Calle Ocho

Today we took a food walking tour of the Little Havana Neighborhood in Miami, along Calle Ocho or Eighth Street. Calle Ocho is a section of the Tamiami Trail, a road that we have seen a lot of because it runs from Tampa to Miami. Our tour covered the Cuban American experience through food. Our guide, Hoji, is an immigrant from Cuba. The story of the Cuban immigrant journey reminded us a lot of the immigrant journey through New York's Lower East Side in the late 19th century: immigrants started in the Lower East Side and upgraded to other neighborhoods as they settled into American life.

We started the tour at Domino Park, where people (mostly men) gathered to play dominoes or checkers or chess. According to the official rules of the park, you must be 55 to play. Sadly we qualify on that account, though you also must be a resident of Dade county, which disqualifies us.

We saw street art throughout Little Havana. They had a lot of sculptures of roosters, which our guide said was symbolic of the Cuban community.

But this was a food tour. So we got to eat! Our first stop was for empanadas and Cuban coffee. This was Amy’s favorite stop. The empanadas were beef with sofrito and had two salsas, a red spicy salsa and a creamy cilantro salsa. The coffee was the best coffee that she’s had on this trip. Even Greg, who isn’t a coffee drinker, enjoyed it. The key was lots of sugar!

Our next food stop was for a cubano sandwich and mojito. Since we weren’t eating the pork, we had a replacement of a vegetarian dish: a fried plantain turned into a cup, which was filled with vegetables. This was the most disappointing dish, but the folks with the Cubano loved their meal. Amy had a mocktail, which was a bit more balanced than the mojito. At this stop there was a live band playing some live Cuban music, including several songs we heard in Buena Vista Social Club on Broadway. It was too loud for us to talk but the music was fun. The trumpeter came by our tables to serenade us.

The next course was dessert, and we had three stops. The first was at a bakery that served pastelitos de guava, a puff pastry with a guava filling. This was Greg’s favorite stop, and Hoji’s too. All of their pastries looked delicious.

Our second dessert stop was a fruit stand that made a cane sugar drink. It was so good that Greg snagged a second.

Our final food stop was for churros. They were fried to order, then dusted with cinnamon and sugar. A sweet end to our food tour!

Last, we walked to a clothing store, which had a collection of 1950s American cars in the back, reminiscent of Cuba.

After so much good food, we needed to walk off our lunch! We drove to Rickenbacker Causeway for a long walk with a beautiful ocean view.

Since several people have reached out to us regarding the current situation in Mexico, we wanted to let everyone know that the Caravanes de Mexico caravan that we were supposed to be on is in a safe region. They are currently in San Cristobal, in the state of Chiapas, very close to the Guatemala border. Per the map below, that is solidly in the green zone. The staff monitors the conditions, and since they travel by RV, it is always possible to modify the itinerary as needed to make sure everyone is safe. We expect the unrest to settle in a few days and we are still scheduled for the Copper Canyon caravan next year.