Hopefully I will soon find a place where I can connect my camera and post some photos.
It was 35 degrees in Miami and a high-paced WIFI world. I found myself at a profound disadvantage for lacking a laptop or other electronic device with which to get online.... the whole human world (at least in that part of the world) seems to have gone online.
To get to Miami, we travelled by Greyhound bus to Vancouver from Prince George (12 hour bus ride), stayed several days around the coast to visit family & friends, then caught an Amtrak train (great service & very affordable!) to Seattle. From Seattle we flew to Miami via Houston Texas. We took a day to hang out in Miami and enjoyed going to South Beach. We discovered there is excellent transit ($10 US return for 2 of us and that would have afforded us unlimited transit travel through Miami for the whole day). No charge for young (short) children...
The South Beach neighbourhood of Miami is famous for its rich & stylish inhabitants. We spotted one Ferrari & one Lamborghini while there. Some pretty ritzy clothes shops which we did not even dare enter. $4 ice cream cones. The white sand beach is incredible & stretches for miles. Some definite bikini & topless posers.
The majority of people in Miami speak Spanish. Although all the signs are in English, it really does feel like Latin America so it was a good warm-up to these travels further afield...
Caught our flight yesterday from Miami to Lima. As promised, the guy from the hostel was waiting for us with a sign with my name on it. I was happy to see him as navigating which is an actual taxi at the airport can be a bit challenging. My Spanish came in handy right away in communicating with Darwin from Pay Purix Hostel who was very pleasant.
For future travellers to Peru, the taxis within the confines of the airport are registered... the ones you sign up for furthest into secure area are the most expensive. The Peruvians tend to go out the main doors to hail registered taxis. The unregistered taxis (which can sometimes be robbing schemes) tend to linger outside the airport area. Our hostel contact hailed us a taxi which is under contract to this hostel and they claim, charges less than other taxis. The ride here was a bit wild with the aggressive darting in and out of traffic, but hey, that is travel in this part of the world!
We very much enjoyed the breakfast here this morning.... fresh baking, scrambled eggs, fresh buns & butter all served on actual china dishes... a great change from the throw-away plastic & styrofoam we had to endure in Miami. Wow!
We are hanging out at the very friendly & comfortable hostel until this afternoon when we will take a 45 minute taxi ride to the Cruz del Sur bus depot to catch a 15 hour (!) deluxe bus to the colonial volcano-surrounded city of Arequipa in southern Peru. We haven´t yet seen much of Peru... but...
I am very happy to be back in South America. . . !
Glad things are going well for you! Look forward to pictures as you go along . . .
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