After our BBQ and a short drive to Miami we arrived in the city.
John was already sleeping so we just went to bed as it already was midnight.
7th of April
We got up at 10, had a very good breakfast (thxs John) and then we set up our tent in the yard.
As John is a landscaper his house is all over green, all different kinds of plants.
There is also a swimming pool (we never used it).
The yard is cool, so green and nice.
Inside there was a huge wintergarden although there is no real winter in Miami.
John also has a saltwater aquarium and some nice fish.
And besides this, just to mention it... he has 7 cats in different races and colors.
The house is great and John is a very friendly guy.
But we were not in Miami just to see Johns house, so what do you do in Miami? You go to the beach, to south beach.
The beach is full of people, the water is warm (as expected) and the waves are much smaller than in Daytona Beach.
We walked around in south beach, saw some places which look quite similar to the places in the game GTA Vice City. We went back to the beach and back to our car afterwards. Right when we reached our car it started to rain.
John made pasta for dinner, very good :)
8th of April
We started at somewhat like noon to a daytrip to key biscayne, an island south of Miami beach which has its own state park. We expected less people on the beach and nice clean beaches but... the beach was covered with sea weed, not that nice for swimming. So we just walked around in the park, nice nature out there.
Back home we showed John how to geocache, and after that Daniel started cooking for dinner.
We just talked for a while and watched TV on this evening.
9th of April
The day we had to start to the Keys
We got up, had breakfast, packed up our tent which was standing in the yard to get dry, took a picture and moved on to the Keys.
Thank you for hosting us John :)
The way to the Keys is interesting, you just drive on bridges and small islands. The Atlantic ocean on the left and the Gulf of Mexico on the right side, just blue water.
When we arrived at Big Pine Key, where our camping ground was, we were welcomed by some deer, running all over the campground. They were not afraid of humans so you could touch them (although it was forbidden)
We met Alex and Marybeth who were our camping neighbours. We talked a little and had dinner together.
10th of April
What do you do at the keys? Swimming and snorkeling.
So we went to the bahia honda state park, just 2 miles away (~3km... well thats easy, last time I write both, 1 mile = 1,61km, just do the math on your own)
We heard that this park has the best beaches all over the keys.
We visited the wings and waves butterfly garden.
And posed in front of the blue sea.
It looks just like on a postcard. But the dark blue in the water is nothing but sea weed, the light blue is sand under the water.
We were swimming for some hours, snorkeling, exposing our back to the sun.
So we got sunburn again, this time on the back.
We bought better sunscreen and aloe lotion...
Our skin is not used to that amount of sun so this might be not the last sunburn.
In the evening, back at the campground (after having pizza for dinner) we jumped in the pool.
The water could have been colder, to chill our sunburn but it was about 86°F (30°C).
We had to come along with the sunburn and the cold shower was perfect for pain relief.
11th of April
Not everybody knows what you mean if you say "I went to the keys", but everybody knows this name: "Key West". So this was our plan for the day. We drove to Key West and rented 2 bicycles, we heard that this is the best way to see the island. We wanted to try a trike so we rented a trike and a bike ^^
I don't know why this place is special, it was just behind the aids memorial.
We just drove around the island, visiting some places and a museum where you can see some coral.
This place is the southernmost point of the continental USA.
Now the farthest south geocache I found is at
N 24° 32.792 W 081° 47.847, like in this picture.
In the evening we went to the place everybody has to go... Mallory Square, the sunset festival.
The festival is every evening, people are wathching the sunset which starts slowly but finally the sun is down so fast.
Street artists perform a huge varity of different shows, like this one in the picture.
The man lies on a bed of nails which are 1 1/2 inch apart and a woman is standing on his belly.
That looks quite amazing, like all the other shows do too.
Finally we wanted to go back to Big Pine Key.
We had cuban dinner in a restaurant just nearby and there we met Alex and Marybeth again, what a small world :)
12th of April
Our last day at the Keys. We got up at 7 so we can pack up our tent, check out and go to Looe Keys diver resort where we reserved a snorkeling trip.
We have no pictures from under water but it was great. We were swimming inbetween tons of fish and that beautiful coral reefs.
I would like to get a diving certification so I can go deeper and for a longer time.
After diving we started on our way back to Miami.
We just visited a fireworks store before we arrived in Miami.
3 nights of sleeping in a tent was enough so we requested a couchsurfing host in Miami.
As we stayed with John for 3 days before we had a spare host.
John lives in Miami Shores, so quite a way form downtown Miami. This time we stayed at Manuels appartment, located directly in the center of Downtown.
When we arrived we had some trouble finding a parking lot but the view from our new accomodation for 2 nights paid back for this.
We stayed in the 32nd floor so we had a great view, now please, be jealous:
You may click the image to enlarge it ^^
coming up:
- Chillout Day in Miami
- The Everglades
- Sarasota Springs
- Clearwater
- Tampa
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