Monday 13 April 1981 - Miami - Rio
We didn't get away as early as
planned this morning, finally leaving at about 08.30. We got onto the Florida
Turnpike, which is a very good road, and carried on down that until about 20
miles from Miami.
Although the speed limit is 55 mph, no-one seems to adhere to it and we did the
220 mile journey in four and a half hours, including a breakfast break of about
one hour near Fort Pierce.
It was a damn good meal and at last I got to eat some hominy grits, which
turned out to be like sadza or boere pap, depending on your ethnic origins! (I had always wondered what hominy grits
was. I knew from my books that it was some kind of food – seemingly eaten
mainly in the South but in those pre-Wikipedia days couldn’t find out what it
was – simply ground maize - which is what the sadza and boere pap I refer to is - or the polenta I discovered later in life.)
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| Matt and me at Parrot Jungle |
We moved off the turnpike short of Miami, just to see a bit
of the surrounding residential area, which was rather grim - small jerry built
houses on minute plots. Heading for Parrot Jungle on the south side of the city
we found it without too much difficulty, although the signposting left much to
be desired. After wandering around the luxuriant grounds, we went to watch the
show, which was highly amusing and entertaining. It was quite incredible what
they could get the birds to do, including skating on a minute pair of roller
skates and pushing a scooter! Rab and I had a good laugh at the "Flamingo
Parade" which followed. It was like something out of Monty Python, with
the trainer chasing the poor birds all over the park!
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| Rab tempts the birds |
Rab was determined to go from Parrot
Jungle to a shopping centre via the beachfront, despite the fact that we did
not have an adequate map. (No GPS
available at that time.) We had a bit of a hair-raising trip, losing our
way several times, but at least Rab saw a bit of the more posh parts. Heading
for the airport and our flight to Rio
de Janeiro, we hit the evening rush hour, which
delayed us a bit, and we were a bit worried that we might have lost our way on
a five lane highway, packed with traffic, when all the signs saying
"Airport" were replaced by others which did not mention the place. We
won through in the end and were in good time to check in. I was a bit worried
about this, because when I phoned to confirm the bookings, I was told that they
had been cancelled.
Fortunately, the plane was far from
full to Belem, where we landed at about 03.00 Miami time (02.00 local time) and after Belem, practically empty. We had a very good
flight, taking off from Miami at about 20.15 and
touching down in Rio at about 08.15 local time - two hours ahead of Miami. Because we were
early we had managed to get seats on the emergency aisle, but with the plane so
empty, Rab and Matt were able to lie down on a spare 4 seats, while I slept for
an hour and a half on the floor until some clot kicked me on the head. I had to
sleep on the floor because the arms of our seats were fixed. Actually it was
damn hard, but I was so tired that I
slept like a log.
We flew Varig (on an Airbus for the first time) and the
service was excellent. Free magazines and earphones, a small toothbrush and
toothpaste/comb set hand out, good food, free drinks and wine. It may have been
because the flight was not full, but I am holding thumbs for our flight back to
Johannesburg.
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