My limited experience shows that life becomes much easier in Latin countries if one speaks even the slightest bit of local language. A matter of pride, perhaps, the locals resenting "those bloody foreigners who won't even try a single word of ours" but in many places in Spain the regrettable effect of low levels of teaching. I remember meeting (in Ireland, of all places) a Spanishman, a teacher of English - I had trouble understanding him in English, luckily his French was much better. Not an image of all people at all places, still it might be exemplary.