calle ocho

My favorite part of any vacation is when I accidentally stumble into a place or an event that blows my meticulously planned agenda right out of the water, which is exactly what happened when I ran across the annual Calle Ocho Festival in Miami's Little Havana. My companion and I had no idea what were were doing, just that we should head towards Eighth Street because it, um, looked big on the map.

Who knew that "Eighth Street" was actually Calle Ocho, or that it happened to be the day of the famed festival? Well...hundreds of thousands of people. Ehhh, so what? I know now!

One of many men hawking meat on a stick...


Enjoying Cuban tamales from an open-air restaurant counter...
Fresh baby coconut water from a cigar-chewing old man...


Arepas!


Huge vats of paella being made and sold for a dollar...
...and so much more! You will love this festival if you've ever wanted to compare the rice and beans of a hundred different grandmas from all over Central America, snack on slow-cooked lechon with your beer, smoke a cigar that's been hand rolled right in front of you, play dominoes with your Cuban elders in Maximo Gomez Park, or just dance.

photos via me, except arepa lady via here.