Alligators and Mangroves

Today was all about our visit to the Everglades and an Airboat Ride.

Everglades City Airboat Tours

After breakfast and updating the blog we left the Condo at 9.00am and headed towards Everglades City ready for our Airboat trip in the Everglades.

This route took us out of Marco Island on the second of the two bridges. This was our first trip in this direction.

Like the SS Jolly Bridge this Bridge is also quite steep to make space for the boats that go below it.

The country between Marco Island and Everglades City is very marshy. With lagoons and grasses to the right and the left of us. 

I am a big fan of Information Centres when travelling to a new place, often to Drew's chagrin. So he had plenty of amusement this morning when we stopped at the Everglades Chamber of Commerce Information Centre and found that it was closed and looked as if it had been closed for some time.

We then arrived at the Everglades City Airboat Tours base and were confirmed on the 10.30am airboat, having booked it a few days ago.

There were five of us on the boat plus the Captain. Captain Allen began by giving us a safety briefing which was mainly about not standing up and tipping the boat, plus not putting our hands in the water when we came near any alligators. 

Captain Allen, who is a local, living on the island of Chokoloskee seven miles south of here, was full of stories and tales from his trips down the Everglades, but many of his jokes were lost on the other three passengers who were from Germany. Still he made Drew and I chortle.

Drew with the two way comms
under his hat.

The ride was really pleasurable, the breeze caused by the boat balancing the 94F weather and the high humidity which characterise this part of Florida at this time of year. (Except, of course, when there is a storm, but it was fair today.) The boat was fitted with Two Way headphone communication systems, so we could speak to Captain Allen and each other and he to us. This was occasionally disconcerting as he also had a radio to speak to other boats to make sure they didn't crash, so at times you could hear his voice go very soft and explaining the route to the other captains, rather than talking to us.

Drew's hat fitted well over the device, but mine was a little unwieldy, flying off at one point, but being ably caught by Captain Allen. When I then put it back on under the headphones I managed to block my ears, meaning I missed some of Captain Allen's pearls of wisdom until I found out I couldn't hear him!

We began the journey focused on the flora. We are in a genuine Mangrove Forests or Mangrove Swamps if you prefer. The thing that makes Mangroves so unusal is that they grow in coastal saline or brackish water. i.e. salty water. Given the way they grow it looks to the untrained eye that they grow out of the water, but in fact there roots are located in the alluvial soil below the salt water. 

We saw examples of White Mangroves, Black Mangroves and Red Mangroves each group having a different colour leaf and processing salt in different ways so being best suited for different ecologies within the swamp. 

Small Alligator

Large Alligator

I would have been content on this trip to see these amazing trees seemingly growing out of the sea, but there was more to see. Elsewhere in the swamp we saw alligators, what the locals call buzzards, known as Turkey Vultures elsewhere, and what are politely called Wash Bears in these parts, and Raccoons elsewhere.

I have shared two of the photos here, but there are 200 of them from across the Everglades. You can see them all on Flickr, starting here. I hope you enjoy them because it was an exhilarating experience for us.

We were an hour in the airboat, so left the location at 11.30pm and headed in to Everglade City and from there onto the island of Chokoloskee. We thought this sign was particularly useful for the tourist. It was clear about why the road was a no through road - there was the sea ahead.

We headed back from Chokoloskee for Marco Island at Midday and got back by 1.00pm.

Dinner

We decided tonight to have a Mexican meal, having only had one so far this holiday. We walked the 3/4 of a mile, today in the dry, to a restaurant called Nacho Mama's which promised to be a family owned restaurant serving Tex-Mex. I think I was expecting something local and authentic. But sadly the dishes were more like fast-food than good eating.

We arrived at 7.00pm and were ushered straight to our seat. We were back out by 7.45pm!!!

We did remember to order or appetiesers before our mains, but they still seemed to magic the meal in front of us in super quick time. I get the sense a microwave was involved. Drew opted for Mexican Loaded Potato Skins which were four halves of potato with cheese and spring onions etc, served with sour cream. While we complained about the speed, the food was not bad to eat and Drew consumed it all.

I had been in an conversation with my sister on Flickr earlier in the day about why anyone would need a Jalapeno corer. She had suggested that it was so they could put cream cheese in them, with this in mind I had to order the Jalapeno Poppers, deep fried jalapeno's in breadcrumbs stuffed with cheddar cheese and served with picante sauce. Again, while the inside was very, very hot, the flavour of the jalapenos and the sauce worked very well indeed. So I eat it all and was pleased.

We ordered our mains halfway through the appetisers and they arrived just as we finished the first course.

For mains Drew had a Beef Quesadilla which was filled with tomato, cilantro, onion & cheese. Served with sour cream, picante sauce, black olives and a extra portion jalapenos Drew ordered. Again it tasted as it should, but was nothing special. While I had to help with the black olives, Drew doesn't like them, he eat everything else 

I ordered a Carne Asada Chimichanga which was deep fried over a bed of lettuce, tomatoes, topped with cheese and ranchero sauce, served with sour cream, Mexican rice, refried beans and a Corn Muffin. I enjoyed it, but the plastic colour of the cheese and the plastic container the refried beans were served in were a little disappointing.

Drew decided that he was hungry after his first two courses so opted for dessert. Unusually he was asked to do this while he had half of his mains still in front of him!! Still he went for the local favourite - Key Lime Pie, which arrived while he still had two forkfuls of main to eat. As regards the key lime pie I think his comment was insightful. "This pie is $10 cheaper than last night's and the difference is very clear in the flavour and the presentation." The scary green colour of the sauce is not a trick of the camera, it really was this colour.

Slimer - Ghostbusters

<<Co-pilot's note: I, dear readers, had immediate visions of the fella in the photo having an accident on my Key Lime Pie.>>






So it was 7.45 and we had finished our dinner. It was just to early to go back to the apartment. So we walked back, but instead of coming up in the lift we walked through the building and out onto the beach decking and down onto South Marco Beach. 

At this time of evening the beach was starting to cool, though there were still a lot of people sunning themselves. By cool I mean mid-80s not mid-90s and less humidity, so everything is relative. Still we had a nice sit and relax and even a little walk to the sea edge and a look, at a safe distance at the Turtle nests.

A relaxing end to an exciting day, my first time of seeing Alligators in the wild.