Caribbean-Cuba RCCL (Day 7) Coconut Grove, Miami

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After one last day at sea, we disembarked our ship, and settled on dry land. After 3 weeks at sea, it was nice to have wide open spaces to wander. After the last cruise, we stayed a couple of nights in Miami. Airfares being what they are, we saved enough to pay for the hotel if we flew out a couple of days later. So we did. We didn't have sunniest of days to explore Coconut Grove, but at least it didn't rain (until later).

We took the metro from our hotel by the airport to close to the water. Still had a bit of walking to do to get there, but it wasn't too bad.

Downtown Miami in the distance. (Or maybe it was the hotels of South Beach?)



Wandering along the waterfront.



This guy was taking advantage of the (slowing submerging) dock.



This guy was getting used to the water jet pack. It looked a lot more difficult than the videos you see trying to sell you a rental. He went down hard a lot more times than he got airborne.



The original Miami City Hall.



From the waterfront, we made our way up to Coconut Grove. Mostly the places to see were within a few blocks, the rest of the neighbourhood was just residential buildings.



Lawn sculpture out front of an apartment building.



An office (or maybe a parking lot?) with a Gaudi-like façade added some character to the area.



Interesting old-looking building (it's a restaurant) - but it's actually a new build.

It was overcast the whole day, and later that night we had heavy rain. This weather system also brought a rare tornado to Havana, Cuba. "A tornado and pounding rains smashed into the eastern part of Cuba‘s capital overnight, toppling trees, bending power poles and flinging shards of metal roofing through the air as the storm cut a path of destruction across eastern Havana. Power was cut to many areas and at least three people were killed and 172 injured." We felt very lucky that we were able to experience Havana and Cuba before the storm hit.

This brought to an end our Cuba cruise on Royal Carribean's Empress of the Seas, and also brought an end this "trio of cruises" trip. We really enjoyed the time we spent in Cuba and would recommend the cruise to anyone. Unfortunately since then, the US Government has again prohibited cruising to Cuba from an American port, greatly curtailing the options for cruise travel to the island. Hopefully one day soon this will again be permitted.

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