Adventures in the North...er, South.

Our tiny craft docked on a Sunday afternoon.

My adventures had brought me over 2500 miles northward, to the Deep South.  Actually, I’m a few hundred miles south of that still yet, in Miami.  One of the things I used to find most annoying – the fact that everyone here speaks Spanish – is now strangely comforting.  From my 17^th floor corner room at the Hilton Downtown, I see city lights all the way to the horizon.  In that way, it is very much like Lima.

What strikes me as different is the smell of the United States.  All countries smell different, but I had always thought that the American odor was simply the lack of other olfactory input.  Iraq always smelled like misdirected sewage and smoldering plastic.  Kuwait left my nostrils with a hot sandy smell mixed with diesel fumes, with only hints of misdirected sewage and burning plastic.

Germany, however, had been pleasantly different.  During my time there, I stayed on the third floor of a tiny hilltop inn, which enjoyed proximity to a large brewery in the valley.  I woke each morning to drifting hops and barley grains toasted a bit too long.

Miami was definitely none of the above.  The air was a little saline, and the air was light but not quite fresh, probably due to the combustion of all that $4 gasoline.  Not an artificial odor, but the hint of something not quite real.  Like the smell of morning dew as it rests on sweat-covered Astroturf.

I am compelled to wear shoes on this trip, since it’s work related, but I am steadfast in my belief that shoes are evil, more evil than Congress and Wall Street combined.  Bad analogy, since that may have already happened.

In one of the more effective uses of taxpayer dollars, officials from all over the western hemisphere were brought together here to discuss and share information about international adoptions.  A well-meaning but fairly complex set of laws governs this practice, and it must merge with equally complex yet not always as well-meaning sets of laws from other countries.  This is further complicated by a treaty, with which levels of compliance vary.

For travelers, it seems like there are things to do here, but I didn’t have a chance to do any of them.  I will, however, share some insight gained my simply existing here for 5 days:

The Hilton Miami Downtown is an overpriced road motel with terrible service and less than spotless rooms.  While I would love to write awful things about my experience there, I can’t do so without turning green and tearing my shirt off.  I stayed in the JW Marriott on my previous trip, and there is no comparison.

I did, however, get a chance to enjoy a splinter of Miami’s restaurant scene.  The quality of middle-class restaurants there was a surprisingly bright point of light in the trip.  I will share the specifics later, when I review such places as The Knife, City Hall, and Largo’s, all located in the heart of downtown Miami.

Happiness assaulted me as I took in my first deep breath of Lima’s air.  It’s drier, heavier, and a little earthy, but without the artificial quality.  It smells like…Peru.