Roadtrip USA East Coast Fourth Day (01 May 2024)

KG: After a brilliant start to the day with a continental breakfast (sloppy toast with imitation strawberry jam, muffin, artificial orange juice), we set off for another short walk near our hotel. We briefly inspect the beach and take a double selfie at the buoy that marks the southernmost point of the USA. Then we quickly photograph a few free-range chickens and chicks, which are apparently everywhere in Florida. Every now and then they even block roads, so that the animal-loving driver is forced to stop.
Our day takes us back to Miami, via the island highway number 1.
For lunch we try KFC and Taco Bells and will avoid these fast food chains in the future.
In Homestead, just before Miami, we make a detour to the visitor center of the Everglades National Park to find out more about the Everglades ecosystem and its inhabitants. The alligators, which live here in their thousands and are simply called gators, are spectacular. The entrance to the national park costs us $35 and is a bit reminiscent of Jurassic Park. After a few miles we set off on a small hiking trail, the Anhinga Trail. Here we meet the first two alligators, which are lazing around in the sun just 3 meters away from us. We had learned shortly before in the national park center that they are capable of short sprints at speeds of 45 km/h, but unfortunately we had already forgotten about it.

After the Anhinga Trail, we walked the Gumbo Limbo Trail and came across a small pond that was currently very popular with the local frog population; thousands of small yellow and brown Cuban tree frogs were having fun here. In the next pond, we discovered a baby alligator (but it is not included in Andreas' official alligator statistics because it is still a baby).
The Everglades are extremely heterogeneous; in addition to mangrove forests, there are pine forests, swamps and grasslands that are under water. The Pa-hay-okee Trail leads us along a boardwalk through the grasslands (Pa-hay-okee means "grass in the water" in the language of the local Indian tribe, the Seminoles). Here we see white water lilies and a softshell turtle (possibly the inspiration for softshell jacket?). These turtles have a soft shell and a long nose that protrudes from the water. We found and photographed more specimens on the side of the road.
In a small pond next to the road we discovered another gator (number 3 in Andreas' statistics, in which babies do not count).

After so many impressions in nature, we head back to Miami.

Our accommodation is in the artists' district of Wynwood. There is a lot of street art here (graffiti and murals). We went to a Spanish restaurant for dinner - Andreas had chicken-filled enchiladas and I had a salad. After a short walk through the district (with some shady characters, the smell of cannabis and monster trucks on the street) we fell into bed tired.