December 31, 2007

Everglades (USA)

A Day in the Florida Everglades

Traveling in America is every bit as tough as traveling in a third world country. While it is true everyone speaks the same language (other than certain parts of the South), and although the overall level of development is extremely high, the country is just so damn big. A few days ago I drove 900km down the coast from Savannah to Palm Beach, and yesterday I drove 250km across the state of Florida to reach Naples. This morning all that driving paid off as I was up with the sun to fit in a full day of touring the Everglades in South Florida.

My grandmother acted as our guide for the first half of the morning, and I followed her silver Volkswagen Beetle to the entrance of the Fakahatchee State Park. She led Jo and I on a boardwalk through the wild, and en route pointed out more wildlife than I would have seen in a week of searching. Most captivating was the bald eagle perched atop a tree only 50 meters away - a rare sight, and as both the state (and national) bird, one with an impressive reputation.

At the end of the boardwalk was a viewing area overlooking a pond that could stand as a mini-ecosystem all on its. The immediate sights to attract my attention were the family of alligators spread out in the water - mama and papa at the far end and several young'uns swimming just below our feet. There was also an anhinga ("snake bird") perched on a branch over the pond, an egret stalking the reeds within feet of the fully grown alligators, and numerous fish plopping around in the middle of it all. As Gram explained, the egrets start hunting for alligator eggs (or baby gators themselves) as soon as the nest is left unguarded. Obviously, whichever ones she misses will some day come back to take their revenge.

As we backtracked along on the boardwalk we heard a sudden crash as a fully grown hawk dove down from directly above us and went after something in the nearby mud. We had been watching it for ten seconds or so when it took off, so we saw the whole ordeal - all of it except for what it was after (we assume it must have been a frog). Anyway, the hawk got what he was after, and took it up to a nearby branch while it ate away. It was a proper wildlife experience!

Gram decided not to continue onward to Everglades City with Jo and I, so we bade her farewell and continued deeper into the Everglades. We picked up a handful of information packets at the turn-off for the town, and decided to head straight for a boat-tour of the Everglades that was led by a park ranger and recommended to us by Gram. It was a perfect day to be out on the water, and sitting at the front of the boat as it worked its way out of the shallows was exactly the kind of thing I needed after enduring the cold of Tokyo for the past month.

The park ranger doing all the talking was a pure-Southerner from the backwaters of the Everglades, and I bet he knew every last nook and cranny of the mangroves and swamp lands. But more importantly, he knew everything there was to know about the wildlife and habitation of the area, and he pointed things out left and right. Most captivating were the families of dolphins that we spotted (and followed) on several occasions - they really are some of the most gracious creatures on earth.

We rode south for about an hour until we reached the final island at the edge of the Everglades. Had we kept going, the next place we would have hit would have been Cuba, and there would have been a lot of explaining to do if that had happened.

One memorable moment while we were looking around an island was when we saw an albatross perched in a tree, and after the ranger pointed out out a raggedy heap of sticks that served as the albatross' nest, the ranger commented, "We have been trying for years to get one of those engineers from Georgia Tech to come down here and build it a real home, but so far no luck." I whipped my head around, smile spread from ear to ear, and said they finally found what they were looking for. The ranger laughed, but inside I suspect he was thinking: "Surely they must have someone better than this!" Truthfully, it is doubtful I actually could build something better than that "raggedy nest" considering it survives hurricanes year in and year out, and this far south there is no protection from the winds that sweep through.

When we reached dry land we headed off for lunch at the Seafood Depot, which looked to offer the most standard food - a highly valued trait in a place like Everglades City (population 217.) Nevertheless, I decided to "go hick" and ordered fried frog legs, fried alligator tail, and fried clam cakes. I regretted my decision as soon as the food was served - they really were frog legs, and there was more fried junk on everything than there was actual meat. But I got what I was looking for: I can say I have tried alligator tail, which really does taste like chicken, and frog legs, which are slightly softer than a standard chicken wing.

Afterward, we headed off in search of an airboat ride, and since just about everyone in Everglades City owns an airboat it wasn't hard to find. The rides were pricier than I was expecting (something like $20USD), but as a tourist in the heart of the Everglades there was nothing I could do about it. What was worse was the 30 minutes spent waiting for an airboat to return and take us out. While sitting around, we entertained ourselves by watching the six foot alligators next to the dock, and Jo would kick pebbles at them every time they popped up near our feet.

Eventually, our number was called and we sat on the top row of the bleacher-like seating. I strapped my wallet and shirt inside my cargo shorts as everything I owned was liable to blow away, and if that would have happened there was no way any of us were going in after it. Below is video of what the airboat ride was like, and as should be obvious it was one hell of a ride!

We wrapped up our trip to the Everglades by driving out to see the smallest Post Office in the United States (captivating stuff, let me tell you), and then pulling off on a 5km dirt track with alligators all along the canal to our right. While I kept my eyes on the road - going into that canal would not have been good - Jo counted all the gators she could find. Right around the time she reached 40 we decided to give the game up out of boredom, and we turned back before finishing the lonely stretch of road. Quite simply, there is a limit to the number of alligators one wants to see after a full day in the Everglades, and we were well beyond that limit. So, at 4pm we started back across Alligator Alley on the three hour drive to Palm Beach Gardens.

Fortunately, I had help on the drive back.