The first strange thing of my trip; randomly bumping into a McGill friend Benny Unsworth in the Dallas airport where he had been grounded all day and re-routed thrice. We quickly caught up, shared a chuckle and boarded the plane to Miami. Upon landing, we went our separate ways.

I arrived in Miami only to fail miserably with an attempt to take public transit. At a metro-rail station I soon noticed that I was in a scummy area of Miami, it was dark, time check: 10pm. There was no sign of a train or rail car, and I was fed up acknowledging the crack head bum who kept staring at me, prancing around, and shooting me with his harmonica from behind the pillars.

When Crackerjack's bum buddy joined him, I escaped down the stairs, pack on back, to the roadway underneath the raised tracks. Right about this time I was thinking to myself, "Do I need to carry a bigger sign that says I am a confused tourist with a pocket full of fresh greenbacks?"

Good thing there was one cop, no, now two, oh, add another for three cop cars racing around the area. I didn't know if I was safe with so many agents of social control hovering around me or if I should be concerned with the crime in the area. The smashed up street signs were my next clue.

Thankfully one of the bars on the corner was open. I negotiated in Spanish to get a taxi and shared a cerveza with the 5 locals at the scummy bar. The very nice people wished me well and I was off to South Beach Hostel in 15 minutes (and $40 USD later).

South Beach hostel is 3 blocks to the beach, has a bar open until 4:30 and is really "hostelly". Squeaky beds, loud AC unit, cramped rooms, young kids on drugs, need I say more? I am slowly going to get used to living outside my comfort zone.

Hopefully tomorrow is sunny; I have some time before my flight to Quito, Ecuador.