It’s been a while since I last wrote so here is a bit on what I’ve been up to since arriving in America.

We had just one day in Miami and chose to head to the Everglades to see if we could have more luck spotting Alligators in America than we did on our Croc spotting tour in Australia!

We booked onto a trip organised by the hotel and the day began with the bus touring around the hotels of Miami picking other people up. It seemed to take forever but at least we got to see a bit of the City. We were taken to a central meeting place and told to get on a different bus headed for the Everglades.

As soon as the second bus set off the guided tour began. As we left Miami the driver pointed out the Tower of Freedom. This was used as the immigration building in the 60s and 70s. According to our driver in 1962 over 400,000 Cubans came to South Florida and this building is where they were processed and officially liberated from communism, hence the building’s name. Before it became the Tower of Freedom it was the printing works for Miami’s largest newspaper.

As we left Miami the driver explained that there are 37 individual cities contained within Greater Miami, each of them with their own mayor, legislature and police force. That makes for one very large city! He also told us that last least 17 million people landed at Miami airport last year and another two million people came into Miami via the seaport. Subsequently coconuts and oranges are no longer the main industry in Florida they have been somewhat overtaken by the money generated by tourism.

As we entered the Everglades National Park the bus driver told us that the southern part, the bit we were visiting, was managed by the Miccosukee Indians. The freeway we were driving along had been built on an old Indian trail. In this part of the Everglades the schools, prisons and police force were all run by the Miccosukee Indians. The northern Everglades are run by a different Indian tribe.

Along the side of the freeway was a canal with flooding control centres set at intervals. This canal was used to keep the water level in the Everglades constant and prevent it flooding.

In the 109,493 acres of the Everglades National Park there are though to be 65 species of fish, many breeds of turtles including snapping turtles along with many varieties of birds, five and a half million Alligators and a few Crocodiles. It is the only place in the world Alligators and Crocodiles live side by side.

After being bombarded with information we arrived at the beginning of our Alligator spotting tour and were given our airboat tickets. It was quite exciting to be going on a boat propelled by a massive fan!! We boarded the boat amid warnings about not putting our hands in the water if we wanted to keep them, were given some toilet roll to shove in our ears to dull the sound of the boat and set off.

The boat pulled out of its dock and moved slowly down the river. As we pulled away from the boat docks and into the wider expanse of the river the boat picked up speed, gliding effortlessly over the weeds and grasses growing out of the water. The driver appeared to be having a lot of fun as he glided the boat round corners at high speed sending small splashes of water onto the deck. It was a wicked experience. As we approached what looked like grassy banks the boat just skimmed over the top flattening the grass as it went. Looking behind you could see the grass slowing popping back up until it looked as though the boat had never passed over it.

fter about 10 minutes the boat slowed down and we gently moved along looking for an Alligator. The driver spotted one and pulled the boat along side it. It was hiding amongst some tress and was very difficult for the untrained eye to spot. All that was above the water was her nose and eyes as she basked in the sun.

Whilst stopped looking at the Alligator the driver explained what docile creatures they can be. He even splashed her with water to show she wasn’t going to come anywhere near us. He showed us the bank by which she was sat and explained that it was a completely dry landmass rising out of the river that contained an abundance of wildlife. Then we were off again in search of more Alligators. But it wasn’t to be! They weren’t coming out to play today.

Back on dry land we watched the Alligator show – good if you’ve never seen anything like that before but nothing compared to some of the Croc shows we saw in Australia. Then we grabbed a bite to eat before setting off back to Miami.

It was mid afternoon by the time we got back to the hotel and the rest of the afternoon was spent chilling out on the beach trying to get some semblance of a tan before the wedding next week!

And that was it for our time in Miami. The following day we were off to Orlando to play on the rides!

* Posted by j150vsc on 23/05/2008.
* 1 comment