On my last day in Florida, Akshat and I took a road trip westward across the Everglades swampland towards Naples. After a stretch of highway, we entered a quiet two-lane road through the national park. On both sides of the road, thin not-so-tall trees grow out of seemingly endless shallow water. The Everglades is famous for its diverse wildlife. Among the many birds are Great Egrets with shiny white feathers, long thin legs, and a pointed orange beak, male Anhingas (also known as snake birds) with black feathers and a long extended neck, female Anhingas with a buff-coloured chest, and many more I cannot name.

The highlight was of course the alligators. Though large and menacing looking, they are surprisingly sedentary and docile animals. We stayed within our cars throughout the trail, watching these passive giants bask in the sun and slowly wiggle in the shallow swamp water.

When we reached the Gulf of Mexico coast, our stomachs had started growling. The choice of food in this part of the world is without a doubt alligator meat, which is chewy and lean, but not dry or hard. We sat by the water, watching airboats loudly stream by palm trees and mangroves.

We reached Naples, a wealthy and somewhat artificial town, just before sunset. I didn't expect to see the sunset over the ocean on the East Coast, as the sun sets in the West, so an unobstructed sunset over the horizon on the Gulf of Mexico was certainly a pleasant surprise. The sky changed from orange to fiery red, as a bright full moon rose from the East between a row of palm trees.

The drive back to Fort Lauderdale was uneventful until the end. As we were in the middle of the Everglades, we noticed the FUEL LOW warning had been on. The first exit was at least another 20 km away. When we finally anxiously approached the exit, we found out that there was no way to take the exit from our lane. We had missed the exit! Our hearts pounding, we drove another 5km to the next exit and luckily managed to fill up the tank before the car broke down.