Florida Day 7

Last night when we got to the hotel there was a little cat sitting by the door. She didn’t move when we walked by. This morning she was still there. I fear she might be sick or hurt. I want to take her home, but Kati is afraid of bringing fleas home to our cats. Kati said she is a stray, and strays are everywhere, but her little face is haunting me. I want to take her home and take care of her, but without a job it’s not like I could even afford an extra vet bill. Besides, we still have another week on the road. Even if I could take her with me, I couldn’t leave her in a hot car while we visited various places. Still, it saddens me to see any animal uncared for.

I didn’t sleep well last night. I slept better in the tent than I did in the hotel room. We went to bed with the air conditioning set at a comfortable temperature but I woke up melting into the sheets. I adjusted the temperature but was unable to fall back to sleep. For breakfast, we went to the Cozy Corner. The food was inexpensive but the home fries were really good. I’d certainly recommend the restaurant to anyone passing through Miami.

I have wanted to go to the Everglades ever since I was a kid. Today, we came in search of alligators and found mosquitoes, swarms and swarms of mosquitoes. Mosquitoes smaller than the ones in Alaska but more aggressive, nasty, and persistent. They bit through clothes coated in bug spray—with Deet. Luckily, I had my head net but it only mildly helped. I am covered in bites. My compassion for animals does not extend to mosquitoes. I slaughtered several today, but each death was in self defense. They attacked me first.

There are two sections of the park: the North Shark Valley section and the South Flamingo area. The two are not connected by a road. We opted to visit the southern half since there was more to do and see. Upon entering the park, we stopped in the visitors center and ended up chatting with the people behind the desk. They were really friendly and we swapped stories about our experiences in other parks. When we walked out to look at the pond, to see if we could spot any alligators—we didn’t—one of the volunteers came out with us, plucked a couple of coco plums off a tree, and told us to try them. Neither G3 nor Kati liked them. I thought they were okay, but I probably wouldn’t spend money on them.

Allegedly, the best place in the southern section of the park to see alligators is the Anhinga Trail. We walked the entire trail—it was super short, maybe a half mile—but we didn’t see so much as an alligator’s eyeball. That was disappointing. I did see an anhinga bird with its wings spread to dry off. It is a black bird with a long skinny neck.

From there, we drove to the most southern part of the park which sits on the Florida Bay. I walked along the coastal trail until the mosquitoes defeated me. Then I went to hang out by the dock to watch the manatees swimming in the water. They are beautiful creatures that from a certain angle—head and tail down, back near the water’s surface—look like giant potatoes. The idea of mermaids originated from sailors observing manatees in the water. Looking at their tails flapping and slapping the water, I can—if I cut my imagination loose—see a mermaid’s tail. However, those sailors must have been delirious from the sun and drunk on too much rum to have seen a half naked woman on the other end of that tail.

I greatly enjoyed hanging out with the manatees. There must have been a dozen or more by the docks. I even saw a few calves. I loved hearing the manatees breathe. They let out what sounds like a grunt as their noses break the surface of the water. Boats are dangerous. They account for one quarter of manatee deaths in Florida. One manatee I saw had a huge scar on her back.

Along with manatees, there were a plethora of tarpons jumping out of the water. They are one of the oldest fish species on earth. What I found most interesting about them is they have a sort of swim bladder that allows them to “breathe” air at the water’s surface when they are in water that doesn’t have much oxygen.

We decided to take a pontoon boat tour of the backcountry. I am glad we did even though we didn’t see as much wildlife as I had hoped. We did see two crocodiles. I did not know that there are crocodiles in America. I thought we just had alligators, but South Florida is the only region in the world that has both crocodiles and alligators. You can tell them apart a few ways. Alligators live in fresh water and crocodiles live in brackish water. Alligators are black and have a broader snout. Crocodiles are grey, but can sometimes change color to match their environment and their snouts tend to be pointier. There are twenty-five species of crocodiles and the American crocodile is one of them. The ones here in Florida are not as aggressive as crocodiles in other parts of the world and their jaws are less powerful.

We saw several different types of birds including egrets, white herons and tricolored herons, and white ibis. Historically, flamingos lived in the Everglades, but they hadn’t nested here for over a century. However, a recent hurricane blew them off course and they found themselves in Wisconsin. A bit cold for tropical birds. Therefore,

they needed to navigate back home, but along the way, some of them stopped in Florida and thought, I kind of like it here. So they built their nests and stayed. I find some of the birds to be pretty and majestic. Kati is bored by birds but enthralled by trees.

The Everglades is the third largest National Park in the lower forty-eight. Alaska’s parks are huge and since the lower forty-eight can’t compete, they pretend Alaska doesn’t exist. Both Death Vally and Yellowstone are bigger. The Everglades was the first national park to be created in an effort to protect biodiversity. It was never intended to be a tourist destination. Truman signed the legislation making it a park in 1947, which means it’s as old as my mom.

The park is 1.5 million acres and one third of that is covered in mangroves. It has the second largest contiguous mangrove forest in the world. Only the one in Bangladesh is larger. The Everglades have red, black, and white mangrove trees. Mangroves can live in brackish water because they are able to filter out the salt. We need mangroves because they prevent erosion and create a habitat for various animals. They also absorb more carbon dioxide and produce more oxygen than most trees. Most fascinating about the mangroves is they give birth to live mini trees—not seeds. The mini trees simply drop off the branches into the water and drift until they find a good spot to plant themselves. After a while, if they don’t like it there, they retract their roots and look for a new place.

Living in the Everglades is one of the most deadly trees on the plant. The Conquistadors called it manzanilla de la muerte, which translates to “little apple of death”. The tour guide called it the manchineel tree. Eating the fruit from the tree will cause burn blisters to form in your mouth and esophagus. If you touch the leaves your skin will blister. If you stand under it and it rains, the rain falling through the leaves will burn you. The Calusa, the indigenous people who lived in the Everglades prior to colonization, used sap from the tree to make their arrows poisonous. Legend has it, it was an arrow coated in this sap that killed Ponce de Leon.

After the boat tour we spent a bit more time with the manatees. By then it was late afternoon, there was a little cloud coverage, and it was notably cooler. Alligators hide in cool areas when it is scorching hot. They are more likely to be seen when it’s not so hot. Since I was determined to see an alligator in the Everglades, I went back to the Anhinga Trail and walked it again, my eyes scanning for gators. My efforts were rewarded with a baby. One teeny tiny alligator. My day was complete.

Back in Miami, we had pizza at Siamo Ristorante followed by ice cream at Charlie’s. The pizza was fantastic, the ice cream was not.

In the hotel, we watched the first episode of the first season of Dexter in preparation for a Deter tour tomorrow. It is a favorite show for both Kati and G3 and they are both looking forward to driving around Miami to visit various Dexter locations. I had never seen the show so they wanted to familiarize me with it, somewhat, so I wouldn’t be completely clueless tomorrow.

I can’t sleep. That little cat was still sitting in the same place this evening. She hasn’t moved. She doesn’t look hungry but she looks like she needs love. I feel awful knowing she’s still out there and she’s all alone.