Cancun to Miami is a short hour and a quarter flight. There is also an hour lesser time difference between London/Miami than London/Cancun which is 5 hours ( I finally used this time to write my earlier blogs on Mexico instead of slacking!)
Immigration clearance was bit of a bummer for my friend who got stuck at the airport due to some stupid issues (officer not finding her ESTA clearance number on the system or may be she was annoyed with something...hell knows) but this meant we had to wait for an additional 2 hours at the airport. This definitely dampened my friend's holiday spirit a bit but I suppose there isn't much one can do on these things but be patient.
Anyway once she cleared her immigration, we took a taxi and got to our Hotel - Hilton Downtown Miami in the downtown area. Since Miami is a very expensive city with hotels and resorts being super expensive in south beach area, Hilton Downtown is definitely a good hotel option in a handy location with good places to eat out and with a short taxi ride to south beach.
Since we didn't have much time left in the evening this day, we checked in the hotel and chose to go out for an Indian dinning (after eating too much Italian and Mexican food all this time).
Day 2 - got up really late, got ready and went out for a bit of stroll in the area to have breakfast. We found this really beautiful small cafe shop where the lady at the counter was Argentinean - really beautiful, chatty and accommodating. As usual, I had my standard latte whereas the lady made my friend try her favourite Argentinian Green Hills tea. Good strategy to promote the local culture, eh! After this, this cafe became our favourite brekkie place for our stay in Miami!
Late afternoon was booked for pretty boring standard city trip - after all, one has to try and know the city, especially travelers like us who just pick up a holiday destination and never bother reading about it before visiting!
Few interesting facts about Miami, we got to know from our tour guide: 67% of Miami population is from Latin and South America and secondly Cuba being only 90 miles away from Key West ( the lowest tip point of the USA), there used to be "Wet Feet, Dry Feet" immigration policy for Cubans (check this link: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_feet,_dry_feet_policy)
Oooh, the entertaining part to mention - when we got to Little Havana area where we got our first break from the city tour, me and my friend wanted to get our pictures clicked with this big COCK outside one of the restaurants. My friend's piccie turn went all good but when my turn came, this guy ( must mention, a very handsome bloke!!) started interfering and coming around, doing random things while talking loudly in Spanish on the phone. I was really annoyed and after trying a few times when I couldn't get rid of him, gave up on getting a picture clicked.
Later on he told us he was doing that as a prank on the visitors for some Spanish TV channel show (and the guy was really cheeky as he straight went for a hug and a peck on my cheek instead of actually apologising.....hehehe...but definitely am not upset about that as how often do you actually get a hug or a peck from handsome boys, atleast I don't, never had..hehehe). So now if you ever spot me being fooled around on a Spanish TV channel, please do send me the link or information of the same (as me being dumb like always in a handsome guy's presence, forgot to ask his channel and show name...stupid me...tch tch).
In the evening, after our boat trip which was part of the city tour, we ended up staying till late for shopping, dinner and live music performance in Bayside Market place, a really nice hangout place.
Day 3 - yet another lazy late morning, we spent some time sun bathing on the hotel's rooftop pool side area and later headed to South beach in the late afternoon. I spent a couple of hours in the ocean enjoying the warmth of the Atlantic while my friend, still scared of the water, was chilling on the beach. We did Jetski (friend was really really happy after her first Jetski experience but I am sort of a pro (are you calling me show-off, hehe!!) for having it done few times in south-east Asia!. Though must admit, I am still a wimp when it comes to going too fast on jetski!). The jetski guy who went with us was a lovely big Caribbean bloke who kept saying "I gotch you baby" and "this is Atlantic Ocean"....hahaha.. Sweet!
In the evening we went for late lunch/dinner on the Ocean drive. This area is the heart of Miami; buzzing, lively and you can see the best cars passing by on the road. Restaurants compete with each other on the loud music to attract more crowd. So we sat in one of those restaurants, the music was foot tapping and the food was good. The girl who was serving us asked me to show my ID since I had ordered an alcoholic cocktail.....arghhhh....I don't like this for getting ID'ed at every bloody pub or a restaurant for drinks....anyway I told her, I am not carrying any ID but she can trust me that I am definitely over 18...huhh....so she agreed to give me my first Cosmopolitan! Thank you sweetie....a pretty girl from Kazakistan.
Then I ordered my another drink and this time Strawberry Margarita on the ice. Hahaha.....the expression on the girl's face was a bit worried and she said to me, it's a GIANT drink, am I sure I want it?.....she really thought I was lying about my age and that I definitely can't fit that drink in such a tiny frame of mine....if only she knew how much I like my cocktails😉. After she served me Margarita, she kept checking on me the whole evening if I was still okay! But apparently by the time we left the restaurant and headed for the hotel, I was pretty drunk or "pissed" per my friend's words....I was happy high - dancing, enjoying second last day of our holiday!
Holiday note to myself: if you enjoy your cocktails, start training your stomach on an alcohol a bit early ahead of the holidays, especially if you are on a no alcohol policy from sometime. Leaving it till the last minute you arrive at a holiday destination doesn't do any good!
Day 4 and our last day in Miami - I got up with a heavy head from previous night's drinks, so definitely needed a stronger coffee to start my day. We kept the day easy, checked out late, had late breakfast with yet another strong coffee and then spent a couple of hours in the Marina Park Museum a few blocks away from our hotel. We headed to the airport in the evening, shopped - to keep myself cheered up from the sad feeling of our holiday ending too soon; I have treated myself with Prada glasses and got a MK bag for my sister (US airports are not duty free - how very weird...huhhh) and now flying back to cold gloomy Blighty......I wanted to nap a bit in the flight but as usual, I can never get any sleep on the flights so instead of procrastinating writing, I am finishing my holiday blog...
Yet another holiday note to myself: Need a massive control on the expenses and my bad habit of over-shopping.....grrrr....
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