It is a challenge.
I've played in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Costa Rico and Colombia.
It can be a little indimidating when you aren't fluent in the local dialect
but it can be done. I doubt than the dealers really care who you are. Most of them are so intimidated by management they are more concerned about keeping their jobs.
The best part is not knowing what the other players are saying when you hit that 12 against a 2 and take the dealer's bust card.
In April I was playing in Cali, Colombia. They were dealing a 6D shoe with surrender (by drawing a line behind your bet, universal everywhere except Biloxi), 5 card automatic winner and allowed you to DOUBLE DOWN after splitting Aces. Sweet.
They had a person sitting between every other table in a chair about 3 feet higher than the table, similar to a lifeguard stand to watch everything.
You also have to go through a metal detector and get hand-wanded for weapons upon entering. They also checked the ladies' purses.
I was up 350,000 pesos but lost it all on my last 2 hands. Total loss, $32.
