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 quitaI'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 deacachimbaThis party is awesome
It can also apply to people.
Ese mae es deacachimbaThis guy is really cool
Here are a couple more examples:
Esta entrada esta deacachimbaThis post is awesome
Me siento diacachimbaI feel great
Tu carro está deacachimbaYour car is really cool
Este trabajo me esta quedando diacachimbaThis 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.
That's it for today,
Hasta la próxima!
