Seas of Grass

Today we woke at a literal crossroads of our trip. In the morning we passed through a small town called Homestead. Here we crossed an intersection of Highway 1 which presented us 3 options - East, West, and South - all of which led to unique destinations that we intended to visit. To the left and East was Biscayne National Park, a National Park which is almost completely underwater. Straight before us and South lay the Florida Keys, a tropical paradise immortalized in song not to mention the Southernmost tip of the US, only 90 miles from Cuba. And to the right and West, the Everglades National Park, the largest subtropical wilderness in the US. Not getting our fill of alligators the day before, we took the Western road and again entered into the Everglades. Inside the park our first stop was at the Anhinga Trail, which seemed more like a zoo than a National Park trail. This trail is 100% unhindered by man, aside from the path and boardwalk, and for reasons unknown to me all sorts of animals flock to this location, particularly the cormorant-like Anhinga,

with its outstretched wings, for whom the trail is named. Along the trail you can commonly see this bird either swimming in the water hunting after fish or else sunning themselves with its wings stretched out to absorb the sun. Besides this bird there are a great many other types of birds that can be found through the half mile
trail, many of which have names that can hardly be pronounced. The trail is also, perhaps not surprisingly, famous for its resident population of alligators which can be seen by the hundreds along the banks. Because of these two diverse forms of life, the trail in turn attracts 2 diverse groups of people. There are your families and elderly folk who have come to the Everglades for the first time to see

the alligators and there are the bird watchers: camera people, toting along giant tripods or standing at a single spot for hours hoping to capture an elusive bird in its natural environment. Katie and I fall somewhere in between. Though we were excited about seeing alligators again, we ended up spending the majority of our time looking for rare birds, as the alligators weren't too much fun to look at after the initial shock of seeing them wore off. As we started on the trail the first thing we saw was a giant alligator laying directly over the path! We were pretty thrilled about this, and took this opportunity to get as close as we could to this sleeping giant. After that, we mainly focused on the birds, apart from a few alligators swimming in the waters and one that we think might have been a little insane as he
kept ducking underwater and springing up to unleash his deadly bite onto a tree branch. We saw a great number of birds and even saw a few of the rarest, helped out here and there by our tripod wielding friends. A couple hours later, after finishing our trip around the Anhinga Trail, we began to make our trek south toward Flamingo, the southernmost headquarters of the Park. This is the only spot within the

Everglades, or the US for that matter, where you can see the American Crocodile in its natural habitat. We have been told that Everglades National Park is also the only place in the world where you can see both alligators and crocodiles coexist side by side. In Flamingo we signed up for a 2 hour boat ride that again took us into the depths of the mangrove forest. This time the journey would be the focal point, not
the destination. Our lust to see the American Crocodile was instantly gratified almost as soon as we pulled away from shore. We saw several, even one with its mouth held menacingly open. After this excitement, the rest of the trip was relatively tame. After the crocodile, we saw several birds but only ones that we had seen earlier and closer along the Anhinga Trail. The only difference was now, with a tour guide in tow, we got to hear all about the various birds whether we wanted to or not. Our guide also educated us about how dangerous the forest and the surrounding ecosystem truly was than we were previously aware. He told us about the many native poisonous snakes and the newly introduced python that was rapidly taking over. He even told us about the Manchineel tree, a tree so deadly that one drop of its sap will burn a hole straight through a human arm. Katie was most intrigued by this tree and half heartedly wanted to touch it, but when the guide informed us that by even touching a leaf, human skin would blister and form lesions, she thought better of it. After our tour we headed back toward the crossroads of our southern Florida trip, Homestead, glad to say we had one avenue explored and behind us. It had been a couple days since leaving Aunt Chris' house and I personally was ready for a shower. Unlike the mild temperatures of the north, this southern sun radiated heat which caused a constant sweat, this added to the layers of sun screen that were necessary in order for my fair skin not to fry under it, created a bitter recipe which meant we had to shower. Back at our crossroads, we searched around for the cheapest hotel and indulged in a clean, refreshing night.