Gators!

We've just spent 3 days in the Everglades in Florida, on our way down to Chile. The weather was pretty warm and humid. The Everglades ecosystem is fascinating, huge and very wet! It's also quite disturbed and smaller than it used to be (Miami is pretty much built on what was once part of the Everglades). There are also a lot of mozzies (like a laughable amount) that appear late in the day at the very southern end at a settlement called Flamingo. It was a focussed natural excursion looking at 'gators, critters and birds from cars, bikes, boardwalks and boats. Here are some pics....

There be 'gators! Down at Flamingo, they also have Crocodiles, which are lighter in colour and look a lot like our crocodiles (whilst salt tolerant, they are more docile than ours). This photo is of an Alligator, which are black and have 'U' shaped snouts (not 'V' shape like Crocodiles)....

There are good boardwalks in various locations:

Plenty of interesting birdlife:

Dragonfly:

Our 'Backwater' cruise was great with interesting narration from the guide:

Oh boy, what a lot of mozzies - we had to get some head nets!...

They have a Florida Panther here, but very elusive. In fact, it is the same as a Mountain Lion or Cougar - all the same thing. Elsewhere, a Panther is a black Jaguar or Leopard. Simples....

Note 'U' shaped snout. Just over the side of a boardwalk....

Look carefully for all the stripy babies nearby, again just near the boardwalk....

We drove over to the Biscayne National Park on the east coast of the Florida peninsula for a quick look. This is Miami from there - we didn't have time to visit. It has a very large Art Deco precinct that would be worth a look sometime...

Shark Valley is a 24km loop road through the National Park to either cycle or go on a little wheeled 'tram' ride. We cycled. Half way around there is a mid-century lookout tower which is quite striking....

On our way back to the airport we visited some Cypress forests in the Big Cypress National Preserve, just next to Everglades National Park. At the very end it rained heavily, making freeway driving to the airport that night a bit exciting!....