Um, did you say "Miami"?

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I had a nice little surprise when I got to the Calgary airport. When I checked in, the American Airlines lady said to me, "Okay, so your destination today is Miami." I promptly said, "No, it's Lima." At this point, we argued with each other for a minute or two until she looked at her computer and in a very snitty tone said, "You don't leave Miami for Peru until tomorrow night. You have a 24 hour layover in Miami." Wicked, 24 hours in a place that I didn't plan on going to and without a hotel reservation (or money to get one). I was livid. Since I had no choice but to check-in anyway, I tried to find an Internet terminal in the departures area, but none was to be found. Well, if any of you know me, you will not be surprised to hear that I convinced this old Asian man who hardly spoke English to let me use his laptop and access the WiFi connection in the airport. After looking through my e-mails and discovering that my travel agent had indeed told me that I would arrive in Lima at 4:20 a.m. on August 2nd and not August 3rd (I say "haha" to all of you who make fun of my overloaded e-mail inbox!) , she got a not-so-nice phone call from me.

Luckily, after realizing that this was her flub (and American Airlines, as they listed these flights as "connecting" flights...right), she quickly got on the phone and made me hotel reservations (at their cost) in Miami and helped me rearrange my reservations for my bus trip from Lima to Huancayo.

Although I was not very happy when I first discovered the mix-up, it was actually a blessing in disguise as it was a nice way to break up the long journey. It also helped that I had a massive allergy attack on the plane, so a good night's sleep was exactly what I needed.

I actually could have had a better night's sleep if it wasn't for the stupid alarm clock in my hotel room. When I got to the hotel room, I set the clock as it was totally off. While I was asleep, the clock jumped ahead two hours, so, rather than waking up at 11:00 a.m. to make the most of the late check-out I had requested, I woke up at 9:00 a.m. and checked out at 10:00 a.m. without knowing it until it was too late. GRRRR.

I have never been to Miami and didn't really plan on being in a tropical climate on this trip aside for the two days in the jungle, so I had to pick through my backpack to find anything appropriate for 35 degree weather. And here I thought I was getting a break from the heat wave temperatures I've experienced over the past six months! I made my way to a shopping area called Bayside and then over to South Beach to see the "real" Miami, as one local called it. South Beach is pretty cool. There are tons of stores down this one cute street that ends at the infamous beach, which is miles and miles of white sand. It was way too hot to enjoy the beach though, so I sought refuge from the heat by shopping in all of the air conditioned stores along South Beach. I became the master window shopper that day--mastering the art of looking like I was actually interested in buying something to prevent dirty looks from the shopkeepers who guessed my ulterior motives.

Although I thought Miami was only a quick one hour stopover, I guess it worked out nicely that I could add yet another city to my growing list of cities visited this year! The only downside...I had Will Smith's stupid song in my head the whole time I was there!

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