One Less Cow In Argentina ... Miami Beach

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25th Feb

On the 3 ½ hours round trip back to Buenos Aires I didn’t really sleep that much and to be honest I think I was still quite hungover as when I collected my rucksack as I had managed to get it checked in this time, there was a big queue which I joined thinking it was some kind of landing fee so I handed over my $10 US bill and gave the address I was staying at like everybody else. I was putting my hostel details back in my daypack and this hand grabs my rucksack, I was like what the fuck and ran after the man who had taken it. This man chucked my bag into the boot of a car and he was about to shut it when I grabbed it back out; he was like “Taxi, Taxi” and I was like “no no, I walk” I ran back into the arrivals lounge and tried to get my money back saying I can walk that; pointing to my address, in 10 minutes, the guy just looked at me blankly. I walked out, with no money, feeling like such a mug!

I was only back here for 2 more days before going up to Miami to fly home to London and to be honest I had done everything that I wanted to do before hand. I mean I would have loved to go and see a Boca Junior football match but they were playing the day I left. I mainly picked the barrios that I hadn’t explored yet; however, the main thing I needed to do was go to the Cementerio De La Recoleta and see Evita's mausoleum. All the mausoleum’s here are beautifully designed and well maintained but the way they are laid out makes it look like a miniature city, rows and rows of mausoleum from the rich and famous. It did take me a considerable amount of time to find Evita's mausoleum but eventually find it I did. The next job was to fight to get a couple of pictures of it as the 'street' it was on was full of tourist wanting there picture next to it; I just settled for a couple of photos and then moved swiftly on.

That night some random people that I had met in the hostel went out, they invited me along; we went out to a drum and bass club eventually. I only say eventually as we didn’t leave the hostel till like 1am, Buenos Aires doesn’t really get going till after 1am.

26th Feb

Most of the day was spent in a hungover alcohol induced state, I was informed that, yes I did get drunk and when we left the club we managed to get some beers from a hotel that was closed and sat drinking them in the petrol station forecourt. Must have been a good night!

That evening I made my way back to the airport and shared a cab with a couple of Australian girls who I got talking to, they were heading back to Australia after travelling around Brazil and Argentina, I jumped onto an American flight up to Miami then from there onto London a day later. Anyway the flight was horrid, full, my IFE didn’t work and there were some people that just wouldn’t shut up and let me sleep and the worse part of it was that the cabin crew didn’t care. Tired we arrived in Miami and I took 3 steps off the aircraft and was greeted by a security guard who pulled me aside; where had I been, for how long, why was I in Miami. Anyway I waited in the line at immigration, when I eventually got to the desk I was told that I needed to fill in an ESTA; I was like no I don’t I’m travelling on a visa. Remembering where I was and whom I was taking to I shut up. I collected my bags and made my way outside the terminal, getting into a taxi and going to my hostel


27th Feb

6am I arrived at my hostel, Andrew was sitting behind the desk, I wondered in; Andrew told me that I couldn’t check in until 11am, we continued to chat and he suggested that I walk a couple of blocks over to South Beach and watch the sun come up. I got back and Andrew said that I could now check into my room, I took my bags upstairs and dumped it on the bed. The dorm room seemed to be full with unsavory characters. Anyway I sorted myself out and then booked myself onto 2 tours with Andrew seeing that my stay in Miami was limited. The first tour was to Gator Park in the Everglades. We got separated into groups and put onto various hovercrafts, our skipper was Dangerous Dan; the craziest person inside the everglades, we started out and Dan was pointing out all the different types of wildlife and the gators. We zipped around the everglades for about an hour and it was very enjoyable. I had some lunch and then we took our seats for the gator show; this was basically one of the wardens showing us how to wrestle a gator, it was quite funny and I hope I never have to wrestle one! As we left we were offered the chance to hold a baby gator with his mouth taped up for the sum of $5. Not everybody did this but it is a way for the park to raise a bit of money

As everybody was driven round and taken to their various hotels and hostels I waited on the buses, eventually I was transferred to another bus to do the city tour and this was highly boring. All it did was take you though the various districts of Miami and give you a brief overview of what was there. Like I say highly boring! After it was finished there was some confusion over what tours I had exactly booked and I was dropped off at Bayside and then given a ticket for a boat tour of the bay and Star and Palm islands; which are both man made islands which the rich and famous have homes on. This lasted about an hour and afterwards we were dropped off at hostels and hotels. By the time I got back I had missed dinner and I met up with a couple of Australian guys; we started to play some card game, cant for the life of me remember what the game was or how you play it, we were later joined by a guy from South Korea, drinking beer and just chatting about where we had been and our adventures.

We eventually decided to go out, it was the last night in Miami for quite a lot of us. We walked over a couple of blocks onto Ocean Drive and wondered up and down the strip for what felt like ages; eventually we ended up in an Irish bar drinking cocktails. I got talking at the bar to these guys from Bogota, they were in Miami as one of them had to have some kind of surgery on his leg or knee or something, we challenged them to a couple of games of pool; the Australians and me, the Brit versus 3 Colombians … best of 5 … we lost 3-0. After a few more cocktails we moved on to a club where we danced the night away after trying to be conned by this guy who had a scarlet macaw and a snake; he was trying to get people to part with $20 for a photo! What a joke

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Photos

Sunrise Over South Beach
Beatuiful!