South Beach, Miami

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Miami, we landed on Saturday 1^stSeptember after a 6 hour flight from Lima. We had booked 2 nights at a hostel on South Beach, yes they do exist. For $48 a night we ended up being upgraded to a private apartment with AC and a real hot shower, the bed was wider than it was long. This type of normal living is not what we have been accustomed to, It felt like we were on holiday! We meandered down Lincoln Avenue, the main pedestrian and shopping area near the beach, ice cream in hand after a huge Mexican Dinner. I made the mistake of ordering a large burrito and ended up carrying half around with me in a doggy bag for the rest of the night. We treated ourselves to some new sunglasses to fit in with the crowds on the beach, which was rammed with it being Labour day weekend.



On the night we went down Ocean Drive, which is lined with bars and restaurants together with everyone wearing sunglasses in the dark. It seems that people like to simply drive round and round the block for no apparent reason in their crazy old school yank tanks and low riders; we even saw a car that bounces on hydraulic jacks. There was a real buzz to the place, i.e. no recession and the 1930’ s art deco facades looked amazing in the neon glow of the night.



We milked the best of the sun on Sunday and for lunch we had huge frozen cocktails, no food required. We went to buy some rum and coke which was surprisingly cheap in preparation for a night on the town. We got out at 22:00 to find massive queues at most bars and they were charging $150 to get in the night club we wanted to go to. We ended up in a low key pool bar for a few drinks then home for a subway sandwich, totally and utterly deflated. To make it worse Nat then beat me at a drunken game of table tennis in the hotel courtyard before we hit the hay.



On the bus to the airport we did the usual, where’s the passports, where’s the camera and that game. We couldn’t find the camera so in a panic I got off the bus and told Nat to meet me at the airport. I got a taxi back to the hotel and realised that I had left the camera outside by the net of the table tennis set up. Now totally gutted, I had not saved the photos for weeks, including the ones from Machu Picchu I went around like a maniac asking anyone who would listen. Eventually the cleaner said she had found it but was not letting on straight away. Panic over....Nearly!



The taxi waited for me to go to the airport, meter running! Only an hour and a half until departure and all the check in desks serviced any flight. So where was I going to meet Nat.... who had both our big back packs and her own hand luggage. The bus terminal was 10 minutes from the aircraft terminal on a skytrain so I started there, but no Nat. Then running back through the main terminal, flip flops in hand, I saw her with a pile of bags looking really pissed off. We made check in by 15 minutes, panic over. On to Panama!

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