Miami/Everglades

From Santa Barbara we both flew to Miami to be with Tejas and Srini.

In my last visit, I had been to the famous South Miami beach.

This time I was very particular to go to the Everglades National Park.

I had read about how the Swamps are so important for ecological balance and Miami which was once a swamp was cleared to make it for human (these humans!!!) habitation and later realized that the swamps are very very important and they are the primary first stage in the food cycle. They are trying to restore the swamps even though more than 70 percent of the swamp has been lost.

Now Everglades is one of the biggest National Parks in USA and this is a World Heritage site.

We initially went to a privately owned place to go in air boat ride. I had imagined this as something which will be an air ride because of the name. It turned out to be a ride in a boat which can travel in the swampy area and the rota tors ( or what ever it is called) are outside the boat and which makes lots of noise.

There was a buggy ride also inside the swamps . Both the rides were good and some reptile shows were there which were not that good.

I had heard so much about Mangroves and when I inquired about the Mangroves I was told that they grow in fresh waters and the private swamp we went had only sea water.

I found out that the Mangroves always grow in the areas where the rivers/canals join the sea and even though they can withstand salt water they need the fresh waters to survive. In such areas even though salt water inundate the canals during high tide they have plenty of fresh water also to survive.

The next day we went to the National Park Welcome center collected the details and went into the National Park. The whole area is about 1.5 million acres and we were guided as to where we should go.

We went on a short guided trail. We were advised to use mosquito repellents and promptly we bought the mosquito repellents and oh how useful it was once inside the trail. We saw lots of Alligators in this trail and also some birds. We were told that we could see both Alligators and Crocodiles live in this Everglades which is a rare phenomenon here as the habitat of both are different. (salt water/fresh water which species is used to what I am confused still)

We proceeded inside in the car for 26 miles to reach a place called Flamigo to go on a boat ride inside the waters. On our way to Flamingo we stopped in between to see a beautiful big lake approach of which is through a trail full of Mangrove trees. It was beautiful but in spite of the mosquito repellent the mosquitoes almost ate us. So we had to retreat fast to the car.

Once in the boat it was an hour's lovely ride. We saw Crocodiles while we started out in the canal. Both sides had thick growth of mangrove trees which the guide told us are called walking trees as they spread out fast and the roots look like long feet.

He showed us some trees and told us that the leaves of these plants are so poisonous that even if some one rubs on it , the person might die.

Our ride took us to a wide water body which is called 'Coot's Bay' and then to 'White Bay' which is where the fresh and sea water mixes and this he said was like a mixing Bowl. Forty miles and canoeing up North is allowed in these waters. They give only one day's reservations to stay and every day, fresh reservations have to be made for that night. (There are some specific land (water) marks in the water so that the people who canoe will follow these marks. ) The reason the guide was telling us was that there are so many places and niches in this area that people can easily get lost. He said it will take a week to complete this water trail. It would be so great to go on canoeing.

We were very lucky as we spotted some Dolphins near our boat jumping up and down. The guide said that they must have had a very good lunch and now they want to play with us. They kept following the boat for some time and it was a wonderful sight.

We could see some Manatee vaguely under water. It is also called as Sea Cow and it is huge. There will be plenty of them here during the breeding season. This was not a breeding season so we could not see many. Everglades impressed me very much.

We went to see the South Miami beach later in the evening and since it was raining and the rain had just stopped we had the whole beach for ourselves. Very few people were there. I was told that this beach is one of the most crowded beach and last time also it was not crowded as it was winter when I went there. I was just looking at the clean water of Atlantic Ocean thinking of the Pacific Ocean I left behind in Santa Barbara.

We visited a place called Coral Castle which was built by a man all by himself in memory of his lost love. It is remarkable that such a structure was built without any body's help.