USA Holiday 2, October 01 (The Heat)

First task of the day was to get tickets for an Everglades / Bay tour printed. By no surprise the hotel doesn't have a PC / printer available, so I had to find locations of internet cafes. The first one didn't exist, the second one had like 2 PCs inside some dodgy looking money exchange place and the third actually looked legitimate.

Then I had to find a place to buy a daily bus pass, there's only about 3 registered places in all of South Beach (there's more in Mid Beach and North Beach). The first was a different but equally dodgy looking money exchange place. The conversation with the guy behind a glass window (like a bank teller, and I hate trying to talk to people through those things) went like this: Do you sell bus passes ? No...waits for like 10 seconds...(I think he said) the computer's broken. So I walked out and went to the next place, a pharmacy so that's fine. Went to the front desk and they said go to the back. Up the back there's a sign that's like "Bus Pass --->". Now, there's a cash register and attendant literally right beneath this sign, there's then another queue a few metres to the right and around the corner. Naturally I think it would be pointless having a sign with an arrow *that* close to the desk where you go to buy the pass, but no, after waiting in the second wrong line, it turns out that the sign was that pointless after all. Damn you Miami.

Took a bus over to downtown Miami and walked across to the bay. Seems like it would be a good place to relax although the sun was really out in force. Got on the free metro mover train to try and find a tourist information place, to work out how the hell we are going to get to the Miami Dolphins game and back. Didn't find the place so gave up on that for the time being.

Downtown Miami.

The metro mover.

Went a bit further north to Bayside Marketplace, where I ordered a mojito but was a little disappointed, way too much mint and ice. Across the road was the home of the Miami Heat, the American Airlines Arena (not the American Airlines Centre). Took a bus over to Little Havana after that, some landmarks like the Tower Theatre and Gomez Park (lots of people playing dominoes) and many stores selling cigars.

The big two and Chris Bosh.

Gomez aka Domino Park.

Back to South Beach for some dinner, the restaurant was about 10 blocks or 20 minutes to walk from the hotel. Jason decided we should wait for the South Beach local bus loop that just services the South-to-Mid area of Miami Beach. I tried to point out that the bus was going the long way around and it didn't even stop that close to the place, but he was convinced. So we got on it, went north beyond where the restaurant was, went out east onto this island, returned to the beach...then the bus reached the end of the loop where the drivers get to take a break or change over. So we had to get off and wait for the bus to start over again, so I think it took about an hour to travel 1-2 kilometres. At least the place made a great burrito though.

Welcome to South Beach.

South Beach at night.