That's funny--Colombia was one of the few places I visited during a 9-month trip through Latin America where I was routinely mistaken for a native. (My Spanish

That's funny--Colombia was one of the few places I visited during a 9-month trip through Latin America where I was routinely mistaken for a native. (My Spanish is good, but definitely not native.) I chalked it up to people being lighter-skinned (at least in the cities), like me, and also the lack of foreign tourism to accustom people to gringo peculiarities. That, and going to places most tourists didn't bother with (Barranquilla anyone? :) Other places (esp. Cuba) it was much harder to blend. FWIW I definitely feel like a different person when I speak Spanish. But I think that's mostly I have a very wry, subtle sense of humor which does not translate well. Even to other Americans sometimes :)