Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Voy pa' Chepe

Mexico is well known for the nicknames it has for specific given names. Francisco can be either "Paco" or "Pancho". Ignacio you can call "Nacho" (even to his face). José can be "Pepe", but in Costa Rica, he's "Chepe". (Sometimes even Josué will become Chepe.)

As you may already know, Costa Rica's capital is San José. Even the capital de la patria cannot avoid this playful tico nomenclature. Costa Ricans outside of San José will often refer to San José as "Chepe", especially when they're making a trip to the city. (It seems that the farther you get from San José, the more often it's called "Chepe".)

"Voy pa' Chepe" is all I ever needed to say when I was leaving town.

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