Miami Beach

Can it be a coincidence that Heidi Montag's "Superficial" is on repeat play in the hostel here in Miami Beach?  Honestly, this place does not seem that bad.  I am staying in the Deco Walk Hostel, in the Art Deco section of Miami Beach.  Speaking from three hours of experience, the area seems defined by Ocean Drive, running north to south with a park and beach on one side and a series of art deco buildings lining the other.  Most if not all of these buildings are restaurants, hotels, or both.  My building is both.  Walking down the sidewalk, you pass through a sea of tables on either side of you, hostesses gleefully pointing you at menus, and any number of people walking through.  It has perhaps the most diverse mix of white, Latino, and black people I have ever seen.  A hip-hop troupe call "The Gingerbread Men" dropped by the table next to me to chat the folks up and promote their new album, "Bread Making 101."  White men walk by in polo shirts with sweaters tied around their chests.  Other sport baseball caps at jaunty angles.  A group of businessmen at dinner at the next table, chatting away in Spanish.  Now I'm back in the main room of the hostel, listening to "Superficial" for, seriously, the tenth time in a row.  It might be catchy if it weren't so awful.  To top it off three young women are milling about preparing to hit the clubs and Grumpier Old Men is playing on a large screen TV behind the bar where I bought a flat Yuengling for three dollars.

So back at sea level in warm humid air, everything is quite different than it was eleven hours ago when I was crossing Bogota in a cab, chatting away rather successfully with my driver.  I have had a few good Spanish experiences, not least listening to the folks at Un Techo Para Mi Pais talk away at full speed and pretty much understanding what they were saying.  Hopefully I will not lose it all over the next few weeks as I work on obtaining the needed visa.  Feel free to give me a call and talk to me in Spnaish -- I'll try to stammer out a response.

Tomorrow I'm going to check out the beach itself.  Unfortunately, my cell phone slipped out of my pocket at the hostel (they found it, thankfully!) so I'm still on Skype-only mode until I figure out what to do next.  That said my phone number forwards to Skype, so you'd hardly know the difference except that I only answer when I'm in a wifi zone.  In any event, perhaps I'll have more to report tomorrow, or perhaps nothing until I fly back into the cold of New York on Saturday.