Monday morning, we got up super early and drove a few hours to the Florida Everglades in the hopes of seeing some alligators. Driving through the Everglades was pretty cool - there were alligators just swimming in the river alongside our car!
We stopped in Everglade City for an air boat tour, and the town was like a ghost town. Granted, it was Monday morning, but it didn't seem like people were in town even to work. It was a quaint little place, but super tiny with no more than maybe two restaurants, one hotel, a gas station, and the air boat tour companies. The definite driving force of the economy there is the swamp tours, but unfortunately our timing wasn't good - it's low season, so even though they're still doing the tours, there aren't many gators around. Apparently when the water level is low, more salt water creeps into the Everglades, and the gators don't like it. We didn't see any alligators on our tour (aside from the two-year-old little guy they keep at the dock, below), but we had a blast regardless.
We had a boat to ourselves, and our guide Mo was an Everglades native who'd been driving air boats for over 40 years. He certainly knew his way through all the twists and turns of the mangrove trees.
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| Captain Mo |
Our tour was about an hour long, and Mo drove us all over in search of gators. Just riding the boat around was actually interesting enough, and we still got to see some wildlife: pelicans and racoons (I would definitely not have guessed that racoons would be a feature of air boat tours, but they apparently just hang out in the mangrove trees and eat fish from the water.). The pelicans were so used to humans - they flew over to our boat when we got on, and they just sat there hanging out even as we were driving around.
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| Click on the picture to get a better look at the little dude in the trees - he's so cute! |
Since Mo was an expert air boat driver, he could go pretty fast and take tight turns through the trees. Here's a link to a video of us riding around so you can get a feel for the speed - it was a blast!
We were disappointed not to see any alligators, but Mo told us about a nearby bridge to go to for guaranteed sightings. There were around 10 gators just chilling out when we got there.
PART TWO: SANIBEL ISLAND
After our air boat tour and seeing the gators, we headed toward Florida's western border. We ate lunch on the road and got to Sanibel in the mid-afternoon. Going to Sanibel means crossing a giant bridge (with free public beaches along the sides), and then entering a bustling little town full of more beaches. The beach we chose, Bowman's Beach, was a protected wildlife habitat, so it was really natural without any houses or high rises. It was really beautiful. Sanibel is known for its shells, and there really were shells everywhere. We walked around a lot and found a few shells to bring home with us. Now the trick is not breaking them in the car between now and mid-July!
After a few hours at Sanibel Island, we turned north and drove to our next hotel in Sarasota.
Next up: A quick stop in Panama City, then on through Alabama and Mississippi to New Orleans!
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