Birds & Alligators: Everglades III

Our last day in the Everglades, and there were a couple more things we wanted to do here before moving on.

We were up very early (for us!), having fallen into bed exhausted at around 9:00 p.m. last night.  So rather than doing our usual dawdling, knowing that we were moving on to a new area in Florida, we left the campsite before dawn — so strange to be packing up and hitting the road in the dark!

We stopped for breakfast at a place we picked at random from those listed in our GPS. It ended up being really delightful. It was a Cuban bakery, where the only coffee available was sweet expresso ("no coffee American..."). We had a scrambled egg dish with scrumptious bread — very flat, as if cooked in a panini pan, but full of buttery flavor! While there, we had an interesting conversation with a man who left Cuba when he was only ten — he's in his late 50's now, and remembers the disruption of the Castro regime. and the whole Bay of Pigs fiasco. This is when his family emigrated to the U.S.

We couldn't leave the bakery without buying some of the guava-filled pastries, which we've put aside for a special treat to have with coffee in the Airstream tomorrow morning.  One of the BEST things about traveling, always, is the regional foods we encounter — things we simply can't get in our own little neck of the woods.

Our first stop was at Everglades National Park's Shark Valley area, where we boarded a tram that took us into the "River of Grass," the terrain we are beginning increasingly to recognize — sawgrass with water paths, now dry, 'gators beside any water source they can find, hardwood hammocks, cypress islands...

We spotted many alligators today, including one who slept happily on the path, and wouldn't be moved until our guide walked toward it, bumping a big stick on the ground. It lazily got up and slunk into nearby water.  We also saw a momma 'gator and four babies, very cute, all sunning together.




There were the beautiful birds we now know by name — anhingas and double-crested cormorants, turkey buzzards and rosate spoonbills — all active in the early hour.



Our tour guide gave us a lot of information, things we hadn't yet learned, and she was a hoot to boot — really a fun trek.




We were brought to a tower measuring only sixty feet, and yet we could see for miles and miles the terrain of the 'Glades. To New Englanders, accustomed to huge sea-crags and truly massive mountains, this is so strange. We have to climb very high indeed to view that same amount of distance in Maine!



From here, we went on to the Park's Gulf Coast area in Everglades City, and boarded a sightseeing boat, which took us into the Gulf for "a two-hour tour."

This is in Florida's Thousand Islands area, and what appears from shore to be an unbroken line of land, becomes, as you approach by water, hundreds of small islands, mostly made up of mangrove trees.



The delight of the day was watching dolphins cavorting nearby, and doing a "circle dance" to confuse the fish, then slapping the water with their tales to stun them. We also saw manatees bumbling about just beside the boat. In the photo to the right, you can see just the manatee's nose breaking the surface of the water.


Of course there were many of the beautiful birds in the trees, including many ospreys sitting on nests, cormorants, egrets, and herons.  A relaxing way to see the "last habitat" of the Everglades.




We are now officially on our way back north, and will be home in about a week.  Although we're tired, we are savoring each moment we have in Florida.  A few more adventures, and then we'll have a long stretch to "rest up from vacation" when we're back in Maine.



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Comments

[jenny]

from that tower photo all seems so well with the glades but not being a higher power I suspect I don't have capacity to fathom how big they are were or meant to be. The warmth alone seems to make conditions for a range of creatures to thrive in. A zooalogical did I spell that/ wonder. So many different types of birds. And those alligators I swear look very like --dogs to me. Sort of harmless ya know if they aren't disturbed. Love the vulture. What a wing span. What a job they have. Too see a school of dolphins working. Such treats ! for eyes and soul.

[medieval clothing]

have you ever played with those animals? :p