Near Fort Myers, about an hour south, is a place called the Everglades. It is a very large swampy area filled with alligators and all sorts of swampy animal life and greenery. The swamps are super shallow, so a motorboat could not drive in the swampy rivers because it would get stuck. Row boats are not fast enough, so the native people of Everglade city, a long time ago, came up with a unique kind of boat that would work well in the Everglades swamps to get around. They created "airboats." These boats have a flat bottom that allows them to drive in shallow water, and they have a massive fan on the back that blows air, causing the boat to move forward. The faster the fan goes, the faster the boat goes. Brilliant, really! So this is what we got to ride in.
As we started the trip through the everglades, it was easy to understand why they needed a special kind of boat to get through. The "rivers" were just small openings in between thick trees. The trees were growing upside down somehow. The roots of the trees were growing out of the tops of the trees and reaching down toward the water. It was really strange. But the airboats would zoom through this maze of everglade rivers. It was really amazing and beautiful.
This pelican came and sat on the edge of our boat. I've never been so close to any bird, let alone a pelican!! It just came along for the ride! The driver of our airboat had a name for him even!
The driver stopped the airboat at a buoy and pulled up this cage full of blue crabs! There is a company and restaurant just near the airboat dock that traps these very crabs and cooks them up. Apparently they are very tasty!!
Again, on this tour, we were guaranteed to see alligators or get our money back. So, indeed, we saw some. Super neat!
Fun Trip!!
No comments:
Post a Comment