Along with the word muelle being used to mean pier or jetty, the word malecón can also mean the same thing. But when I have heard malecón used it refers to a sea wall, or breakers at a beach.

When taking a trip on a horrible road we broke the muelles on our trailer. Those are the leaf springs that hold the trailer off the axle. Interestingly there were several shops which repaired muelles right through that section of highway.

Muelle is also a pier or a dock for boats.

I saw desincrustante in the store the other day on a bottle of facial cleanser. I thought it was pretty gross sounding, de-cruster. It is actually not that bad, desincrustante just means an exfoliant.

Escenario is a scene, as in a play. It can also be used to refer to the stage. It does not have to be used just in the context of a play though. Escenario is used like we would talk about a setting for some event.

Gestión can be thought of as gesture. Like our word gesture has many meanings, there are often better ways to translate gestión. It can mean to take steps as in taking steps to solve a problem. It can be negotiations as in they negotiated the terms of the deal. It can be a process as in they proceeded through the requirements.

Ambulante is exactly the same in English and Spanish. Ambulante is a word that is used in the medical field in English and it means walking, or able to move around. The story in the newspaper that I got this word from was using it to refer to traveling salesmen.

A campamento is a camp (noun). The gerund form of camping is often the same in Spanish, i.e.; ir de camping (to go camping).

There were few posts to this site since we were in a campamento last week.

A toalla is a towel, what you would use to dry off. Pronounced twai-ya, to me is it hard to recognize at first when I see it written.

I have always used the word estirar to mean to stretch. It is used when you are exercising and stretch your muscles. It is also used when you are stretching high to grab something off a shelf.

But a new use of the word came up last night. We were walking into a restaurant and saw the word estire on the door instead of empuje (push). I guess the idea is that you are stretching out in front of you to push the door away.

The word marcha has many meanings, most of which have to do with either marching or motion. The one meaning I learned this week, which is not in the dictionary I most often consult, is for a car starter motor. The word I most often seen written is arranque to mean a starter, but locally the mechanics all call it a marcha.

The only reason this comes up is that I had problems with my starter this week. Each place I consulted about parts or repair referred to it as a marcha, though they knew what I meant when I called it an arranque.