¡Diacachimba!

In my last post, Tenemos Chinelas, I gave you a mini-tour of Managua, Nicaragua.  And a little bit of Nicaraguan Spanish to boot.  I also promised you I'd do the the same for the city of Granada.   So with that said, let the Nicaragua adventure continue.

Let's start with a little bit of Nicaraguan Spanish I should have explained to you the first time.

People from Nicaragua are called nicaragüense.  But that's kind of a mouthful, so I like to say the abbreviated version, nica.  And it's nica for both sexes.  You would say un nica for a man and una nica for a woman.

¿Eres nica?
Are you Nicaraguan?



Soy Nica y eso nadie me lo quita
I'm Nicaraguan and no one can take that from me

Here's the Nicaraguan flag (bandera) if you're never seen it.

The currency of Nicaragua is called the córdoba.  Here are a few pics.

Great!  We've got the basics covered so let's get on with that mini-tour of Granada.

I got to Granada in a buseta much like this one.  A buseta is just a smaller version of an autobús.  It can only carry 30 people or so.

My Granada adventure started with ride in a coche de caballos or a horse and buggy.   You may also hear a coach and buggy referred to as un coche con carruaje.  Or cabellos con  carruajes.  If you're familiar with Spanish you know how it is, there's always more than one way to say something.

It's an enjoyable way to tour the city.   You can find them at Parque Colón.  They'll be lined up in the street waiting to take you on the grand tour.

By the way, the word for tour in Spanish is recorrido.  However, don't be surprised if you just hear the word tour.  With a Spanish accent of course.

Granada is a colonial town full of history and super old houses.  The guide pointed out one that was over 400 years old.  Amazing.  What's even more amazing is I didn't take pictures.  What was I thinking?

After touring the city we headed to the Centro Turistico.

The Centro Turistico in Grenada is an awesome place.  It's like a huge park where families go to have picnics, let the kids run around, take a swim in the lake (Lago Cocibolca) and have asados (barbeques).  You can also walk along the lake front and more importantly, take a tour of Las Isletas.

Las Isletas consist of 75 small islands formed from eruptions of el volcán Mombacho.  A good number of the isletas have houses of varying sizes on them.  By the way, an isleta is a small island.  A regular size island (however big that is) is an isla.

If you take a recorrido of Las Isletas you'll also get a chance to have lunch at one of the restaurants found on the isletas.

I really enjoyed the recorrido of las isletas.   Nothing like enjoying the cool breeze on the lake on a hot day.

I'll leave you with a couple of more pictures of Granada.

And to wrap up my mini-tour of Granada, here's a short promo video I found of Granada.  It will give you a great idea of what to expect if you decide to go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvLWrE8yAQk

And to finally wrap this post up, let's look at the word diacachimba.

You probably immediately noticed the difference in spelling from what I typed and what's in the photo.  Since it's an informal word to begin with it really doesn't matter.     You may also see deachachimba.  Anyway, it means something is really cool, really well done, or even to say you're in a good mood.

Que fiesta mas deacachimba
This party is awesome

It can also apply to people.

Ese mae es deacachimba
This guy is really cool

Here are a couple more examples:

Esta entrada esta deacachimba
This post is awesome

Me siento diacachimba
I feel great

Tu carro está deacachimba
Your car is really cool

Este trabajo me esta quedando diacachimba
This job is turning out great

Well, that's it.  Almost.  The last thing I'll add is that if you get the chance try the Toña

and the Flor de Caña, which is their flagship rum.  Awesome stuff.

There really is a lot to do in Nicaragua, much more than I expected.  There were a few things and places I didn't get to see, so who knows, maybe a return trip is in order.

If you missed it, be sure to read part one of my adventures in Nicaragua, Tenemos chinelas.

That's it for today, Hasta la próxima!

Tenemos Chinelas

Well, I've been traveling again, this time to Central America.  Managua, Nicaragua to be exact.  I have to say, I picked up a couple of interesting tidbits of Spanish that I'm going to share and I'll also give you a mini-tour of Managua and Granada.

Let's jump right into things.

I actually flew into Managuga from Costa Rica with an airline called Avianca on an avión that looked something like this:

When we got to Managua I was pleasantly surprised by the airport (Aeropuerto Internaciónal Augusto C Sandino).  It was clean and pretty modern.

From there my Nicaragua adventure begin!

I guess we'll start with one of the things that surprised me the most about Managua.  The traffic.  The streets are packed with cars.  La hora pico (rush hour) was absolutely insane.  And because of that, nearly all of the conversations I had with taxistas (taxi drivers) always included:

Hay mucho tráfico
There's a lot of traffic

Except that in Managua they don't say tráfico.  They say presa.

Hay mucha presa
There's a lot of traffic

 Here's another tip you'll need to know if you ever find yourself catching a cab in Managua.

The taxis are colectivos, meaning they pick up multiple passengers.  By the way, it's not uncommon to hear buses referred to as colectivos in some Latin American countries.  But I digress, let's get back on track.

If you're riding solo in a cab and someone else going your direction needs a ride, the taxista will pick them up too.  And there is no taximetro (taxi meter), so negotiate your carrera (fare) before you get in the cab.  And you can expect to pay what I call the gringo tax, meaning you're going to be overcharged.

It was also in a taxi cab that I came across the verb dilatar for first time.  In Managua, dilatar is a synonym for the verb tardar in the context of how long it takes to get somewhere.   Here's an example:

Me:       ¿Cuanto tiempo tarda para llegar al malecón?
             How long does it take to get to the boardwalk?

Taxista: Dilata unos diez minutos
             It takes about 10 minutes

Pan comida right?

Moving right along...

A popular greeting that Nicaragua (or at least Managua) shares with México is qué onda.  I heard this several times.  Qué onda simply means "What's up?".  It's very informal, used in exactly the same way you'd use it's English counterpart.

Another greeting I heard often is buenas.  Buenas is a informal greeting you can use any time of the day.  You can use it with pretty much anyone.  Unless of course you find yourself in a situation you need to be more formal in.  However, it's perfect for greeting folks in stores, restaurants, in the street, etc.  I think you get the idea.

As you walk or drive up and down the streets of Managua you'll see what they call an arbol de la vida everywhere.

I found them to be really pretty at night when they're all lit up.  However as nice as they may look, not everyone is a fan of these.  You see, they're illuminated all night, every night, 365 days a year, paid for by the tax payers.  They also have guards that protect the trees.  Also paid for by the tax payers.  I think you now understand why everyone isn't fan.  Anyway, a taxista filled me in on all the gory details, which I've spared you from.   At any rate, they are nice to look at regardless of the politics and controversy behind them.

I didn't have as much time as I'd like to get around Managua, but one of the places I felt obligated to visit was Puerto Salvador Allende.

Puerto Salvador Allende is what they refer to as the malecón, or boardwalk.   It sits on the orilla del Lago de Managua.  The lago (lake) is also called by it's indigenous name Lago Xolotlán.   By the way, orilla in this context means shore, or edge.

It's a really awesome place.  Huge, as a matter of fact.  You'll find restaurants and shopping, a playground for the kids, historical monuments, all kinds of cool stuff there to see and just a great place to pass the time walking around.   I went there at night because the summertime heat in Managua is insane (90+ degrees).

Night time at the malecón is amazing.  The restaurants have music blaring and are filled with people dining and dancing the night away.  The malecón is filled with locals and tourists alike just walking around and enjoying the atmosphere.

Here's a short video for you to see what it's like.  If you can't see the video, I also included the direct link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unY7dnhrK7o

Here are a few photos I took as well.  On the first couple you'll see the palm leaves that cover the benches. The word for those is palapas.

If you find yourself in Managua a visit to the malecón vale la pena (it's worth the trouble).

While this next word isn't exclusive to to Nicaragua, it was a new word I picked up.  I found myself sitting in a bank waiting for my friend to cambiar dinero (exchange money) and I was looking for a water fountain,  which you can call a fuente (para beber) or a bebedero.  Hard to believe after more than 10 years of learning Spanish I've never had to ask for a water fountain.


This post is starting to get a little long, so I'll wrap it up with today's expression, tenemos chinelas and finish the rest in part two, where I'll share the last couple of words I picked up and a brief tour of Granada.

And finally, we get to our expression, tenemos chinelas.

I actually heard "tenemos chinelas" in the airport on my way back to Costa Rica.  I was doing a bit of last minute shopping and while the owner of the shop was showing me all of her goods, she said tenemos chinelas.  Needless to say, I was surprised by the term as I had never heard it before.

It turns out chinelas in Nicaragua are nothing more than sandalias, or chancletas.  In other words, sandals.

The word seems to apply to any and all types of sandals.   The sandals the shop keeper showed me were pretty nice.  If you google the phrase chinelas nicaragua, you'll see a wide variety of chinelas in the results.

And ya, that's it for today. Be sure to read part two where I share a little more Nicaraguan Spanish with you, including a very, very Nicaraguan term as well as some of my photos of Granada.

¡Hasta próxima!