Weekend in Miami, Day 1

Miami is a 4 hour drive from Tampa. We were lazy and decided to drive Saturday morning instead of Friday night. The reason for the trip was a Juan Luis Guerra concert at the AmericanAirlines Arena. I reserved a hotel room at the Marriott in downtown Miami. This hotel is within walking distance to the arena and a short taxi ride from the club where we were planning to go after the concert. I really wanted to stay at the Viceroy again specially because they have the best pool that I've ever seen. However, spring break and the upcoming Sony Ericsson Open, Ultra Music Festival, and the Winter Music Conference had hotel room prices in Miami extremely high. 

We drove with another friend from Tampa. It is always nice to have as many people as possible in the car for the long ride. I felt that it was a shorter drive just because we didn't stop talking. We dropped her off at her sister’s place in Miami. We were going to meet them at the concert later that night. Andre and I headed to one of my favorite restaurants in Miami where he had never been. The Knife is an Argentinean style steak house that is also affordable. We payed $25.75 each for an all you can eat style meat grill (parrilla) and a great salad bar. The price includes one bottle of wine per person (or 2 beers) and one dessert from the menu. I started going to this place about 11 years ago and I still like it. The price varies from lunch to dinner and between weekends and weekdays. We didn’t order 2 bottles of wine because we still had to drive to our hotel. The one bottle that we had was really good. For dessert I ordered the dulce de leche crepe and Andre was too full for anything other than ice cream. Andre was so happy with his meal that he said he would consider moving to Miami just because of the knife. 

After our large lunch we headed to the Marriott in Biscayne Bay. We had a very nice room with partial bay view. We decided to walk towards the arena and start the night without worrying about our car. We met with our 2 friends inside and had an amazing time at the Juan Luis Guerra concert. You can read all about the concert here. 

The view from our room

Biscayne Bay from our room

Downtown Miami

After the concert, it was time to party Colombian style. There is a club that is originally from Cali that was so successful that they opened in 2 more cities in Colombia and one in Miami. I love this place, Kukaramakara, because you dance with a live band instead of a DJ all night long. We completely underestimated St. Patrick’s day. I really thought that nobody cared about this day in Miami. We were in the car for at least 1 hour because of traffic when normally that drive takes 10 minutes or less. Finding a parking spot was another challenge that night. We finally made it and we got a small table close to the stage. The 4 of us ordered a bottle of Aguardiente and danced the night away. 

Andre and I left at around 4:00 AM and took a taxi to the hotel. Considering that most clubs close at 5:00 AM, we left early. We were exhausted after a long day and were ready for bed. Kukaramakara was a lot of fun. I would love to go back on our next trip to Miami.