Started my holiday at 2.30am on a bus to the airport. Something must have gone wrong with the planning because I arrived at the airport at 4am, for a 8am flight, in an airport where security takes approximately 3 minutes. I made myself comfy on the concrete floor, had a nap, and by the time I had woken up it was nearly boarding time! After a cheeky connection in Aruba and a spicy chicken sandwich, we were touching down in MIA... and I was properly back in civilisation! It happened to be raining at the time, which panicked me slightly but I put on a brave face, took a bus to the hostel and settled into the city for a few hours waiting for Sando to arrive....Which he finally did... at half past midnight! Meaning I had been up almost 24 hours... we still managed to go to the seafront and grab a beer though... I mean, I'm in Miami! The days sort of all blur into one with a delightful mixture of beach, food, more beach, nap, Party!, nap, beach, PArty! Party! NAP. Just what I wanted after three months in the amazon. The first two nights we went out with the hostel (apparently THE way to gurantee being let in, lets just say, Miami bouncers are slightly stricter, than, say, the willow. I wish I could remember the first one, although I'm sure it was great. Sando gave up on the second after queuing for over an hour, but I persevered, made some friends in the queue, snuck in through a fire door whilst they were letting people in after a fire alarm, and partied away at Nikki Beach.
The next day was New Years Eve! We were lucky enough to meet some really cool people in our dorm that spoke french (Sando was loving that, not- at least there was a token German as well) Better still, they had a car and together we checked out downtown Miami, including a variety of not very interesting sight-seeing spots, lots of VERY tall buildings, riding around and getting lost on the worlds SEEMINGLY most simple metro system. Oh yes, and an ill-fated walk to Little Havana, which ended up in us giving up after walking 2 blocks and sitting in Wendys for 2 hours eating burger after burger. We did get to Little Havana eventually, in the car (much more suitable) but sadly it wasn't very exciting. It seemed to be just a run down high street with signs in Spanish (whoop ?) We collectitvely decided our time would be much better spent napping in prep for another big night.Most club tickets were going for at least 200USD! and even the hostel offering was 100! Hmm, I don't think so. Fireworks on the beach sounded like a perfectly good free option to me. It definitely turned out to be the best idea. After a brief incident where I lost Sando at 5 to Midnight, we found eachother, watched the fireworks and tried out the water (COLD!- or boiling, if its Sando you talk to. He has obviously not been living in the caribbean for 3 months. Next stop Ocean Drive. The strip was PACKED with people, families, partiers, drag queens, the lot! Perf for a bit of street Salsa dancing. (I taught James, according to him, he is awesome, ask for a demonstration :p) Bought a cheeky 11 dollar slushie-- it did have alcohol in it, don't worry I haven't gone completely crazy, and continued dancing down the street until we danced our way into a bar/club thing on the beach for free! Well, free for me, and it would have been for James, if he hadn't decided to shimmy into some guy and knock his beer over. He offered to buy a new one... bit awkward when it turns out a budweiser costs 12 dollars! Luckily he didn't let that deter him from the crazy dancing.
Don't know whose idea it was for a 5am swim, but it definitely wasn't mine. I did get involved though. My shoulders just about went under for a second before I decided that this was ridiculously cold compared to the bath-like temperatures I am used to here in Guyane. I really enjoyed waking up hungover AND soaking wet- what a start to 2013. 1st January could have been great, if James hadn't decided he was hatinglife2k13. I mean seriously, it was like he had never stayed out late and drank before. "Polly, I mean, I don't know whats wrong with me, I just feel so tired and moody." Hello! welcome to the world! Its hard to decide between my two fav quotes of the day, the first being "Polly, I think its best if we just walk home in silence, because anything I say is just not going to be very nice..." Closely followed by, "Polly, what is the definition of morose? "Me: its what you are being right now... " James: "Yeh, I thought so. He managed to pull himself together enough to catch a midnight showing of Les Mis at the cinema (we did sneak a nap first, however it was still touch and go whether he would make it past the trailers awake or not :S) We both liked the film, but the general consensus was that it was too long- whether this is because it was actually too long, or whether its because it was 3am New years day and we had slept 4 hours and drunk lots, we are undecided.Another beach day- tanning for me, suncreaming for James, why he only brought factor 15 with skin the colour of his I do not know! The water was actually fairly nice in the day! And, it gave us a chance to check out the planes constantly flying overhead with signs telling you where to go out that night. I didn't want to risk another day of Morose-James so we took a night off for a change, after going out with one of the other assistants, also on holiday in Miami for dinner and drinks.
Only an hour on the beach the next day as we headed to the everglades for the afternoon. The 'gators were cool, but the most amusing part was the southern accent of the tourguide and watching as the chinese tourists' hats flew off into the swamp despite being warned to take them off. Ha! The air boat ride was fun, and the whole everglade situation is fairly weird, like a masssssssivvvvvve shallow river/pond covered with grass and man made gaps for the boats to get through. I feel at least we saw some (:S) nature in the week. After a night off, there were no excuses for missing another so, after an hour or so chilling in the jacuzzi at the hostel (I know, right?!) we got ourselves ready headed off in the hostels party bus to the club, got some free drinks and then snuck off to find something better. Don't know how we pulled it off, but we ended up being led into a lift by some guy, sent up to the top floor, where, the doors opened and we found a dj rocking up the balcony- overlooking south beach! Not at all bad. Vodka was 15 dollars, so we snuck to a shack on the street and then came back, but all in all good music, good views, good fun!
Lets just say the flight was not too fun. I feel asleep before take off and then was rudely awoken by a women with a baby who was apparently in the seat next to me :S Even the cheese sandwich was terrible. Sort it out Caribbean Airways! Finally rocked up back in Paramaribo at 2am, slept in a hostel there the night before getting back to SLM (st. Laurent du Maroni- for us cool locals lol) 5 weeks to go til the Caribbean.... 24 days of teaching- not that Im counting! Hope everyone is loving life 2k13 :D
Adios xxx
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