Feb 2018 a trip to the Dominica Republic and to Cuba.
30th Jan – Fly to LA then on to Miami. 2 night in Miami.
1st Feb fly to Sosua, Dominican Republic. 2 nights in town.
3rd Feb onto the boat – a SWIM WITH HUMPBACKS!!!!!
10th Feb off boat and fly to Charlotte, North Carolina. 1 night there.
11th Feb Fly to Havana, Cuba – ’cause its always fun to go the long way!
15th Feb – Hideous day. Fly Havana – Miami – Los Angeles – Brisbane – Canberra.
That will be fun!
Sosua, a small town on the north coast is the home town for the live aboard boat I am travelling on – Turks and Caicos Explorer II. “The Turks and Caicos Explorer II is the best platform for whale watching on the Silver Bank. It is 124 feet long with a 22-foot beam.”
There will be very little updating of this once the real fun starts. No internet on the boat and very little in Cuba, so it will be a flood of info each time I hit Miami or Charlotte.
Tuesday 31st Jan 2018
I arrived in Los Angeles at 7am after a lovely flight. Pretty good since I left Australia at 1 pm. So arrived well before I left. Few movies, bit of a sleep and a few meals. Then a few hours in LAX before heading off to Miami for the night.
My Uber from Fort Lauderdale to Miami quoted $48.68. I later got an email saying they had adjusted the fare – $36.93. Bonus. When I looked at the body of the email later I realised they had ADDED $36.93 to make it fare to the driver! When questioned the cost they said it was because I was in a luxury car with more then 4 passengers. When I disputed the fact as I had no friends it was quickly refunded. Dirty cheat!
And now I am in Miami. SLEEP!
Wednesday 31st Jan – Miami, Florida.
My hotel is in the lovely old Art Deco area of South Beach, Miami. South Beach or ‘SoBe’ was developed in the 1920-30’s on the barrier Islands. So lots of stunning building. Three stories high, smooth lines and geometric shapes. So nice. So I went for a wander around. More then two square kilometres was placed on the National Register of Historic Places after a number of the art deco places were torn down for development. The outsides cannot be altered.
Since it was established the size of the islands and grown with land reclamation.
In the 60’s to 80’s South Beach was used as cheap retirement communities for the elderly on small fixed incomes, and also became a major centre for the cocaine trade. Thus shows like Scarface and Miami Vice.
Today it is one of the wealthiest and most prosperous commercial areas. Very trendy.
I went touristing today. On the hop on hop off bus. But weird. It was not a HOHO bus at all. It was a tour. Which started with us all having to get off the bus and go and line up at the office to get our tickets for the boat ride.
Then off we went on our no stopping tour. Which of course stopped for 30 minutes in Little Havana, so we could all go into a certain shop and buy Mojitos – because “they had a special deal for as today with a 2 for 1 deal”. Or you could be a rebel and go wandering around. Such a cool area. Cigar rolling places and Cuban food. I had an ice cream, Cinnamon and Raisins. Yummo!
Then off to their stop for lunch. 60 minutes! “Only buy from this place as they know they have to hurry as you have the boat trip”.
And then the 90 minute boat ride. The harbour bulk handling part is massive. Heaps of ships were being loaded and unloaded.
Saw Royal Caribbeans head office. And so many dollars worth of boats. Well some were ships I guess. As big as the one I went to Antarctic on. Amazing.
The tour past the mansions was amazing. Jo Lo, Rhianna, Frank Sinatra, The Beckham, Ricky Martin and on and on. Some were so beautiful. Art Deco, super modern and in between.
The two standouts were the home of Mr Viagra -Dr Phillip someone. This place was about three blocks. One had a greenhouse that looked like a mansion and cost tens of millions to build. And perfect Palm Trees. Apparently he puts Viagra on them each night to keep them standing up so straight. Many of the neighbouring houses did have palm that were leaning over. haha
And Matt Damons house. He is awesome so that was good.
Some of the islands are not joined with bridges so car ferries run 24/7.
After the tour I went down to see the famous South Beach. Todays temperature only got to the very low 20’s, and there was a bit of a breeze so everyone was freezing. Jackets and scarves. I saw one person working in a balaclava and scarf. So the beach was empty. Only a few brave souls – tourists. Took me a minute to realise why there were so many shipping containers on the beach. Chair shops. No one sits on the sand. They all hire chairs and umbrellas.
I saw a water station. How good is that? Well not that good. You had to pay to get the water! Of course I bought water. 75cents.
Then back to the hotel.
Thursday 1st Feb – off to the Dominican Republic.
An Uber to the airport – who didn’t try to rip me off, and a fairly painless flight. Apart from being the most cramped flight I have ever been on. I paid for extra leg room. Silly me. I got an extra “3 inches” but it was a bulkhead and had a shelf to hold magazines and safety cards so lost 4 of those inches. Damn! Horrid.
But that’s life. I could see lots of chop on the ocean so hoping the wind dies off by Saturday! But Wow. The colour of the ocean and the number of islands was amazing.
So now for the Dominican Republic. WHALES!
Terrible internet here – so maybe no photos.
Click below.