The Noises Alligators Make

11.17.2009: In the morning, we went with Abuela to visit her niece Suela, Suela's daughter in law, and her daughter in law's new baby Eva. It was nice to meet them, although they all did speak Spanish muy rapido, so we didn't catch too much of the conversation! We enjoyed Cuban coffee, malta with milk (which they thought was odd), looked at our wedding pictures, and looked at family photos.

After returning to Abuela's, we loaded up the car and said our hasta luegos. Abuela is so energetic and lots of fun, so it was hard to say good-bye.

Our time in South Florida wasn't quite complete, as we still wanted to ride an airboat in the Everglades and see a few more alligators. We went to Buffalo Tiger's airboat tours, which is run by the Miccosukee Native Americans. Our timing couldn't have been more perfect - as we were arriving, a boat was preparing to depart. We quickly paid, jumped in the boat, and away we went! Because of how loud the airboats are, we were given cotton balls to use as earplugs while the boat was in motion.

During our ride, we saw many birds - big and small. Below is a photo of one of the most common birds we saw - the females are brown and the males are black.



Being so familiar with the Everglades, or grass rivers, our guide knew where quite a few alligators had their territory. Since our guide was familiar with the alligators, they were also familiar with him and would come right up to the side of the boat! Of course, the fact that he feeds them a bit doesn't hurt either. Below are pictures of two of the alligators that we saw.





While the bird below may look small in the picture, it is actually quite a large heron, with a huge wingspan. As we were riding in the boat, it rose out of the grass and started flying away - David was able to snap a quick photo, although it doesn't come close to how beautiful it was to see it in person.



Hopefully, the video below will give you just a quick glimpse what it was like to have an alligator right next to our boat! Before you hit "play", ask yourself what noise you think an alligator makes while it eats something - you're about to find out!



During our airboat ride, we stopped at a small island, and our guide told us a bit about traditional Native American life in the Everglades. We were able to see small huts that had been used for cooking and sleeping. At night, the people would sleep on tables raised above the ground, and would grease the legs of the tables and the poles of the hut with animal fat - this would keep the snakes from being able to climb up, as they were attracted to the body warmth of the people!

We also saw many different swamp flowers and lily pads, and even caught a quick glimpse of a good sized turtle.

Once our ride was over and we returned to our car, we headed North back to The Villages, FL and to stay with Grandma and Pop-pop for a few more days.