MIAMI

---

we started our malaria tablets yesterday...feeling a bit dodgy. 😞
We bussed it to washington dulles airport to catch a plane to miami, this is our first internal flight outwith our round the world ticket. No messing about at airport as security is pretty hardcore here.. we were practically naked going through security and jill got her cooling spray taken off her that was in bottom of her bag. Yip, the same bag we had with us yesterday while we were getting burnt to death, if only we looked. ah well, you live and learn. 😊

2 hours later and as we fly in to land we could see the south beach and many boats sailing about in the water. looks lush!! a 30 minute drive in a shuttle bus through heavy traffic. all i can think of is CSI miami off the tv, usual tall buildings and skyscraper horizon on veiw, its getting a bit samie samie the cities but its all good as the weather is hitting 33oC. we're still looking like lobsters so we're giving the beach a miss today! some of the houses on the beach front are amazing..the boats parked n front of them are bigger than my flat for gods sake!! i can just see it 'im just nipping down to the shops in the boat honey'!! ive seen jet skis, air boats, speedboats,powerboats and even a hoovercraft in one instance...florida indeed!!
you can smell money here but you can also smell poverty, its a strange mix, another ferrari zoomed past and then a clapped out 1967 chevvy. by the way,the shuttle bus driver has just won an award for being the most miserable git in the world!! his tip just got smaller! 😱

Well, u know i said yesterday or day before that we wouldnt be sharing dorms again...well..the hostel has double booked us so we are sharing a dorm for the first night of three. 6 dorm aswell...the roomates better not be french i tell u!!! ahh fate have it, 2 frenchmen, a californian and other guy from madagasgar.....jills cracking me up as she's giving it 'i like to move it move it, i like to.....move it' from film madagasgar!! she's lost it...too much sun i think! :P funny we should mention that film actually as when we were out for dinner a guy passed with a lemur on his back and it had a wee red nappy on...or diaper as they say here..

we had dinner on the beach front and ordered chicken and pasta for jill and i ordered chips....big mistake, i shouldve said fries as i ended up with a bowl of crisps. me being a chef aswell?!? amature night. i shared jills though because as usual the portions are mammoth. when we got back to the hostel we sat and watched the comings and goings as its a very busy hostel. about 150 people from all over the world are staying here. The average age being about 25. we met the two guys from california who are sharing our room, they have both just graduated from university which they were studying psychology!! god help us all when we get back from the club tonight as i will probually need a couch trip on my way to the top bunk. We met some mexican's that were super friendly and jills been practising here spanish with them in exchange for teaching them english and scottish swearwords! One of the mexicans is a lawyer and haskindly given us his business card in case we need help in mexico if anything was to go wrong...

We bumped into 4 youngs lads from aberdeen before we left the hostel to go out. 3 of them fwere from westhill and the 4th lives about 300 meters from jills flat!! Small world eh? we managed to get v i p entry into the nightclub and it was quite busy in there and we only had one more beer in there as jill met in with some japanese guys that were ace company. they lived here and one of them had a fashion shop. they had bottle and table service and they were giving us free vodka the rest of the night, i know i was drunk as some guys were breakdancing on the dancefloor and i did my usual. in i goes, gave it my best shot and ended up in a dance battle with a guy who was a 100 times better than anyone id ever seen. he gave me a cheeky wee high five as i stotted off back to my seat limping badly! 10 outa 10 for effort!! my white shirt wasnt saying the same mind you.. 😊 it was 5am when we got home with the rest of the hostelers so we were safe all night, no worries.

Saturday 21st August

We had to change rooms at 10am and we literally move across the corridor so it was ok and just aswell as we were both rough! jill went to the famous south beach with a gay guy we met yesterday whereas i sat and read my book in the common room for a few hours, stopped for free lunch at the hostel then had a wee siesta. im getting too old for breakdancing. a few folk mentioned it today when passing by and we had a giggle about it.

Jill came back from the beach and we had pizza for tea and went for an ice cream on Ocean Drive. Its typical for us that when we go for our first ice cream since arriving in the states that the heavens should open up and thunder and lightning pummels miami. The rain ws really heavy but its still warm mind you so we huddled under a canopy outside a shop and had our ice cream while waiting for the rain to ease off. we could see lighting constantly for about 30 minutes as the storm drifted out to sea. Ocean drive was quite nice at night, busy and there were some beautiful motors hauling about. Early night tonight for obvious reasons plus we are going too the everglades tomorrow.

Sunday 22nd August

jill got up early and i had long lie as ive had toilet trouble thru the night. its the malaria tablets. We went for a walk in the beach and around town. We went to see gianni versace's house and could walk right up to the door where he was shot. its a beautiful building and its now a small hotel but it still has the gold railings and gold medusa's heads that you associate with versace fashion.
there are lots of beggars out today for some strange reason. We grabbed a quick bite to eat then got picked up by the everglade tour bus. Its about 45 minute drive but in a different direction from airport so it was a chance to see some of star island. As the name suggests its where the stars live. We saw puff daddys house and various others at a glance. This bus driver is much more happier than our last one as he talks and is a considerate driver.

We arrived at the everglades and waited about to get on the air boat by walking round the gardens here as there are already lots of wildlife to see like oversized cockerals and peacocks. Lots of dragonflys are buzzing about and just as i got on the pontoon a red-shouldered hawk perched on a post next to the boat. i got a quick photo of it before it took off again. So now we're on the boat and the guy hands us earplugs and explains the rules. 'finger snappers lurk in the water so no hands over the side!' he says in thick southern accent. We took off about 100 meters into the overgrowth and within 30 seconds we had seen a green sea turtle and an aligator. The funny thing here is that they have names for the gators and call out there names like you would a dog. Not much more happening here so we took a right turn and he blasted us through the reeds and water for about 15 minutes occasionally drifting sideways and he also did a u turn at speed which was quite hairy!! on the way back we met Lily! 'here lily, honey girl' i got some fingers for you lily' says the boat driver and tour guide. 'commmme outtt liiiilllllyyy!! daaaaaddies here, here girlllllll! and out from nowhere, lilly appears. lucky for me and jill she made a beeline for the side of boat where we were sitting and cruised by us. what an amzing sight, she swam right to us and then off to the back of boat where the tour guide gave her a tit bit and kept on talking to her as if she was his pet. wow!! We saw a beautiful looking bird called a Purple Gallinule who's name was 'tiny tot' and she had 6 four month old chicks with her. the boatman gave little tit bits too. Further down we met 'speedbump'. he's a 8 year old gator that likes to lie still in the water in front of the boat until he nearly gets run down hence the name. he paddled off to our side of the boat just at the last second before being run over and we got some pictures of him. tit bit for speedbump, whos a good boy!! geez!! im sounding like the boat guide guy now!!! Further down people saw a another large turtle on the other side of boat and then we met 'mr attitude' he is a 11 month old baby gator. so cute and small and he lay still in the water and stared us out! that was the end of our tour and we hopped off.

Now the show was about to start inside the gardens and another guy introduced himself and in the pen behind him was a humungous aligator and i cant mind his name now..anyway before we had chance to sit down the host was walking run people at the front with this massive hand sized black scorpion!! he put it up close towards the girl sitting next to me. it was pretty scarey but safe as big ones dont sting...much!! once he'd put the scorpion away he came out with a giant toad, check the pictures and tell me if thats huge!! next out was a skunk which wasnt to happy to be out his box and as he was explaining about skunk spraying smells on people he lifted it up and a jet of liquid sprayed over the crowd...he had concealed a syringe of water under the skunk......haha! A white cocatoo was next but it was merely under crowd training as it was perched there the whole time. it was only 5 months old and it was just getting used to big crowds so he left it alone. Now the big alligator that was sat all this time in the pen was about to get bothered, it hissed loudly at the host as he moved it around for us to see. he showed us its power by making it open its jaws and he touched its tooth with a stick and it snapped its jaws down at some speed that it literally echoed. (Videos are posted on you tube) maill me for links to them. Next up was a 4 year old smaller gator called larry. we got to hold him and get photos taken with him which i did. he felt warm and leathery, obviously his teeth and mouth were muzzled or else i wouldnt have dared pick him up. A wee break and some water intake and we were off back home to miami beach.
We had dinner on the beach front and avoided the crisps/chips! we had a lovely meal at an italian restaurant as a treat because we leave the states to go to mexico tomorrow. There is a hurricane blowing off the shore and its moving inland as its on the news. Sure enough by 10 pm its lashing it down. more lightning and thunder pounds us. I got my swimming shorts on and went out to take a couple of photos and as there is flash flooding down our street. the water was knee deep as i trudged across the road in my flip flops. The people in the reception must have thought i was crazy but being from scotland i thought to myself 'its only rain, ye winna melt' bus ordered for 7.15am. night night.

.

---

Photos

flash flood
check the bike!