Talking to the sea was never one of my interests. But one day I have simply sit in front or her and closed my eyes. Then I understood that I can listen. To the sea and her long story about all her troubles and anxieties she is having every day, about her day to day struggle, about her torment and her sorrow. And to the wind that was backing her up, whispering and mumbling all sorts of gossip.

And then I realized that also there are sunny days, cloudless skies and azure seas. Swimming with the dolphins, idling on the beach, floating with a tide, glowing sunsets, and silent moonlights.

The sharp cry of a lonely gull woke me up from my own reverie. The faded whispers became a lively group that appeared from nowhere, and the leaves rustling became the frothy mass of the restless waves. Sitting up, I realized how busy the beach has become, wondering once again how fast the time flies. However fast the time has gone, I still wonder at how many places we had a chance to visit. Starting with Florida City and ending with Fort Lauderdale.

Visiting Alligator Farm was a blast, never imagining so many generations of alligators can live at the same place.

The air boat ride was better than I thought, a thrilling experience indeed. Different shows with snakes and alligators make the place more interesting, but I think the masterpiece is actually hanged on a wall, “The grandpa”, the 14’ alligator skin since they were still alive on these swampy lands.

And then the real surprize came when we realized how large Everglades National Park was, where one will need weeks to cover it, since this is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. It was a bit of a challenge for us since we didn’t know where to start and where to end. But since we started from Florida City, we had no way than see the center of the park, and for the short time we afforded we decided for a Tram tour, a fifteen-mile loop into the “River of Grass”. The 2 hour guided tour starts and ends from the Shark Valley visitor centre, and while we rested our legs on the bus, we did enjoy the nice guide narration about history and wildness.

Both trails (Anhinga Trail and Gumbo Limbo Trail) we did from Royal Palm were more than amazing, we could see a big variety of birds and alligators just walking on the world famous boardwalk trail bordering Taylor Slough.

The last, but not the least, various trails along the route to Flamingo visitor centre gave us a chance to wander through the mangrove forest and through mahogany trees, see lots of lizards and enjoy the free nature.

Small words but big dilemmas, sunny and sweet Florida in a rapid and festive Spanish tempo made us discover our inner good feeling and our own delight. Especially on our last day, when we decided to go to Key West for a famous and beautiful sunset. Even the glorious sky was on our side and the day was clear of clouds and appealing to any sort of creature. And so we drove a long way through many islands and over many bridges, but certainly it was well deserved when we finally stopped to enjoy and made a proof of this kind of memory. It was like yesterday when the sun was melting over the ocean, where the colours were changing easily and the breeze was caressing our feelings.

 

 

There, along the Overseas Highway we had a chance to taste different sea food, alligator as well for the very first time.

Our next stop, Miami, was just around the corner, so we could not avoid going to the beach. Finally I had a chance to swim in the ocean, hot and alluring, as I like it to be.

Then the time came for our final destination, Fort Lauderdale, with nice hotels, and beaches, with nice people and restaurants, great food (unforgettable Il Mulino made us going back actually for a few times), same as the great weather.

Lazy on the beach, floating in the water, one cannot do anything else than dreaming, dreaming for a lifetime vacation, dreaming of friends, dreaming of the dear ones. And when the dreams are getting fuzzy, there is nothing else than letting yourself in the path of the wind.