Mexican Dichos Part Dos

One of the many reasons I enjoy watching Spanish language telenovelas is that they are full of "dichos" i.e. proverbs. In April I posted a few of my favorites that I had written down thus far.

Now I am watching a new telenovela, Yo Amo a Juan Querendón, and the dialogue is practically ALL dichos and slang. Caray caray (my goodness!) but it's difficult to understand and translate. However here are some of the great dichos and phrases I have picked up so far:

Soy una tumba = I'm a tomb (My lips are sealed)

Toma chango tu banano = Monkey, take your banana (When the cat’s away the mouse will play) The dicho means something like if the fruit's available then the monkey's going to grab it.

Un clavo saca otro clavo = A new nail drives out the other (There are other fish in the sea)

Que desayunamos alacranes? = Did we breakfast with scorpions? (Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?)

Me importa un pepino = It means as much as a cucumber to me (I couldn't care less)

Sin dinero no baila el perro = Without money the dog doesn’t dance (Nothing happens without money)

Es una mosquita muerta = He's a dead little fly (Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth)

Estar en el ajo = To be in the garlic (To be in the know)

Agarré con las manos en la masa = Caught with one's hands in the tortilla dough (Caught with one's hands in the cookie jar)

Hacer la vista gorda = To make the fat eye (To turn a blind eye)

And my favorite:

Al quirófano y al matrimonio no hay que meterse sin anesthesia = You can enter neither the operating room nor matrimony without anesthesia.

Dichos aren't the only draw to this telenovela. There is also the hero, Juan Dominguez, played by Eduardo Santamarina:

Yes, he has a mullet and the fashion police should put him in jail, but dang he's cute!

(If you speak only English but enjoy watching telenovelas you can visit the blog site Caray, Caray and read English recaps of some of the most popular telenovelas.)

A mechanic wakes up

Last week I took my car in to get smog checked. The mechanic that was helping me looked half-asleep as he trudged around my car, hooking it up to his machine, just another car in his boring routine. For some reason he needed to turn my car on, I can't remember why now, and I gave him permission to do it.


I had been listening to the BBC World News on NPR, so when he turned the key the following blared over the radio:


"The women of Nachu, Kenya report that they are being tormented and sexually harassed by a band of monkeys.



In addition to stealing their crops, the monkeys also make sexually explicit gestures at the women.


'The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts," claims villager Lucy Njeri..."



Horrified and embarrassed I stared at the mechanic. Had he heard? He must have heard, it was blaringly loud! He slowly raised his head, he tried to keep a straight face, but as soon as our eyes met we both burst out laughing.



"It's NPR, it's educational..." I offered hopefully.

"Is that what they call it these days?" he responded.

He perked up considerably. He smiled. I reached over and turned the radio off.

"Stay away from the monkeys" he advised as I got into my car to leave.

The crew in Ensenada and the Tijuana border

The first thing to greet us as we sailed into Ensenada was a gigantic Mexican flag. It measures 50 x 28 meters and weighs about 550 pounds!

After a good night's sleep we knew the first order of business was to check ourselves through customs and register the boat in Mexico. At 9:00 a.m. Tom and I began the process at the Harbormaster's office...

Five torturous hours later we completed our business at the little bank set up in the custom's building. Prior to 2005 the bank was located down the street. Considering we had to the visit the bank between every step (five steps total) I think we got off easy with just five hours.

The custom's official was kind of a jerk but at least he had a small TV in his office and he was watching telenovelas, so I got to watch Destilando Amor at 10:00 a.m. and Juan Querendón at 11:00.

Hooray! It's 2:00 p.m. and we're legal!! The new boat is allowed to stay in Mexico for 10 years!!

After the torture of customs the crew headed off to the closest watering hole to celebrate with a few cold ones.

After our refreshment we walked around Ensenada enjoying the sights. The guys were impressed with the industrial strength speed bumps...

...and cherried out vehicles.

Judy and I preferred the wheelbarrows filled with candy, nuts and candied fruit.

We also liked the horses and buggies.

I guess in Ensenada you can advertise on the street signs:

We eventually made our way to one of Ensenada's famous fish taco restaurants. It's all about the condiments...

Yikes! This is just wrong. We did NOT eat here:

We spent the next morning fixing minor problems and putting the boat away until we can fly down in a month or so. This is why it's good to sail with kids, they're perfect for sending to the top of the mast!

Happy, pretty boat in her new home.

We hired the harbormaster's young brother-in-law to drive us to San Diego airport. Thankfully it was an uneventful trip up. Although I have flown out of Mexico several times this would be my first trip across the Tijuana/San Diego border.

You can walk across...

...or drive across, which is what we did.

The border in Tijuana is very interesting, not only is the side of the road lined with stalls, but individual vendors walk between the cars hawking everything from fresh fruit to gigantic crucifixes.

The following are some fantastic photos of the border that I lifted from a very interesting blog called Tijuana Tales by Kinsee Morlan. http://tijuanatales.wordpress.com/

Kinsee very generously allowed me to use some of her photographs because I, crammed in the back of an SUV with 7 other people plus luggage and sailing gear, could barely move much less take pictures. Hers are much better than mine would have been, Thanks Kinsee!

Last chance to buy a crucifix or oversized vase or two:

I love these guys:

Thankfully we had an uneventful trip over the border; our border guard looked very relieved when we hit the button of random searches and got green for "GO". She did NOT want to search our car.

Schumacher 52 - Sailing from San Francisco to Ensenada

In July I fell in love...with a big, red, beautiful sailboat. It was bigger than our dream cruising boat, newer than our dream cruising boat, more expensive than our dream cruising boat, but we couldn't resist and we bought her anyway. Currently she is named "California Girl" but we will change her name in the near future. Here is the promotional shot of CalGal:





As soon as we returned from South America (I'll post some shots of that most excellent trip later) we worked like crazy on the boat, got her ready for sailing offshore, and on Thursday August 30th at 8:00 p.m. headed out the Golden Gate for Ensenada Mexico with five sailor pals. It was a beautiful night, totally unlike most summer nights in San Francisco (meaning fog) and the full moon decided to accompany us on our journey.






The sky was clear most of the night but the marine layer filled in about 3:00 a.m. The first day was slightly overcast and cool, but not cold. Timo can drive in his sleep, and I think that's what he's doing while Judy enjoys her coffee.




Later on the wind filled in and blew the overcast away. We had this weather for the rest of our trip down the coast. It was a sailor's dream come true, steady winds, sun and flat seas.











I even made muffins in the morning!







One afternoon some dolphins decided to play in our bow wake. They swam along with us for about a half hour.




On Saturday we hoisted the spinnaker and really picked up speed. It was the first time that CalGal's carbon fiber spinnaker pole had ever been used! She drove like a dream downwind.

We have a hot and cold shower on the stern and Mike decided that outdoor showers are far superior to the indoor variety:




Saturday evening gifted us with a beautiful sunset.

On Sunday afternoon at 6:00 we approached Ensenada harbor and took this group shot to commemorate our fantastic trip down:





We pulled into Cruiseport Marina and guided CalGal into her new home.


Check out our neighbor, the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean! No kidding, this is the real thing!!





About two minutes after docking Judy brought out the blender and whipped up some Margaritas for us!







We enjoyed ourselves Sunday night because we knew the torture of Customs awaited us the next day.

Here is our route from San Francisco to Ensenada:


More on Ensenada later...