June 15 - June 24

Another week another country, literally!! Arriving in Miami after having spent almost five weeks in Central America was a total culture shock (although this was cushioned slightly by the fact that everyone around us was still speaking Spanish).

First off, everything was more expensive, but secondly the change of standards was quite extreme and we now found that an average room would come with a king sized bed and include a bath, fridge, hairdryer, a/c and cable TV. Wow this seemed like pure luxury after some of the places we'd seen over the last few weeks and we felt like we were in a five star hotel! To recuperate from the heavy traveling, we rested a few days in a hotel near Miami Airport before venturing further.

The limited public transport around Florida didn't leave us with too many options for getting from Miami to Orlando, so everything seemed to point towards renting a car for the week. Having a set of wheels turned out to be very convenient and added to the whole feeling that this stay in Florida was a holiday within a holiday. The only bummer with renting the car came from the fact that Kev's driving license was issued 11 and a half months ago and prevented us from renting from some of the cheaper agencies (which have a requirement for licenses to be issued at least one full year ago).

Orlando

Famous for it's theme parks, we couldn't really resist the chance to indulge when we were so close. The parks that we went to in Orlando were DisneyWorld's Magic Kingdom, Universal Studios and The Islands of Adventure. It's hard to say which one we preferred because each is quite different from each other (but because Islands of Adventure was packed with amazing roller-coasters and thrill rides, that might give it the edge).

It looked like the weather could put a dampener on our afternoon in Islands of Adventure when some of the rides were shut down (because of lightning) and the heavens began to open. Fortunately this was only a temporary interruption and as an added bonus forced some of the crowds to head off. By the time they reopened there was only a few stragglers left. We nearly made ourselves puke as we got a chance to go on the notorious suspended roller-coaster, "Fire and Ice", about 6 times in a row without queuing.

While in Orlando, it was unlucky that we never got to hook up with Cam and Dave (the two guys we met in Playa del Carmen), but with our limited time it's impossible to always synchronize things. Cam told us that the real life of Orlando was downtown so he'll probably kill us when he finds out that we never made it that far to see it with our own eyes.

Palm Beach

After the thrill packed Orlando came the relaxing and beautiful stay in Palm Beach.

Kev's relations, Francis and Mike, really gave us the royal treatment and there wasn't a single thing we need to worry about during our stay with them. When they showed us around the neighborhood, it was fantastic to see a different side of Florida besides the theme parks. Seeing the turtles come onshore and laying their eggs in the sand was pretty special and something that we were very lucky to catch with the help of a neighbour, Sharon.

Going for a canoe trip down a river full of 'gators was not something we'd ever considered before but was also very enjoyable. The heat and humidity seemed like it might have been too much for the 'gators though as there wasn't much sign of them on our excursion.

All in all, the days in Palm Beach left us with a very good taste of Florida and set us up for a new adventure in Brazil.