Essential Spanish phrases

The costeño all-purpose opener — 'so?', 'well?', 'go on then'. It carries a whole conversation depending on tone, and Barranquilla runs on it.

'What's up, mate?' — the everyday Barranquilla greeting. Costeño Spanish swallows the final s ('¿qué má'?'), which is the single biggest adjustment if you learned Spanish in Bogotá or Madrid.

The city's own affectionate name for itself, from a Carnival song. Someone from here is a currambero as often as a barranquillero, and using it correctly buys you enormous goodwill.

'Whoever lives it is the one who enjoys it' — the official slogan of the Carnaval de Barranquilla and the standard answer to anyone watching from the side of the street instead of dancing.

The 'crazy wind' that blows hard off the Caribbean roughly December to March. It drops the humidity, ruins hairstyles, blows roof panels off and is the reason this is the most bearable stretch of the year.

The air conditioning, which here is a topic rather than an appliance. '¿Tiene aire?' is the first question about any flat, office, taxi or restaurant, and the answer sets your electricity bill.

A cheap street kiosk or hole-in-the-wall eatery — where the arepa de huevo, the butifarra and the fried everything actually come from. Not an insult; a category.

A small dense pork sausage from neighbouring Soledad, eaten with lime and bollo de yuca. The most local thing you can order and the least likely to appear in a guidebook.

Atlético Junior, the football club, and a genuine organising principle of civic life. Match days at the Estadio Metropolitano reshape traffic, and 'el Junior juega hoy' is a scheduling constraint.

'To be in the pot' — to be broke, or in serious trouble. Common everywhere in Colombia, and the phrase you will hear about the month before payday.

Literally 'vaccine', locally the extortion payment demanded from shops, buses and building sites. If anyone uses this word about your business, it is not slang about health — report it to the Gaula on 165.

Help! Dial 123 for any emergency nationwide; 119 reaches the fire brigade directly, 132 the Red Cross ambulance service and 165 the army-police anti-extortion and anti-kidnapping unit.