Anhinga Trail and Everglades

Breakfast at the Florida City Travelodge was actually pretty good.  They had sausage and egg sandwiches and some fresh fruit.  We stopped by a favorite local market called "Robert is Here" for snacks and food for lunches.  They have a nice assortment of fresh local fruit, some of which I have never seen anywhere.  Everything was very fresh and priced low. Go to the link to see how the fruit stand got the name "Robert is Here."

Anhinga sunning to dry feathers

When we arrived at the area of Everglades National Park where the Anhinga Trail and the Gumbo Limbo Trail depart. We were surprised at the number and aggression of the black vultures.  The Park Service provides tarps and bungee cords to cover cars in the parking lot since the vultures not only roost on the cars, scratching the finish with their claws but they eat the rubber from windshield wipers and around the windshield and sun roof.  We really weren't sure how we would explain to Enterprise Car Rental why their nice new Nissan Altima had the rubber parts destroyed by hungry vultures.  We opted for the tarp to avoid the problems.  Some cars had a dozen or more vultures on them.  The parking lot looked like a Hitchcock movie!

Mamma say that the reason alligators is so ornery is because
they got all those teeth and no toothbrushes.

We really enjoyed the walk around the Anhinga Trail.  Everyone we spoke to said that this trail is the best place to visit in the Everglades.  There were many types of wading birds including tons of anhingas, cormorants, wood storks, great blue herons and white egrets as well as many others that we don't know.  There were a number of alligators along the trail, some of which were very close.  Other alligators were in the water waiting for a meal to come by.  While we were on the trail, a brief rain shower blew up, but it passed quickly as they are prone to do here in Southern Florida.  We could have spent more time just walking around the short path and boardwalk, but a large group of elementary school age students arrived. We went over and walked the short Gumbo Limbo Trail that has informative signs about the native flora.  We were pleased that there was no vulture damage to the rental car when we got back to the parking lot.   We gave out tarp and tie downs to another couple who arrived and moved on.

Great blue heron

We drove slowly on the road from the visitor center toward the area called Flamingo.  There were many places to stop for informational signs or to birdwatch at a pond or meadow.  There are trails of all length that lead visitors to areas where birds or landscapes can be seen.  When we stopped at Pouratis Pond, we saw many nesting wood storks and a number of rosette spoonbills in mating coloration.  We enjoyed our packed lunch at a picnic table there as we watched the birds.  It was a very pretty area and made for a pleasant place our lunch.   Another stop at the Pay-ay-okee Overlook took us on a trail through a bald cypress area.  Since we are here in the dry season the cypress had lost many of their leaves but the trees were pretty.

Crocodile at Flamingo

After several short stops, we drove to the visitor center at Flamingo.  We saw saw a number of ospreys including two nests at that were at the visitor center.  We understand that there are manatees in the canal near the visitor center, but we didn't see any while we were there.  We did, however, see a crocodile sunning in the bank of the canal.  They really do look very different from the American alligator.  We walked around the area a good bit then started driving back toward the park entrance which is about 35 miles from Flamingo.

We stopped at a trail called Snake Bight which is a 1.8 mile path down to the bay.  At the right time flamingos and rosette spoonbills can be seen there as well as other birds.  We enjoyed the 3.6 mile walk for our round trip.  The path is well maintained and easy walking.  The temperature warmed back up to nearly 80 degrees while we were on the path causing us to work up a bit of a sweat on the walk.  We only saw a few birds at a distance but were were perfectly happy with the walk out and back.  We were impressed with the number and variety of cacti along the trail.  Some of the cactus were over 12 feet tall.  I guess I just don't think about cactus growing in the Everglades.

Little blue heron

On the way back, we made another stop at the Anhinga Trail since it was such a great place to see birds and alligators.  We stood in one place and saw 18 alligators either in the water or basking on the bank.  Many of the visitors on the Anhinga were European.  We heard French, Italian, German and some Eastern European languages that we couldn't identify.  It is a popular place and for good reason. On the way around the pond, a big vulture swooped near Mary.  "Someone" bumped into her pushing her "accidentally" toward the vulture.  That someone was in BIG trouble.

Black vulture

We got back to the motel around 5 pm and rested our feet after showering and changing clothes.  We made our way to Mario's Cuban Cuisine for dinner.  We knew it would be good when we saw three separate groups of police officers from different agencies having dinner there.  We weren't disappointed.  Mary had Masas de Puerco which is marinated grilled pork that came with beans and rice and sweet plantains on the side.  I had a chorizo sandwich.  The restaurant features freshly squeezed juices (or "youces" as our Cuban waitress called them) that were all very good.  Mary had passion fruit juice, and I had tamarind juice then a pineapple juice.  We liked them all.  After we got back from Mario's, we learned that is was well rated by Jane & Michael Stern in their Road Food column.  

Tomorrow we plan to visit the Northwestern part of the Everglades then perhaps have dinner in the Naples area.

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