I like to drive and if that isn’t obvious I should reiterate it because when I find myself at a loose end I’ll get behind the wheel.
My drive up the Keys was uneventful so I had an afternoon to spend before I needed to check in for my overnight flight back to Lima. Obviously I should go see how the Everglades were doing I thought to myself. Air conditioning on, windshield wipers at the ready and off we went up Krome Avenue towards Tamiami Trail.
Seminole villages line Highway 41 in the Miccosukkee reservation.
Visitors are not welcome across the footbridge.
When I first came to check out the Everglades in 1981 I expected to see cypress trees, lianas and creepy swampy stuff like the movies. That does exist in the Big Cypress Swamp and along part of Loop Road as we shall see but most of the Everglades is a river of grass as Marjory Stoneman Douglas called it and it looks like this:
I keep promising myself (and my patient wife) an airboat ride but it hasn’t happened yet.
And then it rained and rained hard which made me wonder how wet the dirt Loop Road would become.
As it turned out it showed signs of having been rained upon but it was drying out. Oh and there was an RV slowly picking his way. Poor sod; I was in an unloaded rental car.
Loop Road is 24 miles long and because I wanted to get to Sweetwater Strand where there are usually lots of alligators I entered the loop from the west at Monroe Station. This used to be a road stop for travelers driving from Tampa to Miami on the Tam-iami Trail which was built at the urging of developer Baron Collier though funding came and went. It was completed in April 1928 allowing drivers to get to Miami from Tampa over two days of rough driving.
Monroe Station no longer exists as vandals accidentally set the wooden structure on fire and the land is now a parking lot. It’s called Monroe Station because Monroe County used to reach that spot when the road was first built. Most of the Loop Road runs through Monroe county to this day and homes along the Loop in the middle are still in the county whose seat is Key West.
16 of the 24 miles are dirt and the first four are in Collier County and they suck as they are potholed and lumpy and not maintained. Monroe County has no signage but this is where it begins and miraculously the road is suddenly graded. If you want to visit this winter it’s pretty smooth going, I was rolling by easily at the limit.
The last eight miles are paved but as we shall see that is no guarantee of easy driving.
This is Big Cypress and if this is what you expect to see in the Everglades you owe yourself this drive.
The feeling of being in the back of beyond is enhanced by the lack of a cell signal but there are lots of people around here in winter.
My disappointment was that I only saw one alligator. Usually there are reptiles all over the place at Sweetwater Strand, perhaps the high water level gave them few spots to sun themselves.
Nissan Sentra country, kind of…a good rental car.
I had no insect repellent with me but I was not bitten. I feel awkward explaining why but I learned this trick in Colombia months ago and I’ve not been bitten since so feel free to ignore my suggestion but please don’t tell me it doesn’t work because it does for me and I tested it here on the Loop Road.
A Colombian told me to take vitamin B1 pills for twenty days for six months protection from mosquitoes. There, cheap easy and safe. Vitamin B is water soluble so you pee away any excess. Mosquitoes landed on me and left without sticking me. I was surprised.
If you look on the map you’ll see the dotted line which is the unpaved road and at last we find pavement where the map shows a solid line.
Yup. More flooding everywhere the pavement dipped. At least this is freshwater.
This is Pinecrest, Monroe County.
Some sort of drama in the road as I approached Dade County and the typical Miccosukee Indian homes. I drove by and they were holding a towel to a teenaged girl’s face. They didn’t need me as they had cars and phones of their own.
The Miccosukee typically build homes on mounds here in this style with huge eaves which is very practical for heavy rains and strong sunshine. I’d have a lanai to keep bugs away but that’s me.
If you want to go swamp hunting get big tires.
And back to Highway 41 the Tamiami Trail. Obey speed limits as tribal police are everywhere not that I would know as I have never been stopped for speeding. Ahem. I stayed well below this time and pulled over to let others take the risk.
And then the sun went down, I bought a Publix sandwich for dinner and dropped off the car with a shuttle to get me to the airport. Everything went smoothly which was nice but really was a tribute to Layne’s organizational planning.
My 65 pound bag was fit to burst so I had it wrapped and it stayed wrapped all the way to the campground in Arequipa.
An overnight flight which I barely slept through and in six hours I was in Lima, immigration gave me 90 days and customs didn’t give me a second glance. I checked the huge bag for Arequipa and had a sausage and egg breakfast. Very civilized.
Coming in to land at Arequipa it was obvious why GANNET2 is covered in dust. This place is a huge desert and we drove through this. I amaze myself.
From the air Arequipa is vast and we saw it laid out below us just 90 minutes after we took off from Lima.
Everyone leapt to their feet on landing except me, so I just sat and watched the scramble which is what I usually do then I stroll off and meet them at the baggage carousel.
The blue box was my bag safe and sound.
Layne had organized a cab to pick me up.
Fifteen minutes later Rusty was licking my face off.
Yesterday Key West; today Arequipa. Phew.
