One Year Away

Joseph

No, Florida isn’t part of our Trip, but Penny’s on assignment in Miami for a few weeks so I found a cheap
flight down and joined her.  I had a fun time relaxing by the

beach or pool and
wandering around Miami while she worked.  On the weekend we went to
visit my brother in Tampa and had a really great time there. 

Our hotel in Miami was new and luxurious.  Unfortunately, it was right in the financial district  and there was little around us except banks and condo construction sites.  Miami seems to be
building condos on every available plot of land.  I’ve never seen so many cranes in one city.

Combine that with repairs underway to almost every building to repair hurricane damage from last year and it feels like the whole city is a construction zone.

Early evening, last week –

Hotel Doorman #1: "You want to go where?"
Joseph: "Little Havana.  Is it walking distance from here?"
Hotel Doorman #2: "Sorry for asking, but why do you want to go there?"
Penny:  "We want to go for dinner to a Cuban restaurant."
Hotel Doorman #1:  "You want to go now?"  [Looking outside.  It’s getting dark.]
Hotel Doorman #2:  "I wouldn’t go there, and I’m Cuban."

That exchange scared us off from visiting Little Havana for a couple of days.  But when news of Fidel Castro getting sick got out it seemed like the whole area started to party and we decided to go anyways. 

Watching the coverage on Miami TV it looked looked like the whole neighborhood was one massive street party.  When we got there we found that it was actually only one block of carefully orchestrated "celebrations" that were taking place mostly for the benefit of the news reporters stationed there. 

Watch the video below and you see the crowd cross the street so they can act as a backdrop for the reporters on the south side of Calle Ocho.

http://www.jumpcut.com/media/flash/jump.swf

Despite the warnings from the hotel doorman, Little Havana was fine; we ate a nice traditional Cuban meal, cheered along with the Cubans and later felt a little guilty for cheering a person’s ill health.