Well, so much has happened since I last connected. We are now in Miami staying in South Beach. This s happening place! So far, we have experienced “Art Deco” weekend, had a very large Mojito and visited Mt. Sinai hospital…in that order.
Our last stop on the cruise was in Cartegena, Columbia, which we all enjoyed. Even though it is known for its association with Columbian drug lords, it was very enjoyable. And, we discovered, one doesn’t need to participate in the drug part in order to have a good time. Imagine that! We shared a taxi into the old part of town with some of Gene’s buddies from exercise class.
The town is very European looking with lots of Spanish influence. There were small winding, cobbled streets that were great for walking. They were lined with shops…..Mike’s favorite….walking and shopping.. (We did manage to get him off the ship for a quick look.)
Mike and I lost the rest of the group early on as we were engrossed in looking at Columbian emeralds, apparently one of the main products of Columbia. Who knew?! There were emeralds everywhere…and, there were also people selling random things on the street. Mike made the mistake of stopping to view some sunglasses that one of the street vendors was selling. I need to hire this guy for a sales position! His persistence was admirable! He followed Mike all over town with his wares trying to get him to buy the glasses. The vendor started his negotiation at about $35.00. At the end of our time in town, he was down to $7.00. I offered $5.00 and was turned down. Vendor loses. Too bad!
The last days of the cruise were sea days, which we all enjoyed. Again, lots of sleeping and eating. But, we were glad to get to solid ground. We got off the ship in Fort Lauderdale, but were going to Miami and, of course, we didn’t have prearranged transportation. Using my new negotiation skills, I was able to get us a van ride to Miami for $20.00 per person. Not bad, considering it was a 30 minute drive.
We are staying at the Beacon Hotel in the south beach area of Miami and are right on the beach. Neat! What a cool hotel! It is done in the style of art deco, which is the case with all of the hotels in this section of Miami beach. Lots of neon is used to illuminate the hotels at night, which is really impressive and very retro looking. The street is lined with hotels and fun restaurants, and we can walk out of our hotel and step right into a place to eat or drink whenever we want to. We love this!
We happened to luck into staying here during a fun Art Deco festival. There were vendors set up right along our street. You can find anything here from Jewelry to furniture. There was also a parade of classic cars, which was of particular interest to Mike.
On our first night, we were right in the swing of things and decided we would have a drink at one of the fun bars. We happened into a place that was run by someone calling himself Chef Boyaredee. You may remember the name from the canned spaghetti and other Italian delicacies that are found on supermarket shelves everywhere. This should have been our first sign. He talked Gene, Mike and I into each having a giant mango Mojito, Apparently, the “chef” grows the mangoes right in his own back yard. Who could turn this down!? The drink was the size of the Atlantic Ocean. It had to be the equivalent of 6 alcoholic drinks. WOW!
Now, you would think that we would recognize the down side to finishing the Mojito and quit drinking before a real problem could occur. But, in our zest to minimize waste, we managed to down all 3 of those drinks. Gene and Mike had the lion’s share. After we paid our million dollar bill, we made our way back to the hotel and went to bed.
About 2:00 am, Mike woke up with a malady. I would give you some details on this, but I gave my word that I would not go into detail. We were up all night researching home remedies for this issue on the internet with no success. At 8:30, I insisted that we make a trip to the Miami emergency room. This, of course, met with much resistance. I don’t understand why men have such an issue taking care of health problems. Silly!!
But, finally, I convinced Mike that we needed to go. So, I went to the front desk to get help with a taxi to take us to the hospital. On my way back to the room, I met Gene’s daughter in the hallway. She had been out running. She looked at me and said, “I think Gene’s in the hospital. I have a note.” We discovered after some discussion that both of the boys were having the same problem. So, the 3 of us piled into the taxi and made the trek to the hospital to check on Gene and get help for Mike. What a morning!
I’m glad to say that the men are doing fine. Gene took the biggest hit. Let’s just say that he will be taking a souvenir of the hospital home with him on Tuesday and is moving a bit slow. We have all vowed not to have copious amounts of alcohol again. It’s just not worth it.
After our hospital ordeal, we realized it was going to be a drizzly day in Miami…no beach time. So, Carrie and I treated ourselves to a fun movie. We figured we deserved a treat for our hard work and support of the troops. We saw Argo, which I highly recommend….very well done.
We do love Miami, though. Today, we were able to get on the beach and it is absolutely pristine and gorgeous. Carrie spent some quality time there today with the sun and was very happy with this. We have also found some very interesting food. We had Cuban food last night at a place called Puerta Sagua and South American food today at a restaurant called Bolivar. We went twice, it was so good. YUM!
Tomorrow I will leave for Paris. Mike, Gene and Carrie will leave on Tuesday. We will fondly remember our time here in Miami, hospital and all.
Travel With Betsy 
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