One Camera Lighter

Miami Beach, Florida

I'm coming to you "live" from the Clay Hotel here in post-Hurricane Wilma Miami Beach. Palm fronds everywhere, broken glass; some homes and businesses still seem to be without hot water or electricity. Oh, and there's a boil water advisory as well as a curfew (8 p.m. to 6 a.m.) -- yikes!

Overall, South America was an enjoyable experience. With a glitch or two.

Buenos Aires was ultimately more dangerous than Rio de Janeiro: I was about to snap a photo of the Palacio del Congreso when a kid of about twenty -- blonde, fairly well-dressed -- grabbed my digital camera from my hands and started running. Like a dummy, I started to run after him; I managed a face-plant, leaving approximately 10% of the skin of the palm of my left hand somewhere on the pavement of the plaza. He hopped aboard an accomplice's bicycle after about a block, while I was left pondering the entire incident and discovering the bad scrape on my hand.

Aside from that small disaster (I had a second camera which had some other Buenos Aires photos), Buenos Aires was . . . okay. Too crowded and polluted (ugh -- the diesel bus fumes alone are appalling) and, in some areas, in decay (the sidewalk pavements are almost uniformly cracked or pot-holed).

The Claridge Hotel was a definite refuge from the hassles of everyday living in Buenos Aires.

Now, Rio de Janeiro was fantastic. The weather was mostly fine, I got to have a few meals and other quality time with friends Sharon and Gary (whom I met on my Egyptian trip in March) and Sharon's sister Judy. Rio was where I was told to be watchful of thieves, etc., but ultimately I felt perfectly safe there -- and even though Rio has an enormous population and lots of traffic, the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean keeps the air fresh in most neighborhoods.

Anyway, I'm about to run out of time on the hotel's Internet connection. I'll post some more day-by-day accounts of the trip once I return home this weekend.