Depress.

That's depressurisation, not depression :-)

Villa Paradiso hotel in South Miami Beach, Florida, is aptly named - feeling pretty damn good right about now. Currently we're sitting in a lovely courtyard space next to the hotel in the cool of the night. The room is a self-catering apartment with excellent: air-con, bed, wi-fi, size, cleanliness and location. On that last point, we're on Collins Avenue just north of 14th Street (on the classic US layout of N-S Avenues and E-W Streets). Ocean Drive (N-S) and the long, deep beach are a block east of us, with so many restaurants plying for trade all day long. There's a cluster of shops a block north along Espanola Way (E-W), providing tonight's meal of pizza and beer "to go" (to this courtyard).

We went out to eat (well) last night on Ocean Drive, and walked around through much of today, catching some of the hotter-than-expected sun, particularly whilst strolling in the surf. I thought I should get a better camera for the sights the next months will bring, and chose a Sony WX9 for $200, available at Staples. Froogle said Best Buy had more stock (shout out for Gerald), and they had it on sale for $150! Checking UK prices, it looks like "£-$ parity" is alive and well.

We broke the rules (of timezone-crossing) by having a big "siesta" at the end of our walk, from around 4pm (9pm UK) to 9pm (2am). Oops. Then we woke and had the quite large meal. I'll update to say whether we managed to sleep afterward. [Update: We did manage to sleep through the U.S. night too - gosh, we must have been tired before we left!]

Most of South Beach was built in the Art Deco style in the first half of last century, and there are many great examples all around. Miami Beach is a separate city from Miami, which I didn't know.

It's looking like a good decision to start the trip here, which we only did because we had to change planes here on the way to Belize, and I thought: "if we have to get off there, we might as well see the place." In fact, this is a great place to put the brakes on after the turmoil of everything running up to the trip. It's American seaside - SO different from English seaside - so it's relaxing anyway. Also it's America, not the moon, so we don't feel the compulsion to go and "experience" everything.

One thing has impressed me above all. The people are SO helpful. Most respect goes to the lady bus driver on the "J" bus from MIA airport to Miami Beach. We told her where we needed to go and she actually waved down her colleague on the 120 bus, then helped to carry Clare's bag to the other bus and explained to the driver where we needed to be dropped. Imagine THAT in London!!!!