Miami: No Wonder He 'Took His Talents To South Beach'

Miami Beach Night Lights

After over 4 months of exploring a very small portion of South America we flew into the US and were immediately greeted with English. Yes god save the queen English, but the language not the people!

Yes it is our own fault that we can only speak the one language but we did try and learn Spanish and picked up minimal Portuguese along the way, just not enough to be comfortable with it.

So with English came a certain level of ease - Nic could order meals with confidence that she wouldn't get sick (no matter how good we thought we were with either of the languages in South America we could never confidently get Nic's dietary needs across to our waiters), Nic could actually find a whole range of lactose and gluten free products so we could cook something more than just rice and beans, I could get us lost and then easily ask for help, and the ordered, grid-like nature of America's streets made getting around a walk in the proverbial park.

Now I don't know if it was because Miami was our first stop in the States, or because of the above, but I love this city.

Miami Beach Marina

Firstly, it's so fricken hot at the moment that you don't start doing things until the afternoon and don't stop doing things until the early hours for the morning. This means you don't feel all that guilty struggling out of bed at 12pm after a 5am night out in SoBe. And with it being so hot it just makes the beach that much better. The beaches of Miami, for us, weren't anything to write home about (but I suppose that's exactly what I am doing) but they are unique. There isn't much surf but the water is cool, the coastline seems to stretch for miles and everyone appears to be on holidays. This means eskies are everywhere, so are boom-boxes and the whole beach just seems like one big party. No wonder he 'took his talents to South Beach’.

SoBe on a Sunday

We also indulged ourselves in the 2 extremely touristy things to do in Miami - a tour of the Everglades and a day trip down the Key West. Both were great to do, but not unmissable.

The protective mother and her young

The tour of the Everglades was complete with atypical, over-the-top American style gator show (actually quite harmless and a bit of fun) and an airboat ride through the flooded savannah that is the Everglades. This  boat ride was the highlight, with Captain Al picking out a small female gator's nest, complete with half a dozen little ones and then pointing our various other animal species and a few sly jokes along the way.

River of Grass

The day trip down to Key West was worth it just for the drive. Trust the Americans to link 68 islands with 42 bridges and claim the southern most tip of the States as an island some 200ks into the Atlantic. The scenery along the way is what one would imagine a boat trip around 68 islands would be like, except you're sitting in the air conditioned comfort of your coach and have a vantage point of being about 10 feet up at all times.

7 Mile Bridge, Florida Keys

Southern Most Point of 'Continental' USA

We also got acquainted with the American way of life (or how I imagine it might go) known as FOOTBALL.

We checked out a preseason Dolphins game and even though it was only preseason (the NFL preseason seems less cared about by the clubs than the AFL equivalent) it's got us excited for the real thing in Atlanta. And with preseason comes $5 seats in the bleachers that are easily exchanged for prime real estate by simply sitting in any of the plethora of available seats. A $10 jersey because you just have to. A 2.5 hour, 4 buses and one very helpful bus driver hike to get out there and a shared cab ride home that nearly broke the bank coming in at $20 each. Oh the game was pretty good too!

St. Luis Rams vs Miami Dolphins @ Sun Life Stadium

And then there's College game Day! After working up a thirst checking out Little Havana which is an experience (and a good one) in itself we made it back to the hostel in time to sit back and relax whilst watching as many college ball games as one could handle - I think I checked out at 4!

We have also found that the people you meet and the places you stay can very much shape your opinion of a city – meeting good people and staying at a sweet hostel can make the shittiest of places seem like must-see destinations. Miami didn’t need this extra help to get the big tick of approval but it also managed to deliver on this front as well. The hostel was in a great location, and generally just had a chilled out vibe and laid back atmosphere. And some of the people we met, although briefly, we felt we had known for years. Shit I even managed to meet a few other legends answering to the call of Callum – although I don’t think these ones argued as much as the original.

Saturday Night Out in SoBe - complete with a surprise limo and Ed & Jenna

Miami has ticked a lot of boxes in a very short amount of time, and I can hardly contain myself with the expectations of what is still to come. God bless America!

Welcome to the land of the free!

Downtown Miami's Skyline