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Our tour of Florida began in Naples with Couchsurfing. It’s a great way to meet people, learn about real life and get some great tips on sightseeing. You get to stay with a local, and usually in your own room rather than actually sleeping on the couch. We’ve used it in several countries and offer a mobile bed in our caravan in the summer. 

We arranged to stay with Kathleen, a recently retired lady originally from New York.  She had a beautiful apartment in a gated complex that overlooked a lake with fountains.  She was the prefect host and, by American standards, incredibly well travelled having been cabin crew for Royal Jordanian Airlines.  She had been to most countries in the Middle East, lived in Europe and still had lots of places left to visit on her bucket list.  She took us to see the sunset on the beach, to a nature reserve to watch the birds, turtles and alligators and we met her twin sister and her husband who was originally from the Lebanon.

Dinner on the first night was in a swanky plaza filled with upmarket restaurants and shops.  Naples is a wealthy place and generally people there seem to be enjoying the good life.  On the second evening we had a barbeque and sat chatting until late.  We had a fabulous time with her and we hope that she’ll come and see us in the UK and maybe Goa too.

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Next stop was Florida City, about an hour south west of Miami and our base to explore The Everglades.  The park was filled with trails and lookout points so armed with our map from the rangers in the visitor centre we spent a full day seeing lots of alligators, turtles, and birds.  We finished off with a boat trip, where we also saw crocodiles.  The Everglades is actually an extremely wide very slow moving river, most of it shallow with porous sheets of limestone below.  There were a surprising number of distinct habitats which alter with only a few inches of elevation. 

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We signed up for the special walking tour with a ranger on day 2.  We were told we needed long trousers and closed in shoes and we ‘might’ get wet feet!  Ha!  If wading knee deep in water that provides a home for snakes, turtles and alligators means you ‘might’ get wet feet then we weren’t disappointed.  We were also given a long walking pole as we needed to test the ground ahead of us for holes in the limestone as we could have gone in up to our armpits! Our ‘waterproof’ boots took a couple of days to dry out but it was great fun.  Ranger John was really informative about the habitat and getting deep into the cypress domes and looking for an alligator hole was exciting. 

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Our small group was made up of a dozen College kids.  It’s Spring Break at the moment and in America that’s traditionally a time for College kids to go party on the beach. This group was different and explained they were on an Alternative Spring Break where they volunteered their time to help out in the National Park by clearing trails and litter picking.  We were very impressed with this and had some fun with them as a few of them did drop into some of the holes and got very wet.  They were young, gung ho, so we let them go first and find the deepest holes which we could then avoid. Ahh, the wisdom of age.

Eating in Florida City gave us highs and lows.  Our first night was a disaster.  The USA prides itself on delivering great service.  We don’t think that waiting 35 minutes to order drinks, waiting 10 minutes to get the drinks, having to go to the bar to get your own second beer, ordering a salad without cheese only to get one covered in the stuff or having your main course come with the wrong side dish is particularly good service.  Tipping here in the US is mandatory, somewhere between 15-20%, but this was the first place where we left nothing as we definitely wouldn’t be back. 

Our second and third nights were much better.  Texas Roadhouse delivered excellent food, superb service, great drink offers and entertainment from staff who jumped into a song and dance routine from time to time……we had a ball.

Next Stop – The Keys