Florida - September 22nd to September 25th, 2016

We completed another long, overnight greyhound bus trip and arrived in to sunny Miami, Florida, at about midday, and yes, it was very sunny! The humidity was high along with the temperatures. So after we checked into our hostel in South Miami, the first thing on our mind was to get to the famous Miami Beach!

We had a great location just 200 metres away from the beach and when we arrived, Miami certainly lived up to its reputation! The nice white sand of the beach was the best we had seen outside of Australia and the beautiful aqua blue tropical waters were very inviting. The ocean temperatures were the warmest we had ever felt, perhaps actually a little too warm, but we happily spent the afternoon lazing about in the waters and working on our holiday tans.

The beach was also surprisingly empty. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that we were there on a Thursday afternoon in September. There was however, a small plane flying back and forth across the beach advertising the Miami nightlife, Girls, girls, girls etc! This advertising had no effect on us as later on, we bypassed the nightclubs to head to a small sports bar for a giant pile of Buffalo Wings and a couple of local pints for dinner.

What stood out was the very cosmopolitan feel of the area, especially a prevalent Latino population with many signs actually having Spanish featured above English. This was a huge change from what we had previously experienced in the USA and as such, we actually felt like we had crossed a border in to some other country. Adding to the effect was the tropical climate and countless Palm trees everywhere we looked. First impressions had been very positive and we were enjoying the Miami vibe.

On our second day we decided to go back for some more of that amazing beach, this time the water was a little cooler and therefore, a lot more refreshing. So after having a dip we decided to walk northwards towards the Miami Beach central area. The further we headed north the more fellow tourists we came across - ranging from young American couples travelling across the country to European and Asian families, some who had obviously never seen a beach before!

We also saw a lot of interesting locals - ranging from the typical beach musclemen working out at the fixed equipment just above the sand, to the local tattoo artist selling his skillset by showing off his own, close to completely covered body, most of which he claimed he had done himself! Despite the growing mass of people there was also a lot of wildlife to be seen. Schools of tropical fish huddled in the waves just metres from the beach and lizards and sandpipers scuttled around in front of our feet.

Having made it to Miami beach proper we had another quick swim. We made our way back to South Beach along Ocean Drive, the first street running parallel to the water. There were many more opportunities for people watching as we headed home including groups of roller bladers, joggers, cyclists and cigar peddlers.

We had always intended on visiting the Everglades while we were in Miami and our hostel offered several tours that took in the area, but on a last minute whim we decided to book a car for the day in order to gain some freedom. We left our hostel early, picked up our hire car, and were on our way crossing to the western side of Florida in a journey that would take around 90 minutes.

Firstly we crossed over the massive bridges that crossed between the Florida Keys, the mainland and Miami City. Along the way we gazed at multiple mansions and luxury yachts that ringed Biscayne Bay. It was obvious that in a lot of people's minds, if you come in to a lot of cash, Miami is the place to be!

After we passed the city we were on to the Everglades freeway. Along the road to our right, ran a canal of water that looked like it had once been a natural river. In order to pass the time we jokingly decided to keep a close eye on the canal for any 'gators that might have crept their way in’ - though this close to the city we thought it was pretty doubtful. Much to our surprise we had spotted an alligator floating right in the middle of the canal within the first five minutes!  This was the first of several sightings (one had actually crawled out of the water and was lying under the guardrail on the side of the freeway), that certainly made our drive much more exciting.

We reached our destination of Everglades City and bought our tickets for some touring around the swamp. We had gone with Captain Jack’s, as they offered a combination tour that encompassed three different ecosystems within the Everglades national park. First up was a ride on a small 7 person air boat through the mangroves. As we waited on the bank of the river we had the opportunity to meet a small 2 year old alligator named Patches and pose for a couple of photos.

Soon our airboat was ready and we climbed aboard. Sadly we were informed by Zig, (short for Zigmas) our guide, that there had not been any alligators spotted in the area that day, but luck  was with us and 5 minutes in, he was pointing out a 9 foot monster lurking in the mangrove roots. He was hard to spot and disappeared as we manoeuvred in for a closer look, but the tour was off to a great start. Zig and another tour boat driver joked about who was going to dive in after him to give the tourists a good show but common sense prevailed and we were on our way!

Zig knew the area like the back of his hand and shortly we were zooming around slim water passageways amidst the mangrove forest. The airboat was capable of some high speeds, but was not equipped with any kid of braking mechanism and in order to slow down, the boat required an abrupt spinning turn in an open area.

  

Needless to say this technique resulted in some rather large splashes and some very wet tourists in the front row (we were very happy with our positioning in the second row). We explored a fair portion of the surrounding area including the abandoned South Florida railway, built in the early 1900s when efforts were underway to convert the swamps to farmland.

Another highlight was paying a visit to a family of tidal raccoons who live above the swamp in the branches of the mangrove trees. These raccoons are active during the day, rather than being nocturnal like their larger mainland cousins and rely on scavenging to survive. This scavenging did translate to a near boat invasion, but I am happy to say all tourists made it through without a scratch!

Next up on our tour, was making our way through the open swamplands themselves. This required another airboat, this time a larger model that could hold around 20 people. This increase in size didn't seem to have much effect on the speed however and we were soon zipping through the swampy marshes. Our new guide asked who had taken us on the previous trip through the mangroves and he seemed mortified that we had barely got a glimpse of an alligator! He vowed that we would have better luck on this trip as he knew of a few resident 'gators.

First up however was a bit of history around the area and surprisingly enough we learned that mangroves are not actually native to the Florida region. The name 'Everglades' actually means 'ever grass' and originally that is what the area looked like, a never ending sea of swampy grassland. However, this all ended when developers attempted industrialise the area by converting it to farmland.  They drained the water and as a result many of the slow flowing rivers of the area were stilled and became stagnant pools. This created perfect conditions for the mangroves to gain a foothold and take over much of the area, particularly when all development activity was abandoned. Today the government is attempting to right some of the wrongs of the past and have several projects in motion that will not remove the current mangrove forests but will ensure they do not continue to spread.

Our guide was very knowledgeable and well spoken. Particularly for somebody who looked like they could have come from the cast of the show swamp men and also revealed that he had previously been bitten by a 9 foot alligator while attempting a wrestling show. It was clear that the passion for conserving the Everglades environment was very strong amongst the locals. Next, as promised, we arrived to a specific pond and saw 2 gators sunning themselves on the surface of the water. These guys were only fairly small, around three feet long, but they were easy to spot and were at times so close to the boat that you could nearly reach out and touch them!
The last area to explore took us away from the airboats and on to a 'swamp buggy'. The buggy turned out to be an ex-military jeep raised up on monster truck wheels. This was done in order to be able to make its way through the fields of razor sharp swamp grass.

As good as our guides had been to this point, we had certainly had the biggest character of the lot saved until last. He had all of the classic comedic lines including the old 'I've run out of gas!' routine,  once we had made our way in to the middle of nowhere, as well as providing the only dating advice required for a place like Everglades City (population 394). He said to, ‘just make sure you go looking at least two doors down!

In the midst of his joking he did also have a lot of interesting information about the area. He showed us a small patch of trees in the distance that were the home to a Floridian black bear - up to a third larger than any other type of black bear and due to the local climate, one of the few bears that never go in to hibernation. Our guide also had some stories around animals he had previously spotted in the area. The standout being a 14 foot Python he had trapped around 5 years earlier, only a few metres away from the swamp buggy's path!

We also saw some old hiding places for the Seminole Indians, proudly a tribe that had never been defeated. During the wars the Seminoles successfully evaded all attempts of capture and open conflict with US forces. Later on they were the brains behind the casinos that popped up all over America on Indian reservations, the entire time proudly calling themselves the ‘unconquered people’’. Soon the majority of the defeated Indian tribes were working for them in the casinos while the Seminoles are continuing to get richer and richer!

We got dropped off back at our car on the main road and had one more bonus sight to see. Included in our ticket was a free pass to visit a small zoo that featured many local Floridian animals. The enclosures were very small, though every enclosure had signage stating that the size exceeded minimum legislative requirements and the new owners were in the process of making them bigger and better, it was a good chance to see several of the more elusive animals.

  

Amongst the animals on show were the Florida Panther (a local variant of the mountain lion), American crocodiles (Florida being the only place on earth where alligators and crocodiles coexist in the wild) and a whole flock of wild Floridian turkeys. Strangely the zoo had amongst its inhabitants two Siberian tigers who were most certainly NOT natives! These Tigers were absolutely enormous, well and truly dwarfed any tiger (or big cat of any kind) that we had seen before in zoos around the world. As it turns out this species is the largest on earth, but how the two ended up in the middle of the Everglades is a mystery!

Inside a tent, a bout of 'gator wrestling was kicking off when suddenly one of the infamous tropical storms swept over the zoo bringing thunder and torrential rain. We ran out to our car seeking shelter and started the journey back to the east coast. The storm ended as suddenly as it had started and by the time was arrived back to Miami the sun was once again blazing in a cloudless sky.

That drew a close to our adventures in Miami. However, we both agreed that we were determined to return one day to explore further. The following day we made our way back to the bus station for our next long haul trip to the state of Louisiana.


Adrian.

Atlanta, Georgia -September 19th to September 22nd , 2016

Neither of us had been to Atlanta, Georgia before and we were excited to get there – all we had to do was survive a 3-leg 17 hour Greyhound bus ride to get there. We had a few interesting moments,  such as the transport hub in North Carolina holding more homeless people than passengers and a group of women fresh out of prison who hopped  on for the last stint but we made it in to town at about 10am. (Holly was getting serious Orange is the New Black vibes!)

 The weather in Georgia was some of the hottest we had encountered so far with temperatures reaching the mid 30s with bonus humidity! Our AirBNB host couldn’t meet us until 1pm so we killed the some time at a nearby Starbucks before making our way in to the Old Fourth Ward area. Again we had done well with our accommodation pick – we were staying in a multilevel artists loft with very cool artwork and murals covering much of the available wall space. Our host (the artist) was also very cool and recommended we visit the nearby Ladybird Grove area for dinner.

To get there we walked the last piece of the newly opened Freedom Park trail, that despite the heat, was filled with a mass of cyclists, joggers and dog walkers. It didn’t take long to get to Ladybird Grove and it was certainly a popular and trendy place – the whole area was pumping on a Monday night!

We browsed through the restaurants and stalls and settled on a Mexican restaurant. The food and prices were fantastic – so good in fact we ended up going back again the next night! We also experienced exceptional service, after ordering our mains we had been waiting for about 15 minutes. We weren’t too worried, we could see how busy the place was and were aren’t really the type of people who even think about complaining. However, when our server came to check on us he was horrified and promptly told us that both mains would be on the house. Needless to say we left a much larger than usual tip!

There were two main reasons for us coming all the way out to Atlanta – the first was to visit the world famous Georgia Aquarium which we attended at opening time the next morning. I had seen this aquarium featured in the movie, ‘The Change Up’, starring Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman, several years earlier and had been determined ever since to one day see it for myself. The major drawcard was 4 whale sharks that had been rescued from the Taiwanese black market and flown over to Georgia when they were babies.

In order to give these gentle giants ample living space an enormous tank had been designed and built, capable of holding over 238 million litres of water. We went straight to the giant glass viewing area and had the amazing experience of watching these giant fish get their morning feed in a near private show. Each fish was fed in a separate quadrant of the tank from a small dinghy with the food shovelled down in front of the animal who would promptly take an enormous gulp.

Of the four whales sharks the largest was over 21 feet (6.5 metres) which is still classified as an adolescent by whale shark standards. However they were amazing as they slowly circled their tank, gliding across the face of the glass window. I could quite happily have sat and watched them for hours but there was still plenty of other exhibits to see.

Firstly the whale sharks were not alone in their tank. Other creatures that kept them company included black tip reef sharks, manta rays, saw nose sharks and even a huge green sea turtle. The manta rays were also a very impressive sight – huge in their own right (though still dwarfed by the whale sharks) and we saw several instances of them dancing in the tank. They would glide gracefully through the water and suddenly perform a slow backwards somersault for no apparent reason. Overall it has really given me added motivation to one day dive in the wild with both of these incredible species.

After tearing ourselves away from the giant tank we next moved through an Amazon section of the aquarium. Highlights here included an albino alligator family and an archerfish feeding demonstration. The archerfish are predators that lurk below the surface of the water looking for insects hanging from trees and branches overhead. As soon as they spot a tasty looking morsel, they spit water in order to knock the potential food into the water so they can snap it up. There were about 20 archerfish in the display tank and when the keeper started sticking pieces of meat to the glass wall of their tank they went crazy! They were churning up the water in their desperation to get at the food – some even went beyond spitting and jumped totally out of the water to snap at the food! The feeding frenzy lasted for a few minutes and then it was time to head onwards.

We next watched a dolphin show that demonstrated both the bond between trainer and animal and the amazing power and grace of the dolphin. Following that was another family of beluga whales, some frolicking sea otters and an assorted of weird and wonderful crustaceans and molluscs. Suddenly our time was running out and we had a quick encore of the whale sharks before heading on to night two at our new favourite Mexican restaurant, sadly no freebies this time!

The next day we started by exploring the second reason for our visit to Atlanta. It is one of the hotspots of the civil rights movement and more specifically the hometown of Martin Luther King Jnr. Scattered throughout the streets of the city are numerous plaques, statues and monuments all commemorating various moments and influential figures who contributed to the cause.

We headed to the National Centre for Civil and Human Rights,  a relatively new museum located right across the plaza from the aquarium.  This highly detailed museum tracked the history of the civil rights movement and specifically the events and people from Georgia and the greater South. As someone who knew only the bare minimum heading in, I found this museum to be absolutely amazing. All kinds of mediums were used to convey information - newspaper articles, video clips, news stories and interactive exhibits.

A couple of things that stood out to me was not only the courage of all involved, but the powerful footage and sheer charisma of MLK Junior as he addressed the packed 250,000 strong listeners in Washington DC during the 1963 ‘March on Washington’. Also inspiring were the quotes of the man himself from throughout the movement and the days preceding his assassination. In his final public speech before his death, he eerily seemed to provide his own eulogy, as if he had seen what was to come.

Another stunning interactive exhibit stemmed from a few years earlier when people of all races and walks of life began non-violent protests in support of equal rights. The form of protest being carried out by these people were known as ‘Sit-Ins’. This was one of the early forms of protest which involved heading to a ‘whites-only’ lunch counters and sitting on a stool at the counter, in complete silence. This occurred all over the South and often incited terrible behaviour and violence in retaliation.

In this activity we sat with eyes closed at a counter with hands flat on the table (as the protesters did) while we were demonstrated the abuse, both verbal and physical which these brave souls were subjected to. The counter and chairs would shake as if being pounded and shaken by enraged patrons, while through earphones we heard both background noise of violent crowds and fellow protesters being assaulted  and voices all around promising threats of violence and pain to come. All in all it was quite a powerful experience and really highlighted the sheer bravery of the people who stood up in an attempt to make America a better place for all.

After finishing up at this excellent museum we opted for something a bit lighter in the afternoon and visited the Museum of Coca-Cola. Atlanta, Georgia was the birthplace of Coke – invented by John Pemberton in 1885. Pemberton was a chemist who almost stumbled across this formulae by accident as he attempted to create a medicinal equivalent to morphine.

After a 20 minuted guided tour (essentially a propaganda piece that heralded Coca-Cola as pretty much not only the greatest achievement of humanity, but also the glue that binds the world together) we were free to explore some of the exhibits on show. This included the safe which contains the original (and apparently only) copy of the Coke recipe, locked away to keep it out of any competitors hands. Also there was an interesting wall of myths and legends which separated fact and fiction around the product’s history. Some of the more interesting and memorable facts/debunkings included the fact that only 2 people at a time know the Coke recipe, and each of them only half (False!) And that Coke used to contain cocaine (true!).

The last room (excluding the out of control gift shop) was full of over 100 Coca-Cola manufactured drinks from all around the world – and we were free to sample as many of them as we were able. It was quite a mixed bag, some were quite nice while others were truly terrible! We are talking about you, Bon Bon Anglais, from Madagascar!

On a sugar high we walked back towards our room, but on the way the city still had one more sight for us to see. An entire street had been blocked off and was full of actors and prop cars all made up to look like they were part of the New York Police Department. Filming was in progress for a scene from the new Spiderman movie and while we didn’t get a glimpse of the hero himself it will be interesting in the future to see if we can identify the scene in the movie.

After a quick dinner near our accommodation we spent the last few minutes of light exploring a bit further down the path of the Freedom trail. It really was an interesting blend of people, murals and new-age sculptures and something that we would have loved to have explored further. However, once again the Greyhound bus was calling and this time we had an overnight trip to sunny Miami, Florida!

Adrian.