Lake Okeechobee

Well, whad'ya know, we actually DID leave on Sunday! Wow, a miracle!
It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a completely uneventful drive all the way to Lake Okeechobee, about 100 miles down the road to the south of us.

(As a side-note, just to forewarn you, this post is going to be huge, as in humongous, so fasten your seat bells and enjoy the road) (or grab a cup of coffee and sit it out).



Our campground, South Bay RV Park,  sat on the southern tip of the lake, just below the levee.
It was a nice, affordable park with lots of room, and some quiet neighbors ..

  

After settling in we hiked up the levee to see the view of the lake. 
Guess what, you cannot see it! 
The only thing visible were the waterways (and a small marina) that eventually catch up with it.

This is the view towards the other side, to the campground. We were just behind the little building on the right.

In fact, although we drove for miles along it's eastern shore to get here, we still hadn't seen the lake. It's completely, and constantly, hidden behind the levee that goes all the way around it.

So, the next day, we set out early to find this elusive lake!

It took some driving and climbing on the levee but we finally succeeded:

The second largest freshwater lake wholly contained within the United States, second only to Lake Michigan, Lake Okeechobee covers 730 square miles and is approximately 37 miles long by 30 miles wide with an average depth of 9 feet.

 

This is the lake on which shores we would actually have stayed this last winter, but for the fact that the truck broke down and we had to 'settle' for Melbourne.
We would've been at Torry Island RV Park in Belle Glade, and we actually drove over there to take a look at it, mainly to try to get our $450 deposit back, which they were being rather difficult about over the phone.

 

It turned out that it too did not have a view of the lake, same thing, just of the waterways leading up to it, but all in all it looked rather nice ..
 

It has a very nice walking trail into the nature area next to it, and not too long ago they erected a viewing-tower from where you have a great view over the whole swamp:

I think I would have enjoyed many nice walks around here!

 

 

Apparently this lake is a birders paradise and it was obvious they weren't kidding!

 

 
Of course there were also a few of these guys (girls?) around:

 

Sunbathing .. (he likes you to think that, yeah)

One of the reasons we were stoked to stay at this campground was the fact that it had a municipal Golf course next to it, with reduced fees for RV'ers!
We just had to play a round for 'what could have been' sake!

We played 9 holes just before sunset when the temperature was a little cooler.

Nice course, a little rough here and there but challenging and fun. Sigh .. if only ..

(By the way, we DID get our money back for the month we pre-paid! Nice!)

Alright. Onward! Much to cover!
It was another easy about another 100 mile drive the following morning to our next destination, the Boardwalk Mobile Home and RV Resort in Homestead, FL.

For some reason we didn't take any pics of our site but it was just fine, on the outer edge of the park. There was a busy road behind a hedge at our back, but it didn't disturb us much.
We mainly picked this place because it was close to 'everything' we wanted to see and we were gone most of the time.

First up: Miami!

It was unfortunately rather overcast that day, but there were some sunny moments, so we dealt with it (not much of a choice with only 3 days to spend).

 First impression: palm trees and lots of blue, blue water ...

And some money to spend! Look at that monster of a boat!
We drove busy Miami Beach boulevard:

 

 

And parked the car for a stroll. And some ice-cream. How much? $9 for 2 scoops!!! Yeah, that's Miami Beach for you!

  

                                                               

                                                   Been there, done that!

 

A cloudy day at the beach ... Miami's skyline in the background

  

Colorful Baywatch cabins (as seen on TV) and interesting elevated police stations!

An interesting beach go-er ...

These (sometimes aggressive) invasive black and green Iguanas are infesting South Florida, and are a real problem around here, chewing through (electric) cables, knocking out power, wrecking gardens, weakening sea walls, getting into plumbing and attics, defecating in pool and causing parasites in pets. They also carry salmonella, botulism.
But aren't they cool to look at?

After the beach we drove to Miami's Wynwood district, home to the famous Wynwood walls:

Once a run-down industrial area with large ugly warehouses, it was converted in 2009 by the legendary 'placemaker' and visionary Tony Goldman, as an outdoor museum of international street art.

It caught on quickly and inspired the creation of murals throughout the Wynwood district. It is now one of the best venues in the world to see the work of leading street artists.




The artwork is really amazing and definitely worth seeing! We walked around for quite a while.





By than we'd worked up an appetite, so we set of for another, very different part of Miami, Little Havana, Miami’s vibrant Cuban heart, with Latin American art galleries and colorful cafes and restaurants!

 

Following the Cuban Revolution, many Cubans who did not want to live under a socialist government emigrated to South Florida and settled in the Keys and here.
(At the nearest point, the southern part of Key West is just 90 from Cuba.)

We walked around this historic district for a while, looked into Domino Park where the locals are playing rousting games of domino ..

And eventually settled for an 'authentic' Cuban Restaurant to have dinner.

We did the dinner-buffet and got to taste a little bit of everything ..

It was nice enough, but not very warm and the meat a little tough. Oh well, it filled us up and the atmosphere was good.

On the other side of the street we listened to some authentic Cuban music:

And that was it for Miami, folks! 
A little disappointing for me, somehow I expected more, but I guess the weather had something to do with it, and visiting cities is always rather exhausting. You somehow always try to see way too much!

But a good night's rest restored my energy and I was all pumped up for our next outing, one of those 'bucket-list' items .. the Florida Keys!
We'd nixed the idea to go all the way to Key West, like I said, you can only cram so much in a day before you're mind starts spinning. 

 

It was still fairly early when we drove the 15 miles south to the start of the Overseas Highway, a 127-mile section of U.S. 1, which runs from Key West to Fort Kent, Maine in its entirety. 

  
Soon we went over the bridge that connects you to the first of the Keys, Key Largo.

With a length of 30 miles it is the largest of the keys, and formerly known for its plantations of key limes (used to make key lime pies).
Key Largo is a popular tourist destination and calls itself the "Diving Capital of the World" because the living coral reef a few miles offshore attracts thousands of scuba divers and sport-fishing enthusiasts.

 It's many marinas are proof of this water-oriented tourism.

Driving over the island you don't see much more than a long line of various restaurants and little shops. 
You'll have to hit one of the smaller (dead-ended) side streets to get close to the ocean or drive the bridges to see the beautiful and legendary light blue water. 

By the way, it was the Spanish who took the word "cayo', which turned into 'keys' later on, from the Taino Indians of Hispanola and Cuba, referring to 'small islands'.

Just over halfway the long string of keys (1700 in total in the Archipel!) you'll cross the Seven Mile Bridge:

The highway,  including the Seven Mile Bridge, was built parallel to the original route of the Overseas Railway, which was not rebuilt following the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 and of which you can see the remains on the right hand sight in this picture.

We decided to first drive all the way to Big Pine Key, about as far as we wanted to go and about 2/3 of the way down.

This Key is known for the the endangered Key deer, the smallest North American deer, that lives only in the Florida Keys.

On arrival we drove around the National Key Deer Refuge and took a short hike, but other than one jumping over the road, to fast to snap a picture, we didn't see any more.

By than we were in dire need of some food, so we took the advice of a park ranger and drove to nearby Little Torch Key for lunch at Kiki's Sandbar. 

 

Look at that! It had everything I envisioned the Keys would look like and than some!

Palm trees, white sand, blue water, sunshine and even a Tiki bar!

We enjoyed a nice hamburger with fries and a big glass of local beer.

And to top everything off ... Key Lime Pie!

As much as I would have liked to stay there for a couple of days it was time to, very slowly, make our way back.

This time we stopped in several towns and different Keys to drive to a few beaches to at least dip our toes in the sand/water and take some pictures.

This group of people shows how shallow certain areas are ..

If we'd have a lot of money we could have stayed at a campground like this:

Average prices in the summer are running over $100 a night!

We made a little detour into Duck Key and admired the beautiful homes and boats ..

At Islamadora we drove to the public beach, one of the view in all of the keys (most are private) and took a little break.
James had a nap and I waded in the (surprisingly warm) water ..



 

And just before leaving we stopped at the Blond Giraffe Key Lime Pie Factory on Key Largo, and took a whole pie to go!

I think this is my new favorite pie! The tartness of the lime with the sweetness of the crust and cream ... it's sooooo good!

  

A fitting end for a beautiful day in paradise! 
It certainly is a beautiful place and one of these days we might be back to go all the way to Key west, the last of the islands, but for now this will have to do.

We had only one more day left which, of course, was reserved for that other famous place in South Florida .. the Everglades!

The entrance to the park was only half an hour from the RV Park, and we arrived early to first take a look at the visitor center.
These places are usually worth visiting before you go into a park, so you have some idea of what to expect, learn some about the flora and fauna and pick up a map.

This one was fairly small but had some nice diorama's of the wildlife.

We were happy to learn that the mosquito meter was way down, somewhere between enjoyable and bearable!

    

That's a sign for the elusive Florida Panther and yes, elusive he was .. there's only 100 left in existence ..

Good to know!

Than it was off into the Park!
Right from the bat we were surrounded by those 'endless 'rivers' of saw-grass ..

We headed for the Anhinga trail, the first trail on the route in, about 4 miles from the visitor center.

Apparently the parking lot has some problems .. lots of cars are covered up with tarps?

 

They're terrorized by vandalizing Black Vultures!

           Too funny!

The trail is a paved walkway and a boardwalk over Taylor Slough, a freshwater saw-grass marsh. 
The trail is named after the Anhinga, a really spectacular bird. We saw several of them like this one drying their wings... 

 

  

The trail is one of the most popular and frequented at Everglades National Park and with good reason: easy to get to, lush vegetation all around and tons of wildlife.

There's these harmless critters:

 (A Halloween Pennant Dragonfly, a Racer, a Florida (or alligator)
 Gar, and this Florida Red-Bellied Cooter or is it a Soft-shell?)

And this Lizard, which could be an Agama or Rainbow Lizard? :

There's flowers and swamp plants:

  

The boardwalks here are really wonderful for wildlife viewing, they get you very close to whatever is out there ..

And to top it off, of course there were the stars of here 'down south' .. alligators!

 


 

They were swimming in and out of view, under the boardwalk to reappear on the other side.

Can you see me know?

And birds were everywhere ..

A Green Heron and a Purple Gallinule (new to me):

Following the road, which is the only one accessible in the park, we stopped to take the short hike to the Pa-hay-okee Overlook:

Lots of marsh and Saw Grass:

Here we found some Wood Storks and a Juvenile White Ibis ..

        

And even further down the road we followed yet another short trail,
into the (subtropical) Mahogany (hardwood) Hammock area.



Where we found more birds:

   

A juvenile Little Blue Heron and a new one, a Red Shouldered Hawk!

 

I think this is a Swallowtail Kite:
 

  

Eventually, after 38 miles we reached Flamingo, the southernmost headquarters of the Park.

Hurricane Irma destroyed half of the visitor center in 2017 and it is still closed, but they have a small office going and the marina and the campground have both re-opened.

When we walked towards the Marina we were thrilled to see what we'd hoped to see here ... Manatees!

I didn't get any better pictures than these, they stayed mostly submersed the whole time ...

 

According to the park ranger they were mating! There was a lot of snorting and splashing and grunting going on .. ahem ..

While we were there we ate our lunch, and than decided to make a short canoe tour through the marshy Mangroves.

I'd have loved to take an air-boat ride but the more we heard about it the more we thought we'd prefer a calmer ride, and one by ourselves, into these swamps. 
Also, since money was tight this was a much cheaper option!

 

We paddled for about an hour through the narrow Buttonwood Canal, hoping to reach a lake about 2 miles away, but unfortunately we ran out of steam after a while and had to turn around.
To our disappointment we didn't really see anything spectacular but the peaceful glide over the calm waters was enjoyable nevertheless.

               

But than, close to where we'd started, we finally came upon something that was indeed quite spectacular and also on our to-see list .. American Crocodiles!

The Everglades are the only place where Crocodiles and Alligators can be seen together. 

Alligators more inland, in the fresh-waters and crocodiles towards the outer, coastal areas that have salt water or a combination of both.

 

The main differences between the two comes from their appearances. 
Crocodiles have longer, pointier snouts; alligators have shorter, more rounded snouts. When an alligator has its mouth shut, you won’t see any of its teeth. In contrast, when a crocodile has its mouth shut, its back teeth stick up over the top lip, showing off a toothy grin.

 

Crocodiles are typically lighter in color, with tans and brown colors.

They live longer, approximately 60 to 100 years, whereas alligators 35 to 50.
Crocodiles also tend to be more aggressive than alligators, attacking out of nowhere where alligators are more docile and more interested in getting a suntan while sunbathing on the shore.
Needless to say we didn't go close enough to find out !

OK, I seem to have finally come to the end of this blog, or at least to where I wanted it to go. Holy smokes, what an Epistle!
From here we drove to Napels, to the east-coast of Florida, but I'm going to start another post for that.

                 For now, goodbye from the Everglades!
  

End(butt)-shot!