We are here in Miami with the whole day to kill, so what to do? Maybe a trip over to the much discussed South Beach area? A quick search on the iPhone shows it's not so far -- about 17 miles -- and not so impossible to get to with a taxi. The concierge shows us a hop-on-hop-off bus tour that looks like a good way to do it, so we buy it from him. Well, part of it. He charges $15 per person and then we'll pay more at the tour office in South Beach.
Our guides on the tour bus seem inordinately fascinated by the rich and famous people who live or lived in Miami. There are several islands out in the bay that seem to be enclaves of such people. Our bus drives out the MacArthur Causeway across Biscayne Bay, and we're introduced to Palm Island and Star Island and their residents.
But the real treat is South Beach, or SoBe as the natives put it. This was one of the first areas of Miami to be developed for tourism and snowbirds. But after a roaring beginning in the 1910's and 1920's, it became by the 1980's a haven for criminals, Cubans and little old ladies. Before the days of Miami Vice, South Beach was considered a very poor area with a very high rate of crime. Then the beautiful people moved in. Fortunately that also rescued the art deco, streamline moderne, and nautical moderne architecture for which South Beach is famed.
After the South Beach tour, we thought we might save time and distance by taking the city tour bus back in the direction of our hotel. Bad idea! We got caught up in pre-holiday traffic jams that seemed to never end, and our bus crept along. There were no taxis in sight. We needed to return to our hotel, pack our bags, and get to the airport in good time to catch our evening flight to Buenos Aires.
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