Hello Everyone!
Well, our last big trip in florida was to the Everglades. Thanks to her classes at the aquarium, Ligeia was able to teach me all about the different types of mangroves, which grow rampantly there (it’s like we knew more than the guides!!!) We went on a couple airboat ride – one took us through beautiful red mangroves and the other took us through more swampland. We saw birds, turtles, some pigs and yes, even some alligators on our speedy, windy tour… it was kind of upsetting to learn that the boat guides fed the alligators with dog food pellets, so us tourists could get a good picture. As soon as wild alligators are fed by humans, they think all humans have food, and that’s when they attack 🙁 But, we did get good pic…
These are what red mangroves look like…
On our second day of the trip, we decided to drive down to Key Largo. The Keys are a great place for snorkeling and diving, so being the avid diver, Ligeia wanted to get back into her dive suit and check out the coral reefs. Since I don’t know how to dive, we thought that I could snorkel instead. Well, unfortunately, even snorkeling was difficult when you don’t have your sea-legs… that’s right, I threw up in the ocean. Ligeia told me that the fishies appreciate that… hmmm… luckily for your sake, we didn’t bring our camera with us on the boat! 😉
On our final day of the trip, we went to Monkey Jungle. Their slogan is: Where humans are cages, and monkeys run wild! It was great! Because of time of year, it being low tourist season, Ligeia and I were the only guests there for the first hour or so. The animal handlers had their feedings and shows just for us! We saw May, the female orangutan recovering from throat surgery, King, the dancing gorilla who would twist, turn around and then jump, and some cute and lovable squirrel monkeys.
We finished up our trip at an alligator farm. This is where we went on the second airboat ride. The driver was cool, and we raced through the swamp, making donuts in the water! It was on this trip that we saw lots of turtles and alligators! But, we decided to just enjoy the scenery and not take out the camera… sorry!
All in all, it was a great trip. Well, except the barfing incident, of course. Today, we have plans to go to Clearwater and go on a dolphin encounter boat. We’ll be sure to try and get some more pictures! This is our last weekend in the sunny south – we start our trek back to Toronto on Wednesday, with the 926-mile drive to Baltimore… oy!
Hope you’re all doing well!
Mindy 🙂