Mody把技术层面的细节写得很清楚了，我就简单写一写感觉。主要的感觉就是爽，感觉多少年没有玩得这么爽了。沙滩，浮潜，everglades不同生态景观的trail，各种各样的美食。。。尤其是晚上在酒吧吹着海风，看着演出，拿杯啤酒慢慢地喝，忘记所有烦心的事情，可以静静地想着过去，真的太放松太享受了。。。
Miami 游归来
去年的欧洲之行欠到现在都还没写游记，所以现在赶快趁热把09 Christmas的写了，以免拖欠。
其实行程都是借鉴前人经验，探索有限：
12-22 Everglades National park(Anhinga trail; flamingo boat tour of mangrove islands);
12-23 Driving from homestead to Key West(stop by and swim at Honda Bahia state park), experience sunset festival and Sloppy Joe’s bar at key west;
12-24 Dry tortugus snorkeling；
12-25 Miami south beach;
12-26 Biscayne Natl Park(Bay tour);
12-27 Miami Haulover beach(clothes is optional);
12-28 Everglades Natl Park (Shark Valley tram and trail);
12-29 Miami downtown, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, South Florida culture museum.
Opinions on following questions(we wondered about before we started out):
A. snorkeling?
In general, I don’t feel I saw the fishes and coral as beautiful and clear as I imagined. Maybe my imaginaiton went too wild. It was nice but not like those in photos(maybe also because i didn’t wear glasses).We tried Dry tortugus and Biscayne Natl Park(Bay tour). I feel weather is a very important factor. In Biscayne Natl Park(Bay tour), one can take the boat for 45 min see less coral(we just found several spots close to some building or ship remains) but also a lot of colorful tropical fishes. For Dry tortugus, there are coral surrounding many parts of the Fort base. More coral and we saw small fish fleets, which was nice. But the weather was very windy and many jellyfish were floated to one part of Fort, so I didn’t dare to swim all the way arround Fort. Also because it was very windy, the boat trip back to key west was very bumpy(most bumpy trip I have either took), even if we took Yankee Freedom(the bigger boat compared to Sunny days, which canceled the trip on that day due to windy weather) and was like in a "Pirate Ship" for more than 2hrs.
Several suggestions for snorkeling:
1.Dry tortugus: it is better to go arround the Fort base and take a look to find the spots of coral first. The corals mostly locate on the base of fort. Because of the clear water, what one can see from the bank is pretty much the same as in the water, even the fish. So locating the spots on the bank makes it earlier to find the corals.
2. Dry tortugus: ask for swim floaties if they did not give you. They are very helpful. If not many people are around, it may be even a little dangerous in a windy day to swim around the Fort without swim floaties.
3. Biscayne Natl Park(Bay tour): somehow the website for reserving snorkeling Biscayne Natl Park is not very good. Rangers in park basically don’t really look at those reservation. E.g. we reserved for Reef tour but we were not noticed that there won’t be Reef tour that day until our check-in. So it is much better idea to reserve by call.
4. Biscayne Natl Park(Bay tour): bring a coat with you, or you will be cold and wet all the way back(45min). I did catch a cold by ignoring this.
B. Bars on Key west and miami beach:
They are many bars on the main road(?name) of Key west. We stayed in sloppy Joe’s, which was recommended by wikitravel and many people. The bar environment is pretty comfortable for us(not familiar with bar culture). Many old people,no need to dress up. The only minor is that we heard instrumental sound better than the singer’s voice. Although when I fisrt reached Key west, I don’t particularly feel culture is more casual and less commercial. I did feel that comparitively when I stayed in miami. There are a lot of bars at night along Ocean Drive. Those go to bars are mostly pretty people(dressed up young people).We tried the Clevelander. The music there is good and environment is open and decorated well. Their speical drink looks like light fruit wine, but turns out to be pretty strong for me. There are also bars with closed environment. We tried Jazid, cause some people rated high on web. The cover fee is 10 dollars. It is really small. Live music is good. But I don’t quite like enclosed environment and also enclosed bar requires cover fee.
C. Beach:
South beach is pretty good. Honda Bahia state park is good but there are sea plants on some beach, when we visited. Haulover beach is pretty good.Dry Tortugus beach is very clean and nice.
D. Everglades Natl Park:
Recommend strongly on Shark Valley Tram 4pm. We saw very very beautiful sunset and birds crowd for resting. Different style of scene and ecology for flamingo mangrove tour, which is also impressive.
E. Dining and living:
小辣椒/风采阁 Pepper’s Chinese Restaurant & Lounge.(north of miami) We tried the hot pot. $20 per people and a lot of seafood and all sorts of different things…
Versailles at little Havana. A long line. Very popular cuban food. We tried their Classic(cuban food) and Paella. Very good. We tried Cuban cusine in David’s Cafe on Lincoln Rd at Miami beach, which was recommended by wiki travel. Versailles is cheaper and better.
Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville at Key West, recommended by wiki travel. Coconut shrimp is pretty good.
El Toro Taco at homestead, recommended by wiki travel. Mexican food. Very nice.
The Clay hotel: when I searched for hotel on miami beach(close to south beach), it is very difficult to find both good locaiton and good price. The Clay hotel, recommended by Wiki travel at first, seems to be exception. The room is relatively small and old. But bath room is clean and we got aroom that is quiet enough for on that noisy street. Many nice small markets and restaurant aound.
Quote
