Back in the USA

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So after our adventures in Brasil we flew overnight from Recife to Sao Paolo and then back north up to Miami.

Thankfully although we were in cattle class the 767 from Sao Paolo to Miami - a near 9 hour flight - was virtually empty so we both got a reasonably decent few hours sleep across the 4 seats forming the middle rows of the aircraft.

Landing in Miami just before breakfast we had the usual praying session held at the baggage carousel - American Airlines are notorious for losing luggage - followed by a similarly arduous session at the National car rentals place picking up our car. They seemed to follow the path of most people we have met in Miami, rude, don't know what they are doing and barely speaking English.

We eventually got on the road and started our 300 mile drive up to Tampa. On the way we drove through the Everglades National Park, and stopped for breakfast at one of the many air boat ride centre's. Now technically none of the air boat ride companies actually go out on the Everglades NP, more precisely they skirt round the bits at the edges of the park which their permits allow. Nonetheless it was quite cool going out on the airboat across the waterways. We saw loads of Gators, wading birds (the herons out here are enormous), huge iguana's, fish etc etc.

Continuing our drive West through Southern Florida we stopped several times at the roadside to watch the gators drifting around in the river, along with the fish and turtles. Our drive up to Tampa was a long one - if you leave a freeway in Florida expect to see hundreds of sets of traffic lights - and it therefore took us an absolute age to drive the last 40 or so miles up the coast into Palm Harbor, Tampa.

We spent 3 nights relaxing in a nice little holiday letting in Tampa, only really venturing out to head to the shopping malls, Tarpon Springs (a greek sponge diving community) and for food. Tampa is a nice city, much more appealing than Miami.

Saturday 24th we headed back due east accross Florida to Cape Cannaveral and the NASA Visitors Centre. Our 150 mile drive took us past the huge new hotels in the Orlando area. We had a good day exploring the NASA visitors centre, watching IMAX films and touring the Shuttle launch facilities on the guided tours. Our only main dissapointment was that even though we had paid extra for the "up close tour" we still didn't get a single glimpse of one of the 3 shuttles sat at the base. We also felt that for such a prominent tourist attraction, with huge annual visitor numbers, the visitors centre was pretty shoddy and didn't have much to see. I have actually seen more NASA or space memorabilia in the science museum in London than their was at NASA. Whilst we were out on the tour however we got to see loads of Dolphins in the waterways, Manatee's and a nest of American bald eagles.

Sunday 25th of March was officially our last day travelling. We drove the 220 miles down to Miami and spent a couple of hours on the beach at Golden Beach. Our afternoon flight however soon became the nightmare flight from hell - we were a whole 12 hours late as the maintenance crew had to fly in essential safety repairs from New York and fit them to the aircraft! Therefore a night walking around the useless Miami airport departure lounge meant we were pretty shattered by the time we finally got to Heathrow at 5pm on the 26th!

Nonetheless it was only a small blip at the end of an incredible journey. We truly had the time of our lives and now have memories of experiences and places that we will treasure for the rest of our lives. We travelled approximately 46000 miles and have covered 8 countries in 5 months. We are both really proud of the decision we made to travel mid career, and know that for the rest of our lives our conscience's are clear that we got to see the places in life many people dream of going to see - but always put off for "one day."

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Comments

[Charlotte]

I can't believe you're home
Your last paragraph is so true! Hope you are loving seeing all your family. I have to say I am a bit envious of that. I would love to see my parents and sisters. If you see them say hi from me! Love Charlotte xx