Everglades ride

everglades from Daniel Montero on Vimeo.

Going a little back in time here. This was one of my last big rides in Florida, from Miami Beach out to this random road on the Tamiami Trail. I found rides in Florida by going to Google Earth and finding the biggest portions of uninhabited space, then headed straight for it. There were some incredible spots. The roads were all carved and straight, running for miles into and empty horizon. To the south, the landmarks that could be alternatively were the nuclear towers, the Homestead Nascar speedway, and the trash mountain. Where I am here, the only thing cutting the horizon, and in a pretty miniscule way, was the Indian casino on the Tamiami Trail. Just a full empty horizon, a raised roadbed seldom used a cut channel on one side and the Everglades, well, at least the remnants, on the other. A few miles out on the road I met a hiker, we stopped and talked for a few minutes and he told me that, while he occasionally hiked out there, he had never seen anyone else.

The video isn't that great, to be honest, I don't think I have much talent as a filmmaker, but I guess I just try to show what I see and feel, the monotony and bravado of such a one-dimensional landscape, while the clouds puff in all directions to endless horizon. The feeling of being alone in a landscape while a few hundred yards away air-conditioned tourist cars buzz by to "see" the Everglades.