One word that you won’t find in your handy dandy501 Spanish Verb book or Madgrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish, but that is extremely important for you to know in Nicaragua (and Honduras) is chele.

Chele the term used in this region to refer to light skinned Caucasians, more commonly than the broadly used gringo. It is also used to refer to lighter skinned Nicaraguans. Chele much like gringo can be offensive, but most often it is not. It is actually used with affection or mockingly by Nicaraguans to refer to other light skinned Nicaraguans. In other instances there is no particular emotion behind it, it is just the term for a light skinned foreigner or person.

It Read more

Hannah, a friend of the Nicaragua Gringo, has developed this site: Intercambio Central America. Here is what she has to say about it:

Hi, I am from the UK, traveling in Central America, and have created a new free website to help anyone living in or visiting Nicaragua learn Spanish and make friends.
Intercambio Central America is a social networking site that connects people of different languages in Nicaragua to help them find language exchange partners for conversation practice in their area.
This is a fun, free way to improve foreign language skills, make new friends and contacts, and integrate into the country, while
helping local people with their English, or whatever language Read more

“Excuse me, Señor,” you say. “Where can we find the bus to Managua?” You are deep in the Nicaraguan interior in the city of Juigalpa, having just visited the beautiful Lakes Nicaragua and Managua in the valley on the edge of the Sierras de Amerrique.

The elderly gentlemen looks at you, says something in Spanish you don’t understand, purses his lips, juts out his chin, and smiles. You try to explain that you don’t speak Spanish, but he doesn’t speak any English. Still smiling, he purses his lips again. You think to yourself, ‘If he would just point me in the right direction, I’d be able to find it.’ Little do you know, he already Read more