Spanish Place Names, Landmarks and Theme Parks

it is pretty easy to guess that Isla Magica is Magic Island, in Seville, Andalusia, Spain, and parque is park and attracciones is attractions.

Spanish Place Names Which Are Easy To Recognize and Remember

La Mano De Punta Del Este

Los Angeles (USA city) - the angels

Mano del Desierto (Sculpture in Chile) - hand of the desert

Monte Carlo - Mount Charles

Museo del Mar - Museum of the Sea

Parque - park

Spanish - English

angeles - angels

de - of

del - of the

desierto - desert

la - the (feminine)

los - the (plural)

magico - magic

Mano - hand

Mar - sea

Monte - Mount

Museo - museum

Parque - park

tren - train

English - Spanish words

angels - angeles

desert - desierto

hand - mano

magic - magico

museum - museo

of - de

of the - del

park - parque

sea - mar

The (feminine) - la

The (plural) - los

train - tren

Mount - monte

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Amusement_parks_in_Spain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_M%C3%A1gica

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parque_de_Atracciones_de_Madrid

-ends-

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Spanish Words To Recall & Test Each Other Over Dinner

 

At mealtimes, after dinner at home, you can test yourselves and each other or simple Spanish words.

You can remind yourself. Get fluent. Teach the family. Teach the children. Fill in waiting time.

Spanish - English words for mealtimes

plato - plate

sopa - soup

Cuchillo - cutter or knife

sal - salt

pimiento - pepper

carne - meat for carnivores

agua - water

vino - wine

mesa - table

silla - chair /seat / armchair

por favor - please / do me a favour

gracias - thank you, I'm grateful

deliciosa - delicious

muy - very

perfecto - perfect

otro - another

lampa - lamp

foto - photo (una foto - a photo)

English - Spanish easy words

another - otro

easy - facil

for - por

lamp - lampa

pepper - pimiento

perfect - perfecto

photo  - foto

please / do me a favour - por favour

salt - sal

thank you very much - muchas gracias

thanks - gracias

table - mesa

very - muy

water - agua

wine - vino

Useful Websites

I have several more posts on Spanish. Please share links with your friends and family, fellow students and colleagues.

What about Spanish speaking Mexico, the Caribbean islands, Central America and South America?

Many Spanish speaking places in the Americas, in addition to those who speak Spanish as a first or second language in the USA.

duolingo.com

Teaches south American Spanish. I find this easier because c is pronounced like s, as in the English word police which is policia in South American Spanish, or hispanic, but like poly-Thea in southern Spanish in Europe where the Brits go for sunny, summer holidays and winter warmth.

wikivoyage phrasebook Spanish

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Spanish_phrasebook

Gives you both Spanish spoken in Spain the variations in several Spanish speaking Suth American countries.

Spanish and Italian - which is which?

 Many words are almost the same in English, Spanish and Italian. This makes it easy to translate back into English, but harder to remember the foreign words. In Wikipedia you can find lists of words. You can also look at Wikipedia in another language and note mentally or write or type a copy of words which are the same as English.

English - Spanish - Italian (reminders)

and - y - e (The Spanish is y, like the y sound in mañana)

cost - costo - AI found me this from Collins dictionary 

"cost" is costo or coste in Spanish, and costo in Italian. Both languages use these terms to represent expense or price. Common related phrases include "¿Cuánto cuesta?" (Spanish) and "Quanto costa?" (Italian) for "How much does it cost? 

One thing I kept muddling was which word ended in o and which in a in quanto costa. Then I remembered that they are different, different endings. oh no what a cost ah. quanto costa.

explore - explora

shop - |Spanish tienda (where you tender money to buy) - Italian negozio (where you negotiate or bargain)

market in English is mercado in Spanish, mercato in Italian.

Yes - si - yes in both Italian and Spanish. But having an accent on the i makes a difference, meaning YES! Without the accent, in Spanish si means if. 

supermarket in English is supermercado in Spanish, supermercato in Italian

Useful Websites For Translations to and from Italian and Spanish

duolingo

duolingo.com

translation

google

facebook

wikipedia

Wikipedia en español

Wikipedia in italiano

https://italian.joyoflanguages.com/podcast/Si-in-Italian

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How to learn both Spanish and Italian on Duolingo

 I learned Italian on Duolingo, the online language learning system, which has a large number of languages for those with English as a first language. Then I started learning Spanish. 

I looked at my notebook which had pages of Italian and pages of Spanish. I thought, a pity I don't have the Spanish and Italian side by side. I ought to go back to Italian and revive it.

I thought about Spanish speakers learning Italian. They can do it on Duolingo. Then I thought, why don't I learn either Italian for Spanish speakers, or Spanish for Italian speakers. 

I decided to learn Italian for Spanish speakers.

I found several useful things.

Words which are identical

Spanish - Italian - English

o - o - or

Words which are the same except for the accent

te te - tea

Spanish té

Italian tè 

If you are familiar with any Italian coffee shop chain, such as Caffè Nero, you will be able to see that the accent on the letter e is sloping backwards, the opposite of the French word for café.

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Learning Italian when you speak Spanish - and vice versa

 I learned Italian last year. This year I am learning Spanish.

Today I decided to speed up both languages by learning Italian for Spanish speakers. That way I learn one language whilst reviving the other. I also am less likely to confuse them because each time I can see the word in both languages.

Spanish - Italian  

Spanish - English

correcto - correct

Useful trilingual books

If you go to a bookshop, look for multi-language books.

I like to buy books with large clear print.

Some books print one of the languages in another colour, paler, which is hard to read if you don't have good lighting and study late at night at home.

The more languages you have in a book, sometimes the smaller the print.

Books aimed at children tend to have larger print.

A book with very large print might have fewer words.

Useful Website For Learning Spanish & Italian

Duolingo.com

Spanish Words You Recognize and remember - for aspiring multilingual travelers

If you speak English, or learned Latin at school, you will find it easy to recognize the roots of many Spanish and Italian words.

 Spanish - English

compania - company

computadora - computer

diploma - diploma

las directoras - the directors (female). The masculine plural of the is Los, as in Los Angeles, the US city, whose name means the angels. The angels are masculine. The word for the (called the article) matches the noun which ends in as.) 

documentos - documents

dormir - to sleep (same as dormant in English, and dormer in French)

durante - during

hospital - hospital (in Spanish you don't pronounce the h)

increíble - incredible

opera - opera

pintor - painter (not picture. P I N R are common letters in pintor and painter. In the Spanish remember to roll the R.

los pintores - the painters

planear - to plan

planta - plant

presidente/presidenta - president (male/female)

programa - program

viaje - trip/voyage

yendo - going, leaving (You are making an END and gOing Off)

In Spanish the accents tell you which sound to emphasize.

Useful Websites On Learning Spanish

duolingo.com

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trilingual-English-Italian-Illustrated-Vocabulary/

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Remember Spanish Words

How to remember Spanish, if you are learning Spanish, or teaching others.

arroyo - stream, like a little river, or rivulet, variation on rio which is river

ayuda is aid

calle is street, bigger that an alley, more like a cariiageway, combination half way between the two, calle

centro - centre

Fumar is to smoke.

No fumes. If you smoke, they will be fuming.

mill is molina in Spanish, like moulin in French

pastel is pastry, pastries, cake

 Ruido is noise. A rude noise. Ruido.

Spanish - English

Arroyo - stream

bien organizado - well arranged/organized

calle - street

centro- centre

Cerca de la estación de tren - near the railway station

un club - a club

comodo - comfortable

fumar - to smoke

el molina - the mill

pastel - cake

¿Puedo ayudarte? - can I help you?

ruido - noise

espacioso - spacious

English - Spanish

cake - pastel

centre - centro

a club - un club

comfortable - comodo

the mill - el molina

near the railway station - Cerca de la estación de tren

noise - ruido

(to) smoke - fumar

spacious - espacioso

stream - arroyo

street - calle

well arranged/organized - bien organizado

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Easy and Obvious Spanish Words Translated into English

 Spanish - English

centro - centre

la clase - the class

colores - colours

curso - course

escribir - to write (sounds like the English words inscribe, a scribe, script, scripture, description. )

escuelas - schools

los libros - the books

mucho - much / a lot

nota - note

Pizza - a large) pizza

pizarra - chalkboard (not pizza, though that might be written on the board)

profesor - professor

taxi - taxi

English - Spanish

the books - los libros

centre - centro

la classe - the class

colours - colores

course - curso

flowers - flowers

much / a lot - mucho

note - nota

professor - profesor (NB only one s in the Spanish word)

schools - escuelas

taxi - taxi

to write - escribir

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

translate google

wiki voybage phrasebook Spanish

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Simple Spanish words

Flag of Spain

Many Spanish words sound like and look like simplified English.

Spanish - English

alto/alta/altos - tall male/tall female/tall people (like the English word altitude)

chicas - girls (like the slang word, chicks)

dificil - difficult

elegante - elegant

es - is

estudiantes -  students

clase - class

marzo - March ( 

mes - month

mi - my

negro - black (the eg in negro is pronounced like egg)

oficina - office

pasaportes - passports

persona - person (feminine)

precios - prices

tu - you (singular) The Spanish is the same as the French, and starts with a ti, similar to thee and thou

English - Spanish

black - negro

chicks/girls - chicas

class - clase

elegant - elegante

is - es

March - marzo (The name of the third month starts with the same three letters in both Spanish and English. In Spanish you don't need to bother with a capital letter at the start. So easy.

month - mes

my - mi

 office - oficina

passports - pasaportes

person - persona (feminine)

prices - precios

students - studiantes

tall - alto/alta/altos

Useful Websites For Learning & Translating Spanish

duolingo.com

translate google

wikitravel phrase book Spanish

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Are you learning French, Spanish, Italian or Portuguese? If and that are easy and hard to remember in these languages

French -If -Si?

 I learned French at school. The English word if, in French is si. 

That, as in I know that (not that one over there) is que. After a verb, que or that is an adverb. That when pointing to something can be a pronoun, or determiner.

French & Spanish Links

French and Spanish are nearby languages, physically as well as metaphorically. Think of the southern border of France being next to Spain. When it comes to learning Spanish, the same words are used for if and that, si for if, que for that (after a verb such as know that).

Italian - Se and Che

However, when learning Italian on Duolingo I kept making mistakes. I kept typing si for if. But the Italian for if is se. The Italian for that is not que but che. It sounds the same, but is written differently. I am now trying to remember the right word using the words of the hit song che sera sera, whatever will be will be.

Italian and Portuguese

I thought I would check on two similar languages, Italian and Portugese. It turns out that in both the constructions, using if or that, French and Spanish are a pair. The other two romance languages, Italian and Portugese, are different, but paired with each other.

So for me it is easier to learn French and then Spanish. Then Italian and Portuguese. Or if I learned French or Spanish first, just remember that Italian and Portugese are different.

I checked the two versions of Portuguese, used in Portugal in Europe, and Brazil in South America. They are a match with each other.

Yes - Si

Yes in French is si. Yes in Spanish is si. Yes in Portuguese is sim. Yes in italian is si.

I was using Translate google. 

To make it clear, here is a list

English - French - Spanish - Italian - Portuguese

if - si - si - se - se

that - que - que  - che - che

yes - oui/si (emphastic) - si - si - sim 

Useful Websites

Duolingo (to learn online, for free, French, Spanish, Italian and Brazilian Portugese)

Translate Google (to translate words, phrases and short paragraphs) French, Spanish, Italian, Portugese used in Portugal and Portuguese used in Brazil)

Please share with friends the links to useful posts on my blogs.

Italian words which are easy and difficult - easy quiz

On a hiking holiday to Spain I met a fellow hiker who was ordering food in Spanish. I asked him if he had learned Spanish in school. No, he had taught himself Spanish, every day for a year, ready for his holiday.

I was inspired by his success and dedication. I decided I would learn Italian for my next forseeable trip the following summer. 

I learned Italian on Duolingo. Each time I started a new set of exercises, I began to make two lists of words I learned on Duolingo, the easy ones, which is encouraging, and fun. Then the harder ones which I need to practise. 

You might like to test yourself, from your own list, or mine, or both. Make two columns of words in any language you are learning, a minimum of 5 to 15, a maximum of twenty to thirty.  

Then cover each column and test yourself. Keep repeating your self-administered quiz until you score full marks once, after some hesitation and thought. 

Then repeat another time or two until you get 100 per cent right. Instantly and effortlessly. 

At the end of the day, or week, or month, look back over the previous lists, or my posts. Duolingo will help you learn the grammar and sentence construction. My lists simply help you with the vocabulary for reading comprehension. 

Easy Words

Italian - English

classico - classic

fame - fama

familiare - familiar (adjective, not the noun family)

finendo - ending

fisica - Physics

foto - photo

immagini - pictures (like images)

muro - wall (like mural)

sezioni - sections

stile - style

studi - you study

video - video 

English - Italian

finding- trovando - like a treasure trove ando is an ing ending, going on AND on n END (other words end endo

sections - sezioni

wall - muro

Difficult words

Italian - English

mostra - exhibition (I thought it was a mosque wrong. more like a demonstration)

placo - stage (like a platform, or place to perform not

 a park)

English - Italian

exhibition - mostra (think mounting pictures)

pictures - immagini

Learning Spanish from Household Products - 20 words for you to recognize

 I looked at a tube of metal polish and learned some new words in Spanish.

Spanish - English

aplicar - apply

bronce - bronze

como - such as

crema - cream

cristal - crystal

de - of

del - of the

esta - this

excelente - excellent

excepto - except

fibrar de cristal

frotar - rub

instructionnes - instructions

las (feminine)/los - the (plural as in the US place name Los Angeles which means the angels)

metal - metal

Miracle - miracle

no - do not/don't

para - for

protege - protects

seco - dry

todo - all

un - a/an

y - and

English - Spanish

all - todo (plural todos)

a/an - un

and - y

apply - aplicar

cream - crema

crystal - cristal

dry - seco

excellent - excelente

except - excepto

for - para

instructions - instructionnes

of - de

of the - del 

metal - metal

Miracle - miracle

protects - protege

rub - frotar

such as - como

the - el, los, las (feminine plural)

this - esta

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

facebook polyglots group to ask questions and discuss

https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/

memrise.com

translate google

WORDS WRITTEN THE SAME IN BOTH LANGUAGES (Pronunciation and meaning could be different)

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English%E2%80%93Spanish_interlingual_homographs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-ing#-ing_words_in_other_languages

Angela Lansbury is VP PR of Braddell Heights Advanced club and Tampines Changkat Advanced club.

https://www.toastmasters.org/Find-a-Club/00009689-braddell-heights-advanced-club

https://www.facebook.com/tampineschangkatadvTMC/

Useful Words and Short Sentences In Spanish Restaurants

Today's reminder (handy for restaurants):

i am planning a trip to a Spanish restaurant. Where? Spain?


Flag of Malaysia.

No, the Salud restaurant, in Malacca, in Malaysia. I have made a list of useful words in Spanish.

Finding A Restaurant/Table/Toilet

Spanish - English

mesa - table 

reserva - reservation

where - donde

where is - donde esta

the restaurant - el restaurante

the bathroom - el baño
(toilet - el inodoro)

Gents toilet - baño de caballeros

ladies toilet - señoras

this restaurant - este restaurante 

new restaurant - restaurante nuevo

open - abierto

closed - cerrado

Days of the week

Monday - lunes

tuesday - martes

Wednesday - miercoles ( accents miércoles)

Thursday - jueves

Friday - viernes

Saturday - sabado (watch out - sabado is Saturday not Sunday; note the letter 'a' is the second letter in both the English and the Spanish; watch the accent - Sábado)
Watch out /take care - cuidado
Sunday - domingo (how to remember it: the lord's day, think he dominates the world, the master of all)

Times of Day

morning - manana

afternoon - tarde 

evening - noche

last - pasado

next - siguente (like sequence)

now - ahora

time - hora (like hour)

yesterday - ayer (ayer - aye, which is old yes and Scottish yes, it's over)

tomorrow - mañana

when - cuando (remember the song, cuando, cuando, cuando, tell me when, when, when)

wait - espere (hope or expect)

hurry - prisa 

Introductions To People

English - Spanish

I - yo

I am - yo soy

you - tu / usted

he - el

she - ella

a bottle of wine - botella de vino

a carafe - la (the) garrafa (double r)

the alcohol - el alcohol

without alcohol- sin alcohol

(NB Muslim Malay restaurants will have no pork and no alcohol. Chinese restaurants will have pork and wine. Hotels will have wine.)

In a Chinese hawker centres (food courts) you may have beer but not wine.

Coffee - cafe

sugar - azucar

milk - leche

(a) cup - (una) taza (the a of the una matches or rhymes with the a of taxa)

sin -without (it would be a sin to have it so I'll have it without)

a cup of coffee - una taza de cafe

a coffee with sugar - un cafe con azucar

a cup of coffee without sugar - una taza de cafe sin Azucar (the accent on the u means pronounce it)

a cup of coffee without milk - un a taza de cafe sin leche

An orange juice - Un jugo de naranja (juice of orange)

Ordering Wine

Sparkling wine - 

white wine -vino blanco (notice the adjective is second after the noun)

The food is/was delicious

thank you

please - por favor

the Champagne - el champan

good Champagne - champanes buenos (no g)

this restaurant has - Este restaurante tiene

does this restaurant have

do you want to open - quieres abrir

Spanish Juices and Fruit

(un) jugo - (a) juice (not jug)

jugo de manzana - apple juice

(de) naranja - orange (both languages have the letter r in the middle of the word for orange)

apple - manzana (manzania - z sounds like th - camomile or little apple in a style sherry from a town, dry pale sherry, more saline on the Atlantic ocean, the south west, arched bay east of Portugal)

banana

mango

Food

fruit

meat - carne

chicken - pollo

the grilled chicken - el pollo asado

fish - pescado (like the French piscine for swimming pool, and Pisces zodiac sign)

pasta

potatoes

rice

vegetables

sandwich

hamburger

Popular Wines:

Cava - (literally from the cave, made by the Champagne method, like the French cremant, made from any combination of three Spanish grapes: Macabeo (called Viura in Rioja); Parellada; Xarel-lo pronounced charello) The dash is a raised full sto which we don't have in English (an interpunct dot in Catalan language from the Catalan region of Spain, interpunct - punct volat - flying point between two letters l, where each belongs to a different syllable.

Rioja - red from Grenache and white temperanillo (double ll pronounced ya - like tempera- knee-yoh!)

(Mateus Rose is from Portugal - oops!)

Priorat near Barcelona makes rich red blends.

Sherry from Jerez, fortified wine.

espimoso - sparkling

Useful websites

duolingo.com

memrise.com

wikipedia.com

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias

To be continued.

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. She teaches English to adults at colleges and businesses as well as other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

A quick way to learn Spanish for Mexico, Peru, South America, Central America and Spain

I was reading about Mexico on a BBC English language page when I saw a link to BBC news in Spanish. I followed the link and read some of the headlines and the opening lines of the stories. I was amazed how much I could understand from words which were similar to English.


Flag of Mexico

The flag of Mexico is similar at first glance to the flag of Peru, another country where Spanish is spoken. But flags have three stripes, red and white stripes and a symbol in the middle.

Look closer or keep them side by side and you will see that Mexico's flag is green white red. But, Peru's flag is red white red.

     

Flag of Mexico    

Flag of Peru

Look at the symbols.

Mexico's flat has an eagle eating a snake. The story goes that seeing that told the founder of Mexico city where to found the city. A handy reminder to me to watch out for snakes. I remember seeing snakes on the ground ahead on the steps of an archaeological site which was a trip when a cruise ship from the USA landed at the Mexican city and popular port of Cancun.

Going back to Wikipedia to check on Cancun, I was intrigued to read the its name Cancun is based on the word for snake:

There are two possible translations of Cancún, based on the Mayan pronunciation kaan kun. The first translation is "nest of snakes". The second version and less accepted is "place of the golden snake".^[

Returning to the BBC website I read:
Lo encontraron con 15 puñaladas en su celda, donde cumplía una condena de 13 años por tráfico de drogas. El exmilitar era considerado por las autoridades el nexo del Cartel de Sinaloa en el país.

I could easily see 13 years for trafficking of drugs, ex military (person) considered (by) authorities and Cartel.

Reading the news in Spanish was no effort. My automatic response was to check up on just one or two words in the three sentences which I did not know by using Google translate.

Finding Google Translate
Typing into google translate might bring up translation services which charge a lot of money to translate just one word.

Using the newspaper as your source of whole sentences has the advantage that you have a context.

Pinning Google Translate
I have pinned the symbol for google translate to the top of my screen, second left of my menu. That way I can find it fast.

How To Pin The Google Translate Symbol
To pin you right click on your mouse and when you do this up pops the multiple choice box f more actions.

Remembering How To Pin Google Translate
Click on pin and your favourite website is pinned or made semi-permanent on the left of all the sites currently opened or opened in the recent past. You could unpin it the same way. Right click. When the symbol is pinned, the choice offered is now unpin. If you change your mind, pin it again. If you want to remember how to pin, pin and unpin several times until the action is embedded in your memory and you can do it fast.

One of the words I checked on looked like peace but turned out to be country. Words which sound the same or look the same but are not are sometimes called 'false friends'.

You can then pin the Spanish news from the BBC, or any other new site, to have up to the minute news of your favourite country, or to follow a news story. A quick way to refresh your knowledge os Spanish, including technical and slang words.

Spanish - English
 años - years
celda - cell
con - with
de - of
donde -where
drogas - drugs
ellos - they (like the French elle for she and elles for they)
en - in
lo/Los/las - the (singular and plural, as in Los Angeles meaning the angels)
el país - the country (like the French, le pays)
paz - peace

English - Spanish
cell (in a prison) - celda
(the) country - el país
drugs - drogas
in - en
of - in
peace - paz
the (plural) - los (as in Los Angeles meaning the angels)
they - ellos
where - donde
with - con
years -  años 


Flag of Spain

You could also learn Spanish as spoken in Spain from a Spanish newspaper online.

Where You Can Use The Spanish Language
Countries where Spanish is spoken: Argentina, Bolivia, Balearic Islands (Majorca/Mallorca, Minorca, Ibiza, Formentera): Canary Islands: , Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Tenerife, Uruguay, Venezuela,

Learn Portuguese, which is similar to Spanish, as spoken in Brazil from a Brazilian newspaper. My family and others on a holiday in Madeira could recognize words on signposts from holidays in Europe in Spain and Portugal. Spanish is also a help when learning Italian.

BBC news in Spanish
https://www.bbc.com/mundo/topics/

USA
Notice the Spanish names of the cities Los Angeles (The angels), San Francisco (Saint Francis) and El Paso (The pass).


Duolingo
duolingo.com


Memrise
Memrise.com


About The Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, blogger, author of 20 books including an ebook on Improve Your English, from Amazon, and teacher of English and Business English and other languages to individuals, colleges and companies. For more information on learning languages see the previous posts. For information on sites to see in Spain and Portugal see the next post. Please bookmark your favourite posts and share the links with your family, friends and colleagues.

Why you might visit Uruguay Urgently but postpone visiting Paraguay

Map of Uruguay from Wikipedia. See Fray Bentos on the left. 

URUGUAY
Why would you or I go to Uruguay? When I heard that Fray Bentos pies are named after a place in Uruguay, I was intrigued. I love Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies.

Sure enough, Uruguay has a Fray Bentos Museum. The old Fray Bentos factory no longer operates but the decaying buildings and machinery are a Unesco heritage site.  They shipped the goods out from the port on the river, making pies named after the place, and Oxo cubes.

That's number one on my list. I am sure anybody would find it fun. Maybe not if your group includes vegetarians.

Most people on Tripadvisor enthused. Tours take place twice a day. One reader travelled all the way from Colon in Argentina especially to take a tour.

Photo by DeCausa in Wikipedia.

Second visit? Also to visit, the museum of the artist who makes human figures with animal heads.

PARAGUAY
Skinning Snakes For Snake Snacks
What about Paraguay? Their biggest novelty is snake skinning lessons. Wiki warns that you must beware of two-headed snakes. One head can bite you whilst you are dealing with the other one.

That is a novelty. I have eaten snake in Shanghai, so I don't need to go to South American just to say I've done that.

Paraguay Procrastination
Another discouragement is their relaxed attitude to time. Your plane home is unlikely to take off on time. Just as well if your taxi is late, and so is your breakfast.

I understand procrastination. I understand being late. I don't mind others being late. If I have to wait, I can write a poem draw a picture, take a photo or learn Spanish or Portuguese.

However, it has taken several decades for me to learn to be early instead of late. I don't want to undo that effort.

As for language and practising your languages, Spanish is handy - or Portuguese in border areas, or a mixture of the two creating new words, a new dialect a new 'language' ... maybe I'll get around to describing that, some time - more later.

Travel Checklists

Useful websites
Visit Uruguay official tourist board:
https://turismo.gub.uy/index.php/en/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Uruguay (From the Wiki people, without ads.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fray_Bentos_(food_brand)

http://paisajefraybentos.com/pc/publico-y-visitantes-en-el-sitio/
Their website, mostly in easy to read Spanish, as you see the bit I copied reads 'public and visit to the site', with the occasional surprise of a line in English.

More will be added later. I am on Paraguay time.

Here's some more:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Uruguay

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Murals In Spain: Estepona and the routes of murals and international poetry, some Spanish

Problem
Where are the murals in Spain?

Answers
Estepona on the south coast towards Gibraltar has some great murals. Brightens up dull walls. Lots of human interest. A large face of a boy. A girl on a swing.
Ruta de los murales - route of the murals

Route of Poetry
Estepona also has a route of poetry. You can read English authors such as Shakespeare, who was a poet, writing sonnets as well as plays, and German Rilke, Arabic and more. As a plus, the poems are in the original languages as well as the translated into Spanish. Keep you mobile phone geared up to translate with Google translate or another ap. A little tour around the world and the world's poets and the world's languages.

La Peseta sculpture in Estepona, Spain.

Also see the street art sculpture La Peseta, showing an old coin, the asymmetrical bullring with a bullfighting museum, and the Botanical garden with fountains, a clock tower and more museums. Nearest big city Malaga, Nearest airport, Gibraltar. More details in Wikitravel.

Spanish - English
calle - street
de - of
las - the, singular
los - the, plural, as in Los Angeles meaning the angels
flores - flowers
murales - murals
plaza - square or place
poesia - poetry
ruta - route

English - Spanish
of - de
flowers - fores
murals - murales
poetry - poesia
route - ruta
square or place - plaza
street - calle
the - los

Websites
https://www.spain-holiday.com/Estepona/articles/the-estepona-murals-ruta-de-murales-artisticos
https://www.spain-holiday.com/Estepona/articles/poetry-along-esteponas-ruta-de-la-poesia

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Teacher of English and foreign languages. See my previous posts on murals and learning Spanish. You can learn Spanish for free online using duolingo. They also have tiny cards on which you can record words or fact you wish to remember and flip them by clicking on them to see the translation or question and answer. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How to Learn Spanish From American Place Names

Problem
How do I make a list of Spanish place names which translate easily into English?

Answer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_place_names_of_Spanish_origin_in_the_United_States

Some of them are not well known.

The obvious ones which came to my mind were Las Angeles, the Angels, and El Paso, but I was not sure what it meant.

Here's my list:

Spanish Names in the USA
los alamos - (White poplars)
Amarillo - yellow
Buena Vista - good view
Casa Granda - big house
Colorado - red coloured
costa - coast
Del Norte - northern
El Paso - the pass or steps
Esmeralda (County, Nevada) - emerald
Florida - florid / flowery
La Paz (County, Arizona) - peace
Mariposa (County) butterfly
Mateo - Mathew
Mesa (County, Colorado) table
Miguel - Michael
Montana - mountainous
Nevada - covered in snow
Plumas - feathers
Puerto Rico - rich port
Refugio - shelter
Rio Grande - big river
San Juan - Saint John
Santa Cruz - Sacred CrossSan Francisco - St Francis (of Assisi)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages.
 I have another post on Costa Rica and pineapples, another on Saints' names, and several more on Spanish and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.