Tagged: only in South Florida

Producer and Miami Herald multimedia journalist Michael Alen has long been fascinated with a strange building in the middle of Hialeah. Alen remembers seeing the building as a toddler on his drives home from Kendall with his parents. He remembers being awestruck, each and every time, by its rounded shape and how it contrasted with the sharp edges of its neighboring structures.

The Jones family has lived in the Everglades for five generations. They’ve made their livelihoods in Mack’s Fish Camp, a spit of marshland that straddles the county line between Broward and Miami-Dade out west. They live among seven-foot alligators, painted turtles, blue herons and white egrets. They make a living fixing airboats, renting out bungalows and serving as guides for tourists and government researchers. They are known as Gladesmen.
 

When you stop and listen to your surroundings, what do you hear? We take sound for granted because it’s around us all the time. But when you are forced to listen in a different way, you hear a different story.

It’s mango season in South Florida. Thanks to our humid climate and poor soil, this region excels at mango growing – only rivaled by Hawaii. The man who knows most about mangoes in Miami is Dr. Richard Campbell, the senior curator of tropical fruit at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables.

For many Cubans living in South Florida, the pre-Castro years in Cuba represent a golden era. Nostalgia for friends, family and yesteryear traditions can be felt at Cuban coffee counters across South Florida. One local business owner decided to take this yearning for tradition one step further by selling coffee for 3 cents, the price it was sold for in pre-Castro Cuba.