Day 3 - Everglades Airboat and Downtown Miami, FL

Our hotel is right on the edge of Little Havana, Miami’s famed Cuban Neighbourhood. I read somewhere before we left that we couldn’t stay this close to a Little Havana without visiting a Ventanita for a proper Cuban coffee. A Ventanita is a takeaway window and there are hundreds of them in Little Havana including one in a laundromat! They are a great place to people watch as locals congregate around these; it’s not a place full of tourists. The closest one to us happened to be one that had a number of really good reviews online: it was the Versailles. We both had a Cortadito con Leche Evaporado (espresso with condensed milk) and then shared a mixture of breakfast pastries including Empanadas, Croquettes and these really nice deep fried fish balls. The food and coffee were amazing and it only cost $12!

Once breakfast was over, we headed off for our pre-booked airboat ride.

I did a lot of research online and chose to use Buffalo Tiger Airboat Tours. These tours are run by the Miccosukee Tribe, the local tribe in this part of the Everglades. Their tours are about educating people about the Everglades and sharing their ancestral home, unlike some of the other companies in the area who just want to pack in as many people as they can on to a boat. When we turned up, we were the only people but rather than making us wait, we set off on our own personal tour. Our guide Big Ernie was amazing, we learnt a lot about the wildlife, the Everglades and about the Miccosukee Tribe. He managed to spot a number of alligators for us and called them over for us to have a closer look, at one time even stroking one of them and showing us how powerful their jaws are. Hopefully the video we have made does some justice to showing you how amazing this experience was.

After the Everglades, we headed to Downtown Miami for a couple of hours. We parked in Bayside Marketplace after reading a recommendation online, it was only $5 for 2 hours between 11am and 3pm although we ended up spending $12 as we were 6 minutes over 2 hours and a couple of minutes after 3! Despite the parking charge, we had a fantastic time walking around the shops, bars and restaurants. We stopped for a Miami Vice, the first time we have managed to have this cocktail in Miami (half frozen Strawberry Daiquiri and half Pina Colada) and this one came with a large test tube of rum which I had to drink as Lee was driving (oh well!).

We also had a snack in Hooters, Lee's favourite restaurant in America - apparently it’s because of the (hot) 911 wings and not the (hot) girls!

And then took a trip on the free Metro Mover, on the Inner Loop which is a 10 minute journey around the Downtown area.

Despite all the traffic in Miami, we squeezed a lot in and even managed to make it back to the hotel in time for some chilling time by the pool, a game of giant chess (which Lee won!) and a couple of beers during the hotel's Happy Hour ($3 a pint!).

We finished the day with a short walk down the road to a restaurant called Cuban Cafe 2000. Luckily, we decided to order a starter first and then decide on what to eat. The starter was huge - the picture below shows you how much food there was and this was supposed to be for one person! Once we'd finally finished the starter, all we could do was waddle home and head to bed!