Wednesday 22nd December, New Orleans - Miami, Florida
A quiet, dark motel room made it easy to sleep late - we were in no hurry and had a late checkout . We found a cafe not too far away for lunch and caught the motel shuttle bus to the airport. We watched one of our locked bags go through security and left for the departure lounge - later we picked up the other 2 bags minus their locks which had been cut in the name of security. We left just in time with the rain pouring down and freezing temperatures preditcted for New Orleans at Christmas. At the other end in Miami it was very warm and muggy as we caught one more motel shuttle to nearby. Already we've heard much more Spanish than English spoken and to prove where we are there was loud salsa music blasting out at the restaurant downstairs.

Thursday 23rd December, Miami
We caught the bus into town to go and find some accomodation in South Beach for the festive season. The bus journey was a nightmare - it took an age. We went from sticky, warm air outside to an icebox inside the bus - not that the driver in his cocoon was any the wiser. When we changed buses we crossed the the road where the bus-stop sign was - half an hour later and no bus and an old lady told us we should be standing where we got off - there was no bus-stop sign there of course! As we looked at the hotels on South Beach we discovered that cheap-looking hotels were expensive and expensive-looking ones were cheaper than we'd thought . We finally settled on one with plenty of spare rooms and will go back there tomorrow. It's the first day we've worn shorts since we left Brazil and funnily enough our taxi driver, who had no fear of death, was from Brazil too. Miami does not feel like other parts of the US at all - definitely more Carribean and Central American in feel.

Friday 24th December, South Beach, Miami
We caught a taxi from the airport motel to South Beach and the Carlton Hotel, our chosen place from yesterday. It was time to do some Christmas shopping (of sorts) so we went searching. The great thing about South Beach and Christmas Eve is that you pretty much have the shop to yourself - no hoardes of fellow shoppers to compete with. Derek got himself a snazzy shirt and a haircut in a Carribean barber shop whilst Sue bought herself some classy shoes and a glamourous dress. To mkae use of these items we booked ourselves a Christmas dinner in an upmarket restaurant. We bought some alcohol for the big day too . We kept reminding ourselves that it was Christmas Eve but when you're walking about in shirt sleeves at 10 at night it doesn't quite feel right. We spent Christmas Eve in a tasty French Creperie with some laid back music to send us home to a peaceful sleep.

Saturday 25th December, South Beach, Miami
The longer we stay in our hotel 2 blocks from the beach the more we like it. We managed to wake by 10am and were soon drinking champagne and eating strawberries. We phoned Derek's folks at home (Sue's were away in Austria) for a nice long festive chat. Even more strange when we found out there was snow on the ground there too! The 'Disneyland Parade' from Orlando was on TV with Kermit and Miss Piggy and we watched a movie called 'Catch Me If You Can' with Tom Hanks and Leonardo Di Caprio which was quite good. We threw on our gladrags and walked down the road for a festive meal in 'TV Chef' Emeril's restaurant and very nice it was too. Despite it being Christmas day, we saw people with shopping bags and thought 'hmmm ...'. We finished our day watching 'It's A Wonderful Life' on TV

Sunday 26th December, South Beach, Miami
A much cooler day today once we ventured outside. It was eerie seeing the TV telling of the destruction by the Tsunami in SE Asia in places like Phuket and Ko Phi Phi where we were, albeit briefly, 8 months ago. We had no plan but we were soon walking down Lincoln Road shopping for shoes and laptops computers. Despite the best intentions and efforts of the salespeople, we didn't quite find anything we were looking for. We had a walk along the beach front and a drink in a bar. We finished our Christmas supply of booze and ate in a Cuban restaurant called 'Puerto Sagua'.

Monday 27th December, South Beach, Miami
We decided to leave for Orlando tomorrow so we set about getting a car deal sorted out. The best deal we managed to get was via the internet so we booked that. Suddenly we were thinking about leaving the US next week so we decided to go the whole hog and change our OneWorld flights and book a great sounding hotel we read about in the library. Suddenly the end of our trip is very near - only 3.5 weeks to go! Unless of course we decide to stay in the Carribean a little longer. The day was the windiest we've encountered all year and fallen coconuts sometimes made us glance upwards just in case! We went for another walk past the expensive boats and apartments of the Miami Marina and wound up in 'Johnny Rockets' diner for tea (Irish folk may like to know that Johnny seems very closely related to Eddie in Dublin who's in the same diner trade).