Little Havana is located just a few miles west of downtown Miami. We debated whether we should swing by thinking that it’s similar to swinging by Chinatown, asking ourselves why would tourists like to visit Chinatown. It turns out we have a pleasant surprise, as Little Havana is nowhere like Chinatown. Little Havana just occcupies a few city blocks, the area is clean and neat, dotted by cigar shops, barber shops and restaurants.

Small Park at Center of Little Havana

There is this cigar shop that actually has a artisan rolling a cigar right on premise. The owner of the brand actually sits out front puffy away to draw in customers. One thing we notice is unlike the many cigar places in northern Virginia, the ones down here don’t stink.

Cigar Store Owner Puffing Away

One of the shops is enterprise enough to post a for sale sign in Chinese (poorly written calligraphy though), and sure enough, there are some Chinese patrons bargaining away in the store.

Rolling a Cigar

Domino is a popular game here. There is a small corner park where about 10 tables are set up permanently for both domino and chess games.

Playing Domino

By the way, there is this souvenir shop called Little Havana To Go, it has memorabilia for different tastes. We find this straw hat for Michael, his first one. Very nicely made.

Little Havana To Go

Since this is the last full day of the vacation, we want to sample some cuban food cheap eat one more time. There’s a outdoor fast food establishment called Juice Palace (El Palacio De Los Jugos) that features various kinds of cuban cooked dishes, and of course, fruit juices.

Juice Palace (El Palacio De Los Jugos)

Many Selections of Pre Cooked Cuban Food

We try out the bone in pork loin with rice and beans, mix with some bacon. And then the obligatory crunchy pork belly. All just for $11, the portion is big enough for two. The pork is a bit on the dry side, the pork loin does not have enough fat. But overall, the meal is very good. Afterwards, a taste of their flan followed by a homey mango juice settle the sweet tooth. The mango juice is exceptional. By the way, most of the servers here don’t speak English, so ask a friendly customer for recommendation and help.

Pork Loin, Belly and Rice & Beans

The afternoon program involves two more activities, taking a Port of Miami harbor cruise (based at the Bayside Marketplace) and bidding Bon Voyage to ocean cruises at the southern end of South Beach.

Bayside Marketplace

As the harbor cruise begins, the afternoon thunder clouds start to gather above and the blue sky retreats quickly. Talking about poor timing. The fortunate thing is the boat is a step ahead of the rain and is able to cover the majority of the cruise rain free. When the boat turns back to port, the rain finally catches up and give the area a quick soaking.

Thunder Cloud Hovering Above Port of Miami

The highlight of the cruise is the Star Island, a piece of island that is adorned with multi-million dollar mansions. Our boat will come up to a few hundred feet in front of these mansions and start to talk about the estates and their famous owners in a humorous and sarcastic way,  saying things like “home of the rich and shameless.” The talks are done over loud speakers, so owners or guests hanging out at their luxurious outdoor pool will surely  get turned off right away. We kind of feel sorry about the owners who are subjected to this kind of harassment several times a day, day in and day out.

Star Island Mansions

For the last activity, we’re heading back to South Pointe Park, the southern tip of South Beach to see if we can see any ocean cruises depart. Sure enough, a whole line of boats are lined up one by one, escorted by tug boats, slowly leaving the causeway and head out to the Atlantic.