We got to the Everglades after a stop at Starbucks (Doug's with us, so a requisite stop on the road) and a stop at “Robert is here”, a fruit stand with all kinds of tropical fruit. We got a giant papaya, some passion fruits and a hard shell avocado (YUMMY!). Since it was late afternoon, we decided to get a few walks in.
First we stopped to walk in a pine forest - all of these forests and hammocks are soggy and buggy. Great for bats and birds.
The tree snails were really beautiful – apparently there are hundreds of varieties, in different areas, and people used to take as many of one variety as they could, then burn down the area to kill the rest. They would then sell the snails at a higher price since they had cornered the market on that variety.
Lots to read and learn!
We walked out on a boardwalk to get a good view of the a sawgrass prairie
Maya took a photo of a photo of a Florida panther. They are so pretty, and so rare. A great book about their conservation is Eric Hiassen's kid's novel, “Scat”.
So many beautiful birds in the Everglades
This bird reminds me so much of my dad for many reasons (NOT one of which is that they look alike), so we called it the “Herb Bird”
Time to set up camp!
Playing in the Florida Bay – about 500 feet from our campsite. Lots o' mosquitoes.
The next morning we rented a canoe to go canoeing in the backcountry. What a great way to see the flora and fauna – we could go at our own pace and take a long look at things if we liked.
Here's a croc and his buddy...
Exciting!!! We got to hang out, so to speak, with two manatees. The first stayed near the surface for a little while, but the second we got to canoe with for about 20 minutes. We got to watch it swim, surface and eat, and it swam back and forth under the canoe. There were a bunch of little fish attached to it and every time it ate the algae off of some mangrove roots, the little fish would release and swim to partake in the feast. I wish we had gotten more pictures, but we were so excited the camera was left in the pack.
Eating off the mangrove.
Another cool bird in the mangrove roots
More crocodiles
I was going to take a photo of this monster, 14 foot or so crocodile but as I put up the camera to take the photo it turned, looked at us, slipped into the water and started swimming toward us. It was the first time we all felt nervous (well, maybe not Doug). The locals did tell us that the American crocodile is not aggressive, but when that thing looked at us, logic went out the window.
After that, we decided to canoe on the bay side.
Juju photographed an osprey that had landed on the shore to find some grub
Here's a teeny mangrove island that I wanted to canoe to, but between the current and info about nasty black sharks in the water, I was outvoted.
Long day on the water - let's go to the Keys!
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