So much experienced – seen – pedalled – sweated – carried – pushed

Because we flew over Mexico, we reached Panama 2 months too early. The rainy season in Ecuador and Peru does not end until March. During this period the roads are often impassable, and there is no going forwards or backwards. That is why we decide to spend the holidays in Florida and fly from Panama to Miami. With the bikes packed in boxes again and our gear in a kitbag, a shuttle bus takes us to our hotel in Miami Beach.

The number 1 hobbies: mowing huge lawns, or putting out as many fishing rods as you have bait. What the strimmer is to the Panamanian, the fishing rod is to the American. Those are our first impressions of the change of country from Panama to Florida.

Motorhomes the size of a coach or an articulated lorry, made up of a towing vehicle and a trailer the size of a holiday apartment, are steered through the streets. It is not unusual for a private car to be hitched to these vehicles on a tow bar, with a four-seater all-terrain vehicle loaded piggyback on top. Boats with outboard motors of up to 400 horsepower are also towed behind the motorhomes. The campsites are perfectly equipped for vehicles like these: water and sewage connections, electricity and TV hook-ups, and a level concrete pad. All of this is surrounded by lots of lawn, so there is still enough room for the veranda, the BBQ, the boat trailer, the Harley-Davidson and the Christmas lights.

Endless roads, all dead straight, no hills, and only the main roads, at 90° angles, are marked on the tourist maps (the road atlas is more detailed). It's hard to judge distances from the maps. There are usually several more side streets in between, so we had to work our way from 184th to 344th Street to find the road to the Keys. Again and again, about every 500 metres, an annoying traffic light makes us stop, press the button and wait for green before we can carry on. That means: brake, get back on and accelerate from zero to 20 km/h with all our luggage, over and over again, at more than 40 junctions in total.

Bike paths are rare, and are mostly found only on residential streets, or next to bus lanes, where they are pointless. Supposedly there are plans to run these "bicycle paths" through the city centres too. Basically, as a cyclist in Florida you are only tolerated. You are more likely to get a pitying look, or be told through an open car window to leave the multi-lane road and ride on the pavement. The number of cyclists you meet reflects that.

During our stay in Miami we only saw 20 bicycles.

The car rules life! Public transport is poor and badly connected, or not attractive enough for American distances (roads up to 3 lanes wide through the city). A bus ride with 2 changes, an elevated railway, a train and a shuttle bus to the airport took more than 3 hours. By car you can do the trip in ¾ of an hour. Correspondingly far away, "not far, only a few blocks", is our next campground, 2 hours from Miami city.

Florida, also called the state with 365 days of sunshine and a thousand bridges, made us curious too. We want to visit the Keys, Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beach and the Everglades. Many bridges in and around downtown Miami let boats pass through the many navigable canals. When a ship passes through, the sections of the multi-lane road are raised, and the traffic is stopped for 15 minutes.

"Number 1" (the first road) runs along the east coast from the north, right through Miami to Key West, the southernmost point of the USA. The word "Key" comes from the Spanish word "cayo". The original name for Key West was Cayo Hueso, which means "little bone island". Key West, once the longest town in Florida, is strategically placed in the Straits of Florida and has the highest income per head in the USA. The warm Gulf Stream brings an abundance of fish, sponges and lobsters.

Key West was once the country's biggest cigar producer and supplier of natural sponges, and it has always attracted famous visitors such as John James Audubon, Ernest Hemingway, Harry Truman, Tennessee Williams, Robert Frost, and also us "Zentralbikers".

We set off for the "Keys", made up of 5 sections stretching over a total of 105 miles.

Henry Flagler, an engineer, made it possible to build a railway. On 22 January 1912 this "miracle of technology" reached Key West over several viaducts, which changed the island town dramatically.

There are only a handful of campsites on the Keys. They are usually booked up to 12 months in advance. Surprisingly, a tent pitch costs the same per night as a motorhome pitch, whatever its size. The flat rate for a caravan pitch includes water, electricity and sewage connections. Tent pitches are often not allowed at RV campgrounds because there are no toilets or washing facilities. These necessities can be found in every motorhome! That is why we spend 2 nights in Key West at the Radisson hotel, only a little more expensive than a 10 m² campsite pitch.

For the 175 kilometres back to Key Largo, by which time we had eaten our last power gels and bars, we only needed 8 hours. We want to spend the holidays at the "Larry and Penny Thompson" campground, not far from the "Metro Zoo". Our disappointment is great: the cosy Christmas BBQ in front of the tent is not to be. Within a period of 30 days we had already been guests for 7 days, so after 2 days we are asked to take down our tent and leave. With this rule, the ranger wants to prevent "homeless people" or "strangers" from settling on campsites.

Baffled and annoyed, we set off to find somewhere else to grill our "Christmas turkey". "Only" 90 kilometres away, near Fort Lauderdale, we find the nearest tent pitch, for 40 USD. After a sleepless night, disturbed by the constant roar of the nearby freeway and the horn of the AMTRAK freight train, we prefer to move into a 70 USD motel.

We are constantly accompanied by fast-food chains like McDonald's, KFC, Subway, Taco Bell, Burger King, Pizza Hut and co. Every petrol station has a "Food Mart" sign too, and on TV there is a 24-hour "food channel". Everything revolves around food, beauty, cars and plastic money. To pay for a 3 USD train ticket, we were first sent to a restaurant to change a 20-dollar note.

During our stay in Miami until our flight back, we visited, explored and experienced Fort Lauderdale, Port Everglades, Dania Beach, the Hollywood Broadwalk, the A1A highway, Key Biscayne, Coral Gables, Metro Zoo, the Port of Miami and downtown Miami by bike.

After 1,200 kilometres we leave Miami with these memories:

We especially liked the beaches along the "A1A" and "Crandon Park" with its beach on "Key Biscayne". We found the many "drawbridges" and the size of the multi-lane roads built over the straits and waterways interesting and impressive. We were also amazed by the traffic flowing without jams despite the enormous number of private cars (and very few lorries). Driving through the Keys and the Everglades in a rental car is surely the greatest attraction.

After California, Miami was the most expensive part of the journey. But you have to remember that, because there are so few campsites, hotel nights make up the biggest share of the costs.

Thanks to wrong information and a lack of signs, we will remember our wrong turn onto the 5-lane expressway in Miami for a long time!

Distances:

Note:

A tent pitch per night, for a limited number of people, without water or electricity, usually costs 40 USD. The length of stay may be limited.

A motorhome of any size, on a pitch with water, electricity and sewage connections, costs 40 – 50 USD. Mostly there is no limit on the length of stay.

The journey continues on 3 March 2009 in Quito, Ecuador