Guest Blog, Alumni Edition: “Sneezy”

Posted by admin on March 20, 2010

Pelusa and Nala

The canine element in the El Diablo Tranquilo family.

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During the 3 months that I worked in Punta del Diablo, it became clear that two of the most permanent (and most popular) residents at El Diablo Tranquilo weren’t human.

Now that I’m home in Massachusetts, I’ve begun to miss them.

Although they certainly don’t live inside the hostel (they know better than to try and sneak in), Pelusa and her daughter, Nala, make their presence known.

It was always fun watching the attention they garnered from guests.

Pelusa knew how to get what she wanted from people. If someone looked interested in giving her attention, Pelusa would saunter over and flop down at their feet before rolling onto her back and into the “pet-my-belly” pose we all knew so well.

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Refusing to oblige with this not-so-subtle request was nearly impossible.

Nala, on the other hand, is a bit more reserved. This was always belied by the fact that, upon first seeing a familiar face, Nala would begin to wag her entire body. She seemed to be simply too happy to contain herself.

She would run towards you, stop, run away, spin around, wag her whole existence, and then repeat the process. But the excitement was often short lived.

Nala, unlike her mother, became easily bored of petting. After just a few moments, Nala would often bolt off in hot pursuit of whatever was presently catching her eye.

You’d think that street dogs (a category to which Pelusa and Nala halfway belong) would be more poorly behaved than they are. The hard truth is, though, that the strays in Punta del Diablo — not nalgasjust EDT’s pair, but also dogs like Ted, Black Pelusa, and the many others — are much smarter and well behaved than many of my friends’ dogs.

While thousands of guests come in and out of the doors, and up and then down the stairs to reception, you can almost always count on finding Pelusa somewhere around the hostel’s property.

Their permanency was a great counterpoint to the 2- and 3-day friendships that are a constant (and bittersweet) fact of working in a hostel.

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