Mascotas

In Spanish the word for pet is mascotas.  Pretty funny how close some Spanish words are to other words in English.  It happens a lot.  Sometimes they mean the exact same thing, like restaurante, or nación, which I'm sure you guys can guess.  You have to be careful, though, because there are plenty of false cognates.  False cognates are words that look or sound like a word in English but actually mean something different.  Some examples:

• Rolling around on the carpeta might be difficult.  It doesn't mean carpet, but rather 'folder'.
• Once actually is the word for number 11.  It's pronounced 'OHN-say'.
• Éxito actually means success, not exit.
• Don't go asking for sopa if you're looking to wash your hands.  They'll look at you funny for wanting to clean up with soup!

Anyway, back to pets.   Dogs, cats, and birds are quite popular as pets.  I have my own place now and don't currently have any pets, but when I was living with my host family here it felt like we were in a zoo!  She had two dogs (Rambo and Nina), two cats (Ruffina and Patty), goldfish, four parakeets, and two turtles on the back patio.  And right before I left they bought a parrot!  I don't have a photo of the parrot (her name's Lucita) at the moment, but she's a lora.  Here in Costa Rica there are two types, lapas (scarlet macaws) and loras (green parrots).  Some people keep loras as pets.  Lucita is very smart.  Very quickly she learned to say Lucita bonita! which means, "pretty Lucita," and "Upe!", which is what you shout when you're outside someone's house and want to ask if someone's there.

Pirula