The Adventures of the Little Indian Girl

No it was not a 3 day trip. Just haven't had the opportunity to sit down and post about the rest of the trip!

December 28, 2009

This was truly the highlight of the trip! My back though was giving a lot of pain. There was so much sitting in the car the previous day. We took it really easy and left the motel around 11am. We went  to the Ernest Coe Visitor center and saw some of the exhibits there. Then we found a picnic spot and had our lunch.

In the afternoon we went slogging through the slough with a ranger of course! It was awesome! It was just three of us. I guess many of us, the three of us included, are rather anxious about setting foot in the everglades afraid of its natural inhabitant - the alligator. In fact, we saw more alligators on the paved trails than we did in the slough/slew! We all had only sneakers. So, within the first step our feet were drenched through. The water was so cool to feel and it acted as a natural AC unit as we walked about under the sun. The life that lives in this ecosystem is just so complex. It was unbelievably fun! The ranger had to really drag us out of the allotted time for the slough tour!

We first started off in the grassy part. Not too bad. The water just was barely ankle deep. And the bare tree to my right is a cypress tree. See how small this one is and a few in the background.



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December 27, 2009

We drove north to the other entrance of the Everglades, towards Everglades City. This side of the park is more commercialized. We first stopped at the Shark Valley Visitor Center. We caught the tram that goes in a loop for 2.5 hours. One could also walk the loop or bike the loop. We chose the lazy way and took the tram. There were a lot more people on this side of the park than at Homestead side of the park. And almost all activities here were charged.

It was a nice ride with a guide on board sharing all about this side of the park. We saw more birds here than we did at the other side. Mostly because it's the wetter part of the park.



Half way through the ride, we stopped at the observation tower that gave us a full view of the park from above! This was very different type of habitat than what we had seen the day before!
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