Today I took a tour to the Everglades. I went on an air-boat and got very close to the Alligators. Airboats go quite fast and when they turn corners you can get quite wet, as I found out. After the air-boat ride, I saw an animal show after which I held a 3 year old Alligator, it was surprisingly very nice to hold and touch. After the Everglades tour I went on tour around Downtown Miami. We were taken on a tour around Coconut Grove, which is a very posh residential area, and around Little Havana, which is where the Cuban [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from the Everglades or it Homestead? We arrived in the late afternoon and headed to explore the HUGE Walmart. It was massive, bigger than Tesco in Bratislava which had been the biggest supermarket seen to date. It had everything including McDonalds, tax consultants and eye testing consultations. In the actual store itself it was a bit like a Kmart, Coles, and Bunnings all together. You get the picture, we weren’t there for the Walmart. Our Everglades experience started with a visit to the Visitor Centre and we were off south towards to the Flamingo. We decided to hi [View Full Entry]

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After 2 weeks in ultra crowded Marathon we decided to head north (!) up the west coast of Florida - and both agree it has been the highlight of our cruise so far. A 50 mile day found us in the Little Shark River - totally isolated - no McDonald's or roads or cell phones or wifi for many miles. The wildlife was spectacular - a dolphin almost joined us in the dinghy during one ride. Big rays lept clear of the water, flipped and splashed down noisily - always when you least expected it. Big turtles drifted by and the [View Full Entry]

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February 14, Saturday - Valentine's Day Up relatively early with a card and coffee for Deb, then I rode Bear over to the marina to say goodbye to Bob and Marilyn and to snap some pictures of their boat. Later, Deb and I suited up and headed into town for a trip to Wal-mart, some computer time in Starbucks, and a nice seafood lunch at The Big Chill restaurant on Key Largo. We returned to Flamingo after dark, lit up another campfire, and Deb presented me with a card and chocolate. What a girl ! February 15, Sunday We had an [View Full Entry]

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February 12, Thursday Morning hot showers, another confab with Mike and his maps, and we packed up for departure. We had been warned at Flamingo by a Ranger to find a spot this day and stay "hunkered down" due to the 3 day weekend of President's day. There was plenty of room at Flamingo, so we headed there for a four night stay. A pleasant but slow ride north on Route 1 through the keys brought us back to the Park entrance, and we continued on to Flamingo after a short stop for groceries, a small tent peg hammer, and coffee. [View Full Entry]

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February 8, Sunday We were all four loading the bikes around 9:00 am and on the road to the Everglades by 9:30. I led the way down the coast, running mostly through the towns which gradually merged into a stop and go situation. Finally I cut east to a major thoroughfare, joined the Tamiami trail, US 41, along the Everglades to Florida City. Originally we were going to stop for lunch at Everglade City, but as we approached, we couldn't help but notice the hundreds of Harley Davidsons in the area. It turns out there was a big seafood festival, which [View Full Entry]

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With absolute stillness, the creature sat with a powerful gaze that completely neutralized the glare and reflections on the surface of the water. If it were not for the beautiful but subdued colors in its plumage, it would have been very difficult to differentiate its shape against the thick vegetation surrounding it. Several minutes passed by, accentuating the creature's almost inanimated stance. Sitting behind my camera, I was challenged to imitate the stillness in anticipation of what might happen next, but my gene make up was not up to par with my subject's. After so many generat [View Full Entry]

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Ah les Everglades! En y réfléchissant bien, je crois que c'est ce que j'ai préféré pendant ces voyages, peut-être parce que c'est un des seuls lieux encore préservé des Etats-Unis et que j'aime ces endroits où la trace de l'homme n'est pas encore trop présente et qu'on sent que si on ne fait pas bien attention à ce qui nous entoure, un alligator peut nous croquer la jambe à tout moment! Les Everglades c'est le grand parc national du sud des Etats-Unis où les paysages changent du tout au tout en quelques minutes de voiture (la nature c'est bien, mais j'aime [View Full Entry]

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“Nature nurtures the soul”. Printed on one of the sign boards at Everglades National Park. Well, the last couple weeks have been interesting as they were in many ways complete opposites: • One week I am sleeping in a clean bed with a mint on my pillow each night (except the night Larry and Barry stole my mint!). The next I am sleeping on the ground with specs of dirt on my pillow each night. • One week I am taking a hot shower at least once or twice a day. The next week I am cringing every time I have [View Full Entry]

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My sister is a manager at a hotel south of Fort Myers.We wanted to do some site seeing while we were there. I have never been to the Florida Keys so we planed to go across, Alligator Alley (I-75) is one of the major east-west highways that cross South Florida. Driving east to west along Alligator Alley, one travels through the populated Naples area with its manicured golf courses, the wilderness of Big Cypress Swamp and the saw grass marshes of Water Conservation. Wading birds in flight and at rest, and yes, alligators, can also be seen along the canal banks [View Full Entry]

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