As yesterday's proceedings went, we travelled around in the bus picking up others and them we were off to our destination. The Everglades are about 40 minutes from the Miami Beach area, so it was a fair bit of travel time required first, with the trip out there itself, coupled with the collection of other guests.
We were ready and waiting for the Mosquitoes this time, armed with big spray like gunslingers. We absolutely hammered ourselves with it, but at least we were bight free upon the return to our hotel, later in the day.
The safari park itself was located just off the main Everglades highway and it did not disappoint. We started with an airboat ride, running for around 35 minutes, cruising around the waterways at pretty high speeds, in search of wild Crocodilians. The boat was pretty fun and it felt like drifting would when it took corners. We only saw one Alligator in the wild that day, but we were right next to it, n our very open boat.
Next we headed into a talk back at the park itself with one of the local guides. This guy was friggen awesome. He was passion personified! We actually learnt a fair bit about the reptiles within the Crocodilian family and about the differences between alligators and crocs. It was cool seeing the friendship that he had with the ones in captivity. After the information talk, there was an opportunity to hold Snappy the 4 year old gator. $3 a hold, but all the proceeds went to preservation of their habitats.....so a great cause.
Our final part of the tour, was to wander around the paths of the park, so that we could see the ones that they breed within the property. They never had any the size of those at the Australia Zoo, but we still enjoyed ourselves and liked the tour overall.
Once we'd headed back to the hotel, we were starving, but the day was still young. We had heard the day before about a massive mall nearby called Adventura. Shopping time! Well we decided to go there initially to have lunch and catch a movie. This was a nice change, a lot more like our usual ways of home. After our yummy Japanese lunch, then to smash out some shopping before it was time to go off to see Man of Steel.
Thinking about heading ack to the hotel, we knew that there weren't any great choices for dinner close to our hotel, so we found a place on the edge of the mall called The Cheesecake Factory. This joint was pumping and loads of people sitting outside waiting for tables. We weren't in a massive rush and were happy to wait, though in the end we didn't wait much at all. We were quite full after our lunch and popcorn, so we opted for some appetizers which were huge.....yet so delicious. Oh well not long now till we go back to regular eating.
After a pleasant dinner and a great chat with our waitress, we took a cab back to the hotel to contemplate how to pack all the new gear. Three new pairs of runners plus the other pair and 6 others regular pairs of shoes was going to make things a bit tricky! Thank god we took some space saver bags with us! Winner!
No comments:
Post a Comment