Miami veio revelar-se uma agradável surpresa. Fechando os olhos - e é difícil fazê-lo - à opulencia, à riqueza exagerada, desproporcional (não é sempre?) da maioria das gentes nesta zona preveligiada que é Miami Beach, pode-se apreciar um ambiente descontraido, de verdadeiro ritmo latino e com as inegáveis influências cubanas e das Caraíbas em geral.
Passear por Ocean Drive é um verdadeiro ataque aos sentidos: os olhos são brindados com uma arquitectura "arte deco" (o hotel Delano sendo um dos expoentes máximos) e os sons e cheiros dos restaurantes populados pelas gentes referidas anteriormente convidam ao prazer aqueles que, enfim, podem.
De dia, a paisagem de água a rodear as ilhas e a servir de "quintal" para inumeras "casinhas" completas com o respectivo lugar de estacionamento para o transporte maritimo (muitos destes preenchidos...), vulgo yacht, faz com que o passeio pela Venetian Causeway seja obrigatório a caminho de down-town.
O tempo, tropical, ora chove torrencialmente ora faz sol abrasador, humidade - constante.
Writing from the land of Uncle Sam has left me with a confirmation of how I saw this land before crossing the atlantic a third time. A people so diverse as the geographical scope of the boundaries they reside in and the origins of their forefathers. Truelly a land where anyone's ideology can be acomodated in one or other comunity, there being space for them all.
Still, like a giant sitting back on his couch eating himself to death, this is the land of the SUV, the land of granny-drives-a-5-litre-"truck"-out-to-do-her-shopping, the land of car culture, a culture so dependent on their private transportation that makes the 4th of July seem like a silly idea.
And it seems like their oversized cars have lead them to "grow" into obese samples of homo-sapiens, there being a real problem in the country in this respect. Still, it's hardly surprising when you consider that any food portion served would suffice for a family of more frugal eaters. And when you have to drive to anywhere you're going, that accumulated, undigested food tends to, well, accumulate.
Still, you have to wonder how long this empire of consumerism will remain comfortable in its couch, feeding on itself, and what it will do when it realises that it's too fat to get up and confront those cultures that are leaner and with a completely different mindset.