Visual Link Spanish Newsletter (V:2; I:8)

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Spanish Culture ----- Ensenada, Mexico

A week and a half ago, I got back from a cruise to Ensenada Mexico with my wife Melanie for our 11th anniversary. I learned a lot of new fun culture information that I want to pass on to you this week.

To begin, I learned that the latest word for "cool" in Ensenada is "chilo" [chee-low]. I asked our horseback tour guide Miguel if that word is used in all of Mexico or just Ensenada. He stated that in Mexico City and the interior of Mexico they say "chido" [chee-though] instead of "chilo", but in Ensenada and many coastal areas and border cities they say "chilo". The traditional word for "cool" in Latin America is "chévere" [cheh-beh-ray]. Just to clarify, this is not the "weather" type of "cool" but the exclamation.

These are a couple of interesting facts I learned about Ensenada. It is a coastal city about 63 miles from Tijuana which lies on the border of Mexico and California. It has great weather with 65° - 80° (Fahrenheit) in the winter and 92° (max.)in the summer. January and February are the rainy season, but we lucked out on our trip with blue skies and great weather in the middle of February.

There are 400,000 people that live in Ensenada, and I was surprised to learn that 10 percent are Americans; approximately 40,000 Americans live in Ensenada! I can understand why so many Americans live there with the weather being so nice year round. Ensenada also has a very friendly environment, great business opportunities (which I'll talk a little more about next week), and new homes that cost only $60,000. If I could get my wife and kids on board, I would probably highly consider moving Ensenada.

Now I'll tell you a little more about one of our excursions in Ensenada. After getting off the cruise ship, we took a small bus to a horse ranch located about 30 miles north of the city which overlooks the ocean. The terrain had a little bit of a desert feel to it, but it was beautiful. We mounted the horses and rode up to 1,000 feet above sea level. At the top of a mountain was a spectacular view of the ocean, Ensenada, and an island in the Ensenada bay. It was breathtaking and did wonders for the mid-winter blues. We had a great ride and after returning to the ranch ate carne asada (roasted meat) with homemade tortillas and mango juice prepared by the some native Mexicans. We had a great time and I highly recommend it.

Later I found out that that the owner of the ranch is an American woman who now has about 50 guide horses and will be constructing a bed and breakfast which will be completed in the near future. (I'll let you know in a future newsletter when it is completed.)

Sneak peek at next week: More fun Ensenada info!

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¡Hasta la próxima semana! (Until Next Week!)


David S. Clark -- President
U.S. Institute of Languages
dave@spanishprograms.com
http://www.spanishprograms.com

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Response from Last Week:

...Also thanks for the timely newsletter - I had $0.25 bet with my work partner on the proper way to say "Me gusta..." so I forwarded the newsletter to him. At our work site, $0.25 equals one soda or juice. Yay! Muchas gracias.

Also meanwhile I have again been to Chile and my Spanish (from another course - All Audio Spanish) was not bad, especially con cerveza o vino. I can verify that "ll" is sometimes very floridly pronounced "j" although only Mario used that pronunciation. The other Chileans claimed it was an Argentine influence!

They also drop the "s" before consonants: "Esta listo" becomes "e'ta li'to" - confirmed on Chilean TV - and the V vs B is very much V. (Mario pronounced the English word "breeze" as "vreeze"). This is in the Lake District and from folks from Curico. The beginning E of esta was often dropped as in "''ta loca" for Esta loca". The CH sound is much softer, almost made with the tip of the tongue barely against the upper palate, almost a "t" sound.

What was really funny is one of our group was trying to ask the cook to make enchiladas. Not a Chilean dish! Angelica had no idea what Lindsey was asking for. I have noticed that for Mexicans, pan dulce, or anything else dulce, isnt all that dulce. Well, in Chile, they are very fond of sweets. You can find the hot peppers but you can also find fruit flavored ice cream that will knock your teeth out, a caramel condiment called Manjar, and chocolate cake truffles. (I did ask the cook to make Pastel de Choclo [or as they say, "Pa'tel de choclo", dropping the "s" ) since the local restaurants advertised it, and she came through with a great dish! Havent found a decent hamburguesa although plenty of palta with it and with everything else. I cant find a good Chilean cookbook - maybe my next trip there!

Best,

Marie