Feb 16, 2010 - The Everglades




Ostrich attack!

 Today we traveled to the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation. As soon as we exited "Alligator Alley" and started north to our destination, we started to see wildlife. Arms were flying in all directions inside the car as we all kept pointing at the alligators in the standing water along both sides of the road. It’s a wonder we didn’t all have black eyes and bloody noses by the time we got there. There were a couple of potentially great gator photos along the way, but we were hesitant to pull over. I’m sure there’s some sort of alligator proximity protocol, but being a native Michigander, I know about as much about alligators as I do about flying the space shuttle. Which is zero. So we elected to keep the nice tooth resistant car between them and us.



Swamp Buggy



The first thing we did on arrival was take a "swamp buggy" tour of the 2200 acre fenced wildlife refuge. The swamp buggies are unique in that they are very tall. To board, you must go up a flight of stairs to the swamp buggy dock, which is level with the buggy’s passenger deck. The ride from that elevation gives you a unique view of the surrounding trees, keeps you dry when you bounce through the occasional patch of standing water across the trail, and gets you above the wildlife. Except for the ostriches. With them, you’re just about eye to eye. They just love to come see the swamp buggies when they stop. They bob and weave as they check out all the tourists and their nice shiny sunglasses, cameras, watches and necklaces. We were warned not to stick our hands out, and also to hold on tightly to all our shiny stuff, as well as our hats. According to our guide, the ostriches are capable of quickly relieving you of those things, and if they got ahold of them, they would proceed to eat them. Apparently they can digest just about anything. When they weren’t looking for loose tourist parts to eat, they were pecking at the sides of the buggy. Those that weren’t tall enough to do those things would content themselves with poking their beaks between the bottom rail of the buggy’s sides and the floor. Which incidentally, just happens to be where your feet are. On this particular trip, however, there were no serious ostrich incidents.

Blurry girl with Macaws

Beth on the airboat tour

What we came to see

Besides the ostriches, the preserve had lots of other type of wading birds, bison, "cracker cattle", horses, turkeys, deer, and wild pigs. There were lots and lots of little tiny baby pigs running everywhere. Our guide had quite the sense of humor. He said the locals call the baby pigs "one tens", because after an hour and ten minutes turning on the spit, they’re done j-u-s-t right. Actually all the animals in the preserve are protected, but the pigs reproduce so fast that about four times a year they have to round some up and turn them loose outside the preserve, where they’re fair game for hunters.

Besides having a sense of humor, our guide could also make the most amazing noises. Without using any type of artificial call, he could gobble like a turkey, grunt like a pig, or whinny like a horse. He could produce just the perfect weird squeak, click, or growl needed to either attract the animals closer to the buggy, or clear them off the road so we could proceed. The cattle were a little slow on the uptake sometimes; he had to gently nudge a few of them in order to get them to move.

Along the way, he educated us about many of the different plants and trees and how they were used in traditional Seminole medicine. We saw a reproduction of a traditional Seminole Indian camp built on an actual ancient site, and learned about how they lived back during the time when the Spanish were still skulking around the swamps.



Cranky looking tortoise

 Once we disembarked at the buggy dock, it was time for break at the Swampwater Inn. Floyd and I finally got to try alligator tail nuggets. They are a little chewy, and really don’t have much taste except for whatever sauce you happen to dip them in. Beth ordered a hot dog rolled in Seminole fry bread. I tried to tell her the hot dogs were also made from alligator, but she wasn’t having any of that. She had read the menu p-r-e-t-t-y carefully, and knew they were all beef. Since we’d driven over 1000 miles to get here, we figured we might as well take an airboat tour while we were at it. While waiting for our appointed airboat tour time, we were able to explore the compound, including one of the many "chickee" huts on site, available for overnight stays. The gift shop was interesting, especially the mummified alligator heads in various sizes. They waste no alligator parts here. I suggested that since we plan to redecorate the master bedroom once we get home, by installing a small light bulb in the medium size alligator heads, two of them might make nifty reading lights.

Well, that’s not gonna happen.

In the Everglades

The airboat ride got us up close and personal to some gators that were sunning themselves on the bank. We pulled right up beside them, nosed the boat onto the shore and cut the engine so everyone could take pictures. The airboat captain knew a lot about alligators, or at least enough about them that he still had all his fingers. He started out the session by asking several of us what we thought alligator’s main source of food was here in the preserve. One young man answered fish, and when he asked me, I answered "clumsy airboat captains." Well, I thought it was funny anyway. The correct answer, however, is snakes. Which immediately made everyone pull their feet back from the edges of the airboat. As it turns out, once the temperature drops much below 85 degrees, the main thing alligators think about is keeping warm and conserving energy, so they weren’t moving much at all, and really didn’t show much interest in us whatsoever. And according to the captain, they only eat about 40 meals a year, so between that and the cold we were statistically safe.


It was quite the busy day, and we were all a little worn out by the time we left. To top it off, as we got closer to camp, the synthesized voice of our car GPS insisted in pronouncing "Ft Myers" as "Feet Myers", which we all though was just a scream. Like I said, we were a little punchy by that time.





Mama boar with her "110"





Cracker Cattle