Southern Florida is very different from any other part of the country I’ve seen. It reminds me of Costa Rica somewhat. There are palm trees littering the landscape and lush jungle-like woods with vines and Spanish moss hanging. Except for the many palm trees, most of the landscape looks like any other part of the country – the same old box and chain stores you see all over. Most of the streets are much wider than Raleigh’s, and the sprawl never ends (Raleigh’s ends eventually.) There is a lot more ethnic diversity here, too – we’ve seen (or heard) many languages already. The black culture of Sanford reminds me of Atlanta’s – pimped out old cars with wild colors and tacky rims. We saw some old Cadillac today with a pink top, baby blue bottom, and pink rims. A guy was driving it!
Back to similarities to Costa Rica/Latin America: almost all buildings have a stucco exterior and many seem to have a concrete structure (probably to be hurricane-proof.) The houses have low-pitch roofs. Many houses and buildings except for the big box stores and chain restaurants have pastel colors. The neighborhood near where we were staying is a mixture of Latin American-type houses – colorful pastels, arches, flat roofs, bars on windows! – with beach-type houses with “Florida blinds” and regular ugly ranches that you’d see almost anywhere in the country. I thought the barred windows were only found in places like third-world Latin America and the Philippines, but this is a bad neighborhood. There are lots of Spanish-language signs and Spanish-style architecture with Spanish tile roofs, probably due to the heavy Cuban influence. Large fountains are all over the place – in downtown Orlando through to Sanford. Small lakes are scattered about. The place we’re staying is even on a pond. My brother-in-law (whom we’re visiting) and his roomie bought remote-controlled boats. They raced them on the pond and ran into each other, so funny!
His house is truly unique, never seen anything like it. It’s open and airy with that Spanish influence again. You can see it in the multiple arches and high ceiling that is open above the kitchen through to the adjacent living room and dining room, giving the classic Latin feeling of a courtyard. There are lizards and fireants everywhere, even in parking lots. The sun is brighter and there are more birds flying around than up north, and there is sand, not soil.
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