Miami Beach

Miami is exactly what I expected LA to be like -full of beautiful, tanned fashionable people. The weather is gorgeous.  The women here definitely know how to work it - they strut down the streets in impossible high heels, perfectly groomed, wearing designer figure-hugging clothes, really wiggling their bums.  It's the best place for people watching.

  The city of Miami is actually separate from the area where visitors spend most of their time, which is Miami beach (4 miles away and on a separate 'island', joined to downtown by a couple of main roads).  We've actually spent all our time here in Miami beach.

  We've only taken a handful of photos of Miami.  It's difficult to take photos that capture the place properly.  I think it's the people here that make the place cool and interesting, rather than the beach or the architecture.   

Without meaning to be mean to Americans (I love Americans now), Miami is so not like an American city.  It's classy and quite understated really.  The white coral beach is fronted by (mainly white) hotels that are either not named on the beach side or done so discreetly.  There are no tacky tourist shops lining the beach, neon signs or people selling stuff on the beach.  Even the bars on the beach are just simple, unlabelled straw huts.  Just gorgeous people everywhere.  I took my book to the beach but didn't read a page - I just love staring at people.  And they love to be stared at!  After nearly 5 weeks of eating American stodge and fast-food, I was not looking my best in a bikini, I can tell you that much.

  The club scene here is massive.  Planes fly over the shore line pulling banners advertising top DJ acts on that night.  Even if we wanted to go clubbing together (not Brad's thing), it's bloody expensive, you often have to book in advance, plus we haven't got smart enough clothes for that.  I don't think flip-flops would make the mark.  

We found a Blackberry on the side of the pavement in a bush.  We started looking through it but couldn't find a number of anyone who was obviously a close enough friend of the owner to call up and tell them we had found it.  In the end we went for dinner and just waited for the owner to realise he'd lost it and ring it.  We were being a bit nosey and reading the text messages-purely to find out some way of contacting the owner, of course ;) - and found out quite a lot about the owner.  It became obvious that he had two kids with his wife/partner and that she had found out he was sleeping with his boyfriend in their bed (!).  Anyway - he called up and got a taxi to come and pick up the Blackberry.  He even gave us $20 dollars, which was very nice.  We said that we couldn't possibly take it but....aww, go on then.

  It's a small world - Brad bumped into someone he knew from London on the beach.  He ended up going with him and his mates to the basketball that evening.  I passed (it would have been completely wasted on me), so we spent a night (well, a few hours) apart for the first time in ages.  We both enjoyed ourselves but (speaking for myself of course) was quite happy to meet back up and exchange stories.  I went to the cinema and watched a Steve Carell film (the one out of '40 year-old Virgin').  I can't remember the name.  Surprisingly enough, there were as many single people in the cinema as couples, so I didn't feel like so much of a loser.  

We played a few games of pool one night.  Brad beat me even when he played left-handed.   As you can probably tell, I've got surprisingly little to say, considering the fact we've been here 3 days.  We've basically mooched around, enjoyed some half-decent meals and cocktails.....and watched people. That's about it.  We've caught a nice bit of colour and feel very relaxed.  Spent a bit more money here that elsewhere - it's hard not to really.  This place would be paradise if you've got a serious amount of money to spend.  We've really enjoyed ourselves.  We set out to kick back and relax here and we've done just that.

  Maybe Miami isn't the best place to arrive to South America from.  We leave for Quito in Ecuador tomorrow.  I think we've set ourselves up for quite a culture shock.  We've had the 'holiday' - now it's time to 'travel'.  Bye bye the US.  It's been amazing....