Matlacha

This small island, covering .2 square miles, is located in Matlacha Pass, an area east of Pine Island, just north of Ft. Myers.  We stumbled across it one day while traveling to Pine Island to explore.  We loved it immediately and vowed to return on another day. 


It is considered to be an "Old Florida" fishing village.  The main street is home to a number of brightly-colored buildings which include art galleries, boutiques, seafood restaurants, as well as traditional Florida cottages.

This was our favorite building because of the bright bubbles and the cool bike.  There was another bike with a beach umbrella attached.  We got there after lunch and didn't really have enough time to stroll around the town; however, we spent a little bit of time behind this building.  Unfortunately, photos were not allowed.  It was a psychedelic garden, full of bouquets made from blue bottles hung on posts.  The bottoms of the bottles were painted bright orange and with the sun hitting them, it was awesome.  There was a stage and chairs and all sorts of decorations, all painted bright colors.  It was very 60's.

They also have pretty things for sale.

Pretty frogs and salamanders for the garden.

Some fancy boots to give you happy feet.

How much are those doggies in the window?  I think they wished they were outside in the nice weather, not stuck inside looking out.

We didn't buy anything, even though there was lots to buy.  Well, actually, we did make one purchase.

We found this pretty building...  and guess what was inside...

KRISPY KREME donuts

We enjoyed a few minutes in the sun gobbling down a couple hundred calories.

You might think this little island is pronounced Mat.latch.uh BUT it's actually Mat.la.shay.  One source reports that the accent is on the first syllable and one reports that it is on the last syllable.  We don't know which is correct, but we do know the wrong way to pronounce it.  It's a very quaint little village and we will go back again.

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)