Miami / South Beach

My stay in Florida continued to Miami, about a short drive of one hour from Fort Lauderdale, where the QE anchored with 6 other huge American cruise ships in Port Everglades.

Miami is also called the subtropical New York, which I can confirm, because it seemed almost like a miniature version of N.Y. with many skyscrapers, a financial district and lots of traffic, a large port facility and a large container terminal. You don't see the image of Miami from the nineties through the series 'Miami Vice' at first glance.

You only come across that in South Beach on Ocean Drive, where the quarter of old Art Deco houses from the 30s stands. I had imagined the houses even more intensely in colors, but of course that was because of the time of day. In the strong sunlight and without the neon lighting that intensifies the colors in the evening, the facades predominantly appeared bright, but beautiful in their design with straight lines, round ends, no corners and straight balconies. Some houses are built in the Nautical Deco style, i.e. modeled after ships, hence porthole windows, beautiful decorations, such as the so-called 'eyebrows' above the windows. Of course, there are many cafes and small restaurants, close together. In the evening, it is said to be a very flashy, colorful district with many eccentric characters, but they were probably all still sleeping at that early morning hour. On Ocean Drive, I also saw the very magnificent former Versace Villa, in front of which Versace was also shot. However, the family has since sold the property.

Otherwise, a lot is being built in the luxury segment, just like in New York, but not like before, because people want a winter residence or a second home, but because now particularly many South Americans and other foreigners want to invest their money and also evade taxes in their own country. They buy in cash, from a purchase price of 3 million dollars there is probably a law that the buyer's name is then registered separately, but not disclosed. So to speak a small initiative against money laundering, but it is mostly paid in cash and so the money flows. A frightening development worldwide.

In the second part of my trip, I took a boat tour to the Fisher Islands, which are artificially created offshore islands, some of which have no access to the mainland of Miami, so that you can only get there by helicopter or your own boat. Correspondingly good for famous and wealthy people. The islands have beautiful names, such as Hibiscus Island. Those with the names San Marco Island or Dodge Island are modeled after Venice and connected to each other by bridges. They are really fantastically built. Among the multitude of names mentioned as owners, many were well-known names. One of the largest villas belongs to the man who invented Viagra! But also the founder of Instagram, Jackie Shan, Tom Cruise, Elizabeth Taylor in her lifetime, Naomi Campbell's Russian ex, and many American basketball players or coaches and athletes have built a house here. Truly beautiful estates. My photo series looks like I'm going to open a real estate office. Choose your favorite house! I have put together a small selection.

In the meantime, we have left the USA again, driving through the Caribbean past Cuba to the south to Curaçao, which I am really looking forward to and therefore very excited. It is getting warmer and the humidity is increasing significantly. So far it's around 26 degrees, which is actually very pleasant. When I hear about your cold temperatures, I would gladly give you a few degrees.

See you soon from Curaçao!

Best regards, Eva

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