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A little about Playa Zipolite, The Beach of the Dead . . .

Playa Zipolite, Oaxaca, Southern Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean. A little bit about my favorite little get-away on this small world of ours.

Zipolite, a sweaty 30-minute walk west from Puerto Angel, brings you to Playa Zipolite and another world. The feeling here is 1970's - Led Zep, Marley, and scruffy gringos.

A long, long time ago, Zipolite beach was usually visited by the Zapotecans...who made it a magical place. They came to visit Zipolite to meditate, or just to rest.

Recently, this beach has begun to receive day-trippers from Puerto Angel and Puerto Escondido, giving it a more TOURISTY feel than before.

Most people come here for the novelty of the nude beach, yoga, turtles, seafood, surf, meditation, vegetarians, discos, party, to get burnt by the sun, or to see how long they can stretch their skinny budget.

I post WWW Oaxaca, Mexico, Zipolite and areas nearby information. Also general budget, backpacker, surfer, off the beaten path, Mexico and beyond, information.

REMEMBER: Everyone is welcome at Zipolite.

ivan

Friday, September 22, 2017

Southern Mexico to face downpours, building seas from budding tropical depression

Southern Mexico to face downpours, building seas from budding tropical depression

By Kristina Pydynowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
September 22, 2017, 9:35:05 AM EDT
  • Will the US escape Maria’s wrath?

  • Maria slams Turks and Caicos, Bahamas

  • Streets of San Juan completely underwater after Hurricane Maria

  • Road washed away, church destroyed in Dominica by Maria

  • Dangerous surf threatens East Coast as Jose, Maria churn offshore

  • Rough surf stirred up at Dominican Republic coast by Maria

  • Puerto Rico in the dark as Maria departs the Caribbean

  • Satellite shows rainfall amounts from Hurricane Maria

  • Puerto Rico ravaged by Maria, may be without power for months

  • San Juan, Puerto Rico hit hard by Hurricane Maria

  • Hurricane Maria exits Puerto Rico, targets Dominican Republic

  • Floodwaters rage through Puerto Rico neighborhood in wake of Maria

  • Maria bringing heavy rain, flooding Puerto Rico and trapping many residents in their homes

  • Hurricane Maria's powerful winds sound like a person howling

  • Devastation at US Virgin Islands after Hurricane Maria

  • Jose weakening, still will stir up dangerous surf in Northeast

  • Scared homeowner records Hurricane Maria blowing down fence

  • Hurricane Maria makes landfall in Puerto Rico, ripping off roofs and flooding streets

  • Satellite shows Hurricane Maria moving directly over Puerto Rico

  • Violent winds whip through Puerto Rico as Hurricane Maria makes landfall

  • Aerial footage show devastation in Dominica after Hurricane Maria ripped across island

  • Jose will bring intense surf and coastal flooding to east coast

  • NOAA and the International Space Station take a close look at eye of Hurricane Maria

  • Puerto Rico braces for Hurricane Maria

  • Food to buy in advance of a hurricane

  • Why is storm surge so dangerous?

  • Preparing your home for a hurricane

  • How to survive long-term power outages

  • Why seniors are in greatest danger during natural disasters

  • Beware of "flood cars" at used car dealerships


A budding tropical depression is expected to cause seas to build and raise the risk for flooding downpours in southern Mexico into this weekend.
A broad area of low pressure is closely being monitored to become the next tropical depression in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
"This area of low pressure is expected to organize and become a tropical depression or storm during the upcoming weekend," AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said.
The next tropical storm in the eastern Pacific Ocean will acquire the name "Pilar."
Mexico downpours Sep 22

Even prior to development, the slow-moving low will continue to stream downpours onto the southern coast of Mexico into this weekend.
"Locally 25-75 mm (1-3 inches) of rain could fall through Sunday, especially in the higher elevations," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller said.
Isolated incidents of flash flooding and mudslides may result. The downpours may also lead to travel delays and disruptions to vacation plans in Manzanillo and Acapulco.
The threat to swimmers and operators of small craft will also increase as the depression takes shape and seas build.
The storm may continue to strengthen as it churns over the warm waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean early next week, and it is possible that it becomes a hurricane.
Rain, wind and seas will further increase around the system as it intensifies.
Beyond this weekend, the storm may be pulled to the north or northeast toward mainland Mexico by a dip in the jet stream, which is a river of fast-flowing air that guides storms.
Tracks Sep 22

It is also possible that the jet stream lifts back to the north before totally capturing the storm, allowing it then to turn toward Baja California.
“If it aims at Mexico, any direct impacts on Baja California, Sinaloa and southern Sonora would not occur until the middle of next week.”
In this latter scenario, rain and wind may first increase across western Jalisco on Sunday and Monday depending on how close the strengthening system forms to the coast.
If the storm is not influenced by the jet stream, it may linger offshore for a time next week before curving back to the southwest over the open water of the Pacific.
Regardless of which scenario pans out, dangerous seas will pound Baja California Sur and the western coast of mainland Mexico next week. Conditions may become too hazardous for swimmers and shipping interests.
The exact track of the budding depression will become clearer as it takes shape.
Until these details of the forecast are finessed, all residents and vacationers from Jalisco to southern Sonora and Baja California are urged to review what precautions would need to be taken if a tropical storm or hurricane threatens.
Swimmers are urged to heed all beach closures, warnings or statements that get issued.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

My Spanish Notes Qué pichudo mae

My Spanish Notes


Posted: 19 Sep 2017 03:43 AM PDT
Today we're going to look at a thank you note for a wedding gift I gave to my tico friend that just recently got married.  By the way, if you're wondering what the word tico means, it's an apodo (nick name) for the people of Costa Rica, or costarricenses.  And tica would be used for a woman.


He knows how much I love learning colloquial Spanish so he wrote the thank you note in pure Costa Rican slang.  Needless to say translating it kept me busy for several hours and I enjoyed every minute of it.   This little note certainly put my Spanish skills to the test.

I thought you all would enjoy the Spanish I learned, especially since I've already done all the hard work.

We're going to take a close look at this card, so here it is.



I'm not sure what was harder, deciphering his handwriting or the slang.  But with that said, let's examine this note line by line.

Qué pichudo mae

Let's start with the easy stuff, the word mae

Mae is the de facto Costa Rican word for dude, and you'll hear it constantly walking up and down the streets of San Jose and most likely all of Costa Rica.  Guys use it, girls use it, it's everywhere.  You can also use it to refer to a person in general.

Ese mae no me cae bien
I don't like that guy

Mae, ¿Dónde estás?
Dude, where are you?

Now, as always exercise some caution because you may just run across the one person who doesn't like the word or is offended by it.  Or takes offense at you (a.k.a a gringo) using it, but the word itself is perfectly safe.  Just remember it carries this meaning in Costa Rica.  In another country it may not exist at all or possibly be offensive.  Know your audience.

Next we get to pichudo.  Pichudo is another very Costa Rican word meaning genial or buenísimo in standard Spanish.   In English it would be something along the great, cool or awesome.

So our translation would be something along the lines of:

Qué pichudo mae
How awesome dude

Translating slang isn't an exact science, but this conveys the idea.

The next line is a bit trickier and I actually needed help with this one.

Mae, demasiados tenquius por esa harina

If you're looking at the word tenquius and can't figure out what it means or how to pronounce it, don't feel bad, you're not alone.  I searched the internet far and wide for the meaning of that one to no avail.  It turns it out it means "thank you's", but it sounds like "tank youz".  Go figure.

The next word, harina, is a lot easier.  The dictionary meaning is flour, but in Costa Rican Spanish it's money.  In fact, the currency of Costa Rica is called colones, but I'll write more about that in another post.

The literal translation "Too many thank you's" just doesn't sound right to my English ears, so I'm going with the below instead.

Mae, demasiados tenquius por esa harina
Dude, thanks so much for the money

Moving on the next line, this is something else I would never have figured out with my friends help.

Esta en tuas!

This actually has a bit of history to go with it and you will totally impress your Costa Rican friends with your knowledge of this one.  Or at least the one's old enough to remember this.

The first thing you need to know is that this phrase, when written in proper Spanish, is actually

Está en todas

And unlike the vast majority of the Spanish phrases I learn, I was actually able to learn the origin of this one.  Or least how it become popular.

These may look familiar to you.



Yep, they look like M&M's don't they?

Our phrase, estás en todas, became a popular saying as a result of an 80's commercial.   Thanks to the magic of YouTube, we get to watch this too.

If you don't see the video below, here's the direct link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zbqXBrBXUM

¡Con teens estás en todas!




Now, this is the hard part, translating our expression.   I'm thinking it's somewhere along the lines of you're awesome or really cool.

Moving right along we get to the next line.

Fue un placer contar con teus en esa tafies tan memorable

Keeping with our tradition of tackling the easy words first, tafies is a fiesta, or party in English.

Teus is a bit trickier.  My amigo tico told me that this simply means usted in pachuco.  Great, now we have to figure what pachuco is.

Pachuco is a very informal and slangy form of Costa Rican Spanish, which according to Google has it's roots in Mexican Spanish used in the days of zoot suits.   I can't really tell you much about it but a Google search will give you enough info to keep you busy if you're really interested.

And if you don't know, everyone in Costa Rica speaks with usted.  It's just what they do.

Fue un placer contar con teus en esa tafies tan memorable
It was a pleasure to have your support in this memorable occasion

As I mentioned earlier, tafies means party, but for translation purposes occasion or celebration seems to fit better.

Me comprare una chema y la guila unas chanclas

Chema is Costa Rican slang for a shirt.  And just so you know, they use the word cachos for shoes.  I mentioned that in some of my earlier posts about Costan Rican Spanish.


Next we get another very, very common word in Costa Rican slang.  Guila.

Here's a well written definition in Spanish I found.

Guila should actually be written as güila, and it can be used to refer to a guy or a girl in general, or your girlfriend or boyfriend.  It's always written as güila, so to specify the gender you  say el güila or la güila.  In informal writing it's nearly always seen written with a regular u and not ü (with the diaeresis).

Mae, esa güila es muy bonita
Dude, that girl is really pretty

¿Como está su guila?
How's your girlfriend?

Es un queque, right?  That's tico for "it's easy, right?"

Moving on.

Chanclas, are flip flops or sandalias (sandals).  Generally speaking, chanclas and sandalias are synonyms, with the exception that chanclas also refers to flip flips, while typically sandalias does not.




The word chancla generally refers to any flat sandal, but that's not a strict rule.  Various styles of sandals can be referred to as chanclas.

Me comprare una chema y la guila unas chanclas
I'm going to buy myself a shirt and my girlfriend some sandals

And we're finally getting to the end.

Espero que se le haga un nudo en la jupa desentrañando mi mensaje escrito en lenguaje de tiquicia.

Jupa means cabeza, or head.  And Tiquicia is nothing more than an affectionate reference to the country of Costa Rica itself.

Espero que se le haga un nudo en la jupa desentrañando mi mensaje escrito en lenguaje de tiquicia.
I hope you tie a knot in your head trying to figure out my message written in the language of Costa Rica.

And there you have it.  Go forth and impress your tico (Costa Rican) friends with this new bit of Spanish you've learned today.

If you want or need to learn more Costa Rican slang, I found these lessons on Costa Rican Spanish to be of great help.  They do a great job of zeroing in on the most common terms.  You can also find several books on Costa Rican slang at Amazon.

Of course the best thing to do to learn some Costa Rican slang is to make friends with some ticos or hop on a plane to Tiquicia, but if you can't do either one of those then the options I gave you above aren't bad either.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Hotel Estrella de Mar (Zipolite, Mexico)

El Jardin Zipolite Bungalows (Zipolite, Mexico)