USA

Imagine my surprise when I came across this shrine to the confectionery icon that is the Liquorice Allsort. However, it appears my adoration of this sugary deity was not shared at all. It was just a boring sculpture adorned with a light at the type, but to me it will always be Bertie's......

So I survived my visit to downtown Miami. Not much in the way of unique sights with the exception of this rather cool drawbridge that crosses the river through the city. Perhaps I've watched too much television, but I fully expected to see a car come flying across the ramp, shortly followed by Police cars driven by inept police men and faltering at the top of the ramp. Disappointingly, this did not happen.

A stroll out to an area called "Little Havana" quickly left me feeling out of my comfort zone, as the buildings all had bars on them, there was detritus everywhere, and some of the locals began eyeing me suspiciously. I decided now was not a good time to practice my Spanish in case I said something that might end up with a knife coming in my direction.

Despite a vice like grip on my budget, I managed to prise $27 out of my wallet to take a boat trip around Miami. While it was nice to get on the water, the tour quickly turned into a game of "guess who mansion that was". This quickly became tedious, but anyone that has $20 million or more to spend on property clearly has too much money.

In the area I'm staying in there's three main pastimes to occupy tourists: Beach, Nightclubs & Shopping. Since I'm not a particular fan of any of these, I'm not sorry to be moving on tomorrow. I've had a go at this thing called 'relaxation', but it's proving to be more difficult than I first imagined. Still, the beach is great for walking and thinking. Look at the size of this thing:

Here's a couple of the more colourful Lifeguard towers:

For you all Art Deco fans here's a couple of buildings on Ocean Drive:

For those who don't want to read the full blog, here's a potted summary of my short stay in Miami:

Went on Beach
Got sun-burned
Stole a newspaper from Starbucks
Found out where Gloria Estefan lives
Got sun-burned, again
Discovered I need to drink water more often in hot climates
Tried my first (and last) mojito. (A previous bad experience of rum came back to greet me)

Next stop: Quito, Ecuador

Adios amigos (see, I'm fluent already)

The more astute among you may have realised that Miami is not, in fact, in South America. This was part
of my cunning plan to begin acclimatising myself to the Latino culture before actually getting there. Spanish
is so widely spoken here it doesn`t feel like other parts of the US.

So my first day in Miami started with breakfast on the beach, which is huge by the way. It must be wider
than the M25 and, strangely, has plenty of traffic whizzing up & down it in the form of tractors
quad bikes & trucks.

Ocean Drive has some amazing examples of the famous art deco architecture, pictures to follow later,
ut my favourite sight of the day was a lady out walking her two small dogs. Except, only she was doing
the walking, the dogs were content to be wheeled along in their own push-chair.......

South Beach is very colourful and full of 'shiny happy people' but it feels a bit fake and not how the real
Miamians (just made that word up) live their life. So tomorrow I'm off to downtown Miami for a slice of reality,
and possibly a reminder of what gunshots sound like.