As much as I hate to admit it, I've been a fan of CSI: Miami for a long time. Granted, I stopped watching it two years ago when we left the US, but still. I know the characters are cheesy, the plot unlikely (and that's being generous) and the storyline incredibly predictable, but I like it. The biggest reason I love watching CSI:Miami as opposed to the other CSI shows is it's setting. I love all the scenery, love the beach scenes, love the helicopter shots of downtown and especially love all the Everglades scenery.
So, when we decided to take an airboat ride in the Everglades, I was pretty darned excited. We spent the week in Ft Lauderdale, which is on the northeast side of the Everglades. I researched, researched and researched some more to find the perfect Everglade tour for us. What I found was that because of our location, the tours within easy driving distance were all very, very touristy and designed to move the maximum amount of bodies through in as little time as possible. I think we would have really enjoyed taking a more in depth tour, maybe canoe rides and camping, but alas - it will have to wait for another day.
So, we piled into an airboat with 20 of our closest tourist friends and took a very well oiled 30 minute tour through the sawgrass rivers with a tour guide who repeated the tour, word for word at least 12 times each day.
Oh well, it was still pretty stinking cool! We saw 3 or 4 alligators, including a brand new baby about 2 weeks old. Our tout guide told us to keep our eyes open for the baby, that it was about 12 inches long and hard to see, and low and behold our own Ally was the first one to spot him!
All the alligators that we saw were within the first 5 minutes of the tour. They were 'tame' alligators, meaning that they have been trained to come up to the boats in search of treats. It was still pretty cool to see them swimming through the water up to our boat.
We had a tough time getting shots of the kids in the boat because it was crowded, and they are short. :) But Lee managed one of me!
The pen behind Lee and the kids had at least 10 alligators or so. There were some pretty big ones!
This bird was also trained to come get treats. He followed us around on the boat. He was sitting about 5 feet from where I was sitting on the boat.
It was so hot, we were all sweating by the end of our 1 1/2 hour time on the gator farm. After the boat ride Lee actually asked my if my shirt was wet from sweat or did I get splashed on the ride. Ha! I just sweat a lot!
Hopefully sometime soon we can go back down (in the fall, preferably) and camp in a less touristy part of the swamp. I found a few really cool 'ecotours' where you can have a guide go with you. I'd love to slink through the swamp on a quiet canoe! We'd better be sure to bring our bug spray!
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