The “Big Tree of Life” – picture taken with iPhone 7 and processed with Snapseed

As you may remember (see “seven days in USA” post if you don’t or just don’t know), I’m spending my holiday vacations in Orlando, Florida. I went to Walt Disney’s Animals Kingdom for a full day. I didn’t know what to expect and was anxiously returning for a second time. But what I found was unexpected in a sense and spoiled my visit there. Here’s why.

We arrived in the middle of the morning. The weather was beautiful. A light smog was lingering in the area and everything cleared up pretty quickly. The park was already packed with a lot of people. Way too many for my taste. I guess this is expected on this day of the year. People of all ages, old and very young were visiting. Most of my observations are about people as the place itself is impeccable (this is Disney after all).

There was a lot of people in wheelchairs. Old people, this is not surprising and I was happy for them that they could come and visit the beautiful park. But there was also people in their 40’s. All they had in common: they were so big, so fat and looked unhealthy. When they say that obesity is a real problem in the US, you get to see what it is in real life. By two o’clock in the afternoon, we could see a lot of people already tired out sitting on concrete or on the side of the aisle and looking at their smartphones and… eating junk food (because this is what you can buy there, at Disney). I somehow felt pity for them. Yes obesity is a problem outside this country but man this is remarkable here.

But that is not all. Children also have an obesity problem and I couldn’t count how many of them were being put in wheelchairs too to visit the place with their favourite soda bottle in their hands and a bag of ships always close at hand. Too much efforts to walk I guess. What do they eat when lunch time arrives? Junk food. No fruits. No vegetables. Nothing. Only junk. And a smartphone to glance at. Many were not even looking around them. What the fuck is happening? This is plain and simple sad. And this is one of the reason I don’t like the US. I feel the party is going on in this country for decades here, taking so many ressources with it.

And some more random notes: recycling is not a thing in this place it seems (in the US, is it?). The amount of food going to trash is revolting to say the least. In these immense parking lot, the average car size is also remarkably high. Cannot get this remark by George W. Bush after 9-11: how way of living is not negotiable. Well, that is too bad for all of us on this earth.

Now that you read this blog post to the end, look at the picture I chose, I couldn’t find a better one to illustrate my thoughts and words.

On this sad note, I wish you an happy new year 🥳 and I’ll be back in 2019 with so many more things to write about or places to visit and photograph and share.