: which is better for large Bitcoin purchases?
25:28 Is El Salvador a good place to start a Bitcoin company?
33:36 Can a Bitcoin company open a bank account in El Salvador?
39:31 Do banks in El Salvador accept Bitcoin now?
Live From Bitcoin Beach

What happens when a nightclub bouncer from Santa Barbara, California sells everything he owns and opens a restaurant in El Zonte?

You’ve probably seen Max Keiser posting from a beach restaurant and wondered how it got there. The posts show the finished version. They don’t show the ten years before it, or the little box it started in.

Mike sits down with Antoine Allain, owner of La Cajita, born in Brittany, France, raised in California from age 13, and a former competitive surfer who first came to El Zonte about 10 years ago on a surf trip.

He fell for the town in half an hour, surfed, and went home. Three years ago he came back with his dad for a birthday trip and found a different place, with more energy and more room to start something. On the first day they were already talking about what they could open here. Antoine called his wife and told her he thought they were moving to El Salvador. Her answer wasn’t yes. He tells you how she came around, and which part of living in El Salvador was hardest for her to get used to.

They sold everything in France and California and opened in a tiny box on the sand, serving the crepes and galettes his dad cooks at home. The risk sat on Antoine alone. One ingredient is hard to find in the country, so friends bring it in by the bag.

Then a smash burger went on the menu and the little box filled up. Then Max came to eat, became a partner, and the move upstairs that followed brought a crowd that still fills the place every night of rainy season. Antoine is clear about one thing: Max checks in on the numbers like a businessman, and the growth came bigger than they’d expected.

Antoine knew nothing about Bitcoin when he opened. Hear what accepting it has done for his customer count and for the kind of people who walk through the door.

He and Mike also get into El Salvador surf from a local’s view: the two peaks he rotates through on the El Zonte surf calendar, and La Cajita Express, the contest he runs where 20 men and five women competed for $1,250.

If you’re one of the El Salvador expats wondering how the town treats a foreigner opening a business, Mike asks him directly. His answer is short and worth hearing from him.

A family bet everything on a small box on the beach and El Zonte showed up for them!

Whether you’re weighing a business of your own in El Salvador or you want to know what’s behind the burger Mike keeps ordering, listen to this one.

—Bitcoin Beach Team

Learn more about Antoine Allain:
X: https://x.com/LaCajitaKitchen
IG: https://www.instagram.com/lacajitakitchen

Support and follow Bitcoin Beach:
X: https://www.twitter.com/BitcoinBeach
IG: https://www.instagram.com/bitcoinbeach_sv
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livefrombitcoinbeach
Web: https://www.bitcoinbeach.com

STAY AT BITCOIN BEACH:
https://www.stayatbitcoinbeach.com/punta-mango-villas

Browse through this quick guide to learn more about the episode:
00:00 Intro
01:02 Why did Antoine Allain move from Santa Barbara to El Zonte, El Salvador?
03:27 How do you start a restaurant on Bitcoin Beach in El Zonte with no experience in El Salvador?
05:39 What is Max Keiser’s restaurant in El Salvador and how did he become a partner in La Cajita?
10:13 How much does Max Keiser’s promotion help a small business in El Zonte?
13:40 Can a foreigner start a business in El Salvador and how do locals treat expats?
17:39 How hard are taxes and permits for starting a business in El Salvador?
19:59 Can you pay with Bitcoin in El Zonte and does it bring businesses more customers?
21:56 What is living in El Salvador like after moving from the US with your family?
25:14 What is the La Cajita Express surf contest in El Zonte and when is the next one?
Live From Bitcoin Beach

What happens to your Bitcoin if you die tomorrow? In El Zonte, one builder’s answer is a dead man switch and an encrypted seed phrase.
If you practice self custody, your 12 or 24 words are stored somewhere safe. How your family would ever reach them is the question Eric Summers set out to solve.
Mike first met Eric as the math tutor for one of his son’s friends.
Eric’s story of moving to El Salvador begins in Texas in 2023, when a Salvadoran friend told him to come look. He stayed 10 days with his friend’s parents in San Salvador and flew home sure the country checked all his boxes. Then he loaded everything he owned into a Toyota Tacoma and drove to El Salvador, a month down the Pacific coast through Mexico and Guatemala. Border agents took his drone headset for night vision goggles. What they took his telescope for, you’ll have to hear from him.
He found El Zonte, started working at the Bitcoin hardware store, and saw what was missing. He’d venture to say 90 to 95% of Bitcoiners have no recovery method for their families.
So he built two free, open source tools. One encrypts your seed phrase so thoroughly that he says you could post it on Twitter. The other is the dead man switch, an email check-in that sends your beneficiary the final key if you stop clicking for three months, six months, or a year.
Then Mike asked about the weak point. If your heir loses their key, the Bitcoin is gone. Eric’s answer is in the episode.
Living in El Salvador gave Eric a second job too. For expats living in El Salvador on the coast, the bilingual college prep schools are in the capital, so he tutors homeschool families one on one.
This is why El Salvador is such a good place to build!
Whether you hold your own keys with no plan for your family, or you’re weighing a move to El Zonte, listen to this one.

—Bitcoin Beach Team

Learn more about Eric Summers:
X: https://x.com/ericscalibur
X (store): x.com/tbhs_sv
IG: https://www.instagram.com/ericscalibur/
YT: https://www.youtube.com/@ericscalibur
Web: https://ericscalibur.github.io/
Github: https://github.com/ericscalibur

Support and follow Bitcoin Beach:
X: https://www.twitter.com/BitcoinBeach
IG: https://www.instagram.com/bitcoinbeach_sv
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livefrombitcoinbeach
Web: https://www.bitcoinbeach.com

STAY AT BITCOIN BEACH:
https://www.stayatbitcoinbeach.com/punta-mango-villas

Browse through this quick guide to learn more about the episode:
00:00 Intro
02:05 Moving to El Salvador from the USA, why did Eric Summers leave Texas?
04:23 Can you drive to El Salvador from Texas, and how long does it take?
10:10 What is El Zonte, El Salvador like for a Bitcoiner living there?
15:33 What happens to your Bitcoin when you die?
18:30 How does a dead man’s switch email work for Bitcoin inheritance planning?
21:19 How do you pay employees in Bitcoin using Lightning payments on Blink?
24:29 How do you encrypt a seed phrase? SeedSigner tutorial, step by step
39:07 Is there a homeschool tutor for expat families living in El Salvador?
45:11 Dead man switch vs multisig, which is the easier self custody backup?
Live From Bitcoin Beach

Is El Salvador safe enough to run a business that takes Bitcoin and go running at night? This Salvadoran entrepreneur says yes!
Mike sits down with Byron Espinoza, a young Salvadoran who opened a car repair shop with his cousin at 23. He grew up in a neighborhood where the gang members were his childhood friends, and he's had guns pointed at him more than once.
So when neighbors warned him that drug dealers would show up at his new shop and pressure him to sell for them, he was afraid. It never happened. The crackdown on El Salvador gangs was underway, the extortion payments that drove many businesses under came to an end, and Byron says business owners finally keep what they earn. Today he feels comfortable running his shop anywhere.
That freedom let the shop grow in a direction he didn't expect. About three months after opening, a Bitcoiner named Richard started bringing him cars to check, on one condition. Byron had to accept Bitcoin. He was nervous, studied it, and said yes. Customers pay him in Bitcoin today, he decides whether to keep it or move it to dollars, and he's encouraging his friends to start accepting it in their businesses too.
Taking Bitcoin brought him customers most local shops never see. For expats living in El Salvador who don't speak Spanish, a mechanic who speaks English and accepts Bitcoin is a big benefit, and 20 to 25% of Byron's customers are foreigners. For anyone browsing cars in El Salvador for sale, his used car inspection checks the VIN history for hidden damage and mileage before they commit. He tells the story of an American couple who skipped a car agency because so few accept Bitcoin, and says that if he ran one, he'd take it without thinking twice.
Byron is honest about what the change has cost. El Salvador crime hasn't disappeared, he has noticed theft that didn't happen before, and two of his friends were arrested without evidence and have spent two years in jail. He sees all of it as a process the country is still working through.
He calls himself a survivor of the old El Salvador who can go out at 11 at night, and Mike calls him one of the success stories of the new one!
If you're thinking about opening a business here or accepting Bitcoin, listen to this one first.

—Bitcoin Beach Team

Learn more about Byron Espinoza:
Mobile #: +503 6863 2519
IG: https://www.instagram.com/tallerexpressx/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/p/Taller-Automotriz-Express-61555288906787/
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tallerautomotrizexpress

Support and follow Bitcoin Beach:
X: https://www.twitter.com/BitcoinBeach
IG: https://www.instagram.com/bitcoinbeach_sv
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livefrombitcoinbeach
Web: https://www.bitcoinbeach.com

STAY AT BITCOIN BEACH:
https://www.stayatbitcoinbeach.com/punta-mango-villas

Browse through this quick guide to learn more about the episode:
00:00 Intro
01:44 How did a young Salvadoran start a repair shop in El Salvador?
03:39 Why do expats living in El Salvador do car preventive maintenance?
06:50 What's it like starting a business in El Salvador at 23?
10:42 How did a Salvadoran mechanic start accepting Bitcoin payments?
13:39 Can you buy a car with Bitcoin in El Salvador?
15:36 Buying cars in El Salvador, imported used car or agency car?
19:11 Can a used car inspection and VIN check spot odometer fraud?
21:40 Is El Salvador safe after the crackdown on El Salvador gangs?
36:59 Where to find a mechanic in El Salvador that accepts Bitcoin? 
Live From Bitcoin Beach