So the everglades.

I checked into the hostel about 9 PM on the 25th. It was a pretty nice place. I took some pictures of it. The rooms were decent, the beds were soft, and the atmosphere was pretty good; however, there weren't too many guests there after the first night, so it was pretty dead around the hostel and I was left to do things on my own.

Day 1: Anyways, upon arrival I met a guy from Jacksonville named Chris. We hit it off immediately and had similar interests in what we wanted to do on the Everglades... that is canoe it. His canoe trip had just been cancelled due to a shortage of guides, so he didn't have any plans. So, we kind of decided we would go canoeing the next day. Well, later that night we were wandering around the hostel and ran into a really nice couple from Belgium who come down to the Everglades every year at this time to canoe. They hooked us up with a great route and even suggested that we try spending a night on a chickee. So it was set, Chris and I were really excited about the adventure before us, but we would need to get an early jump in order to make it into the Everglades the next day.

Day 2: Chris left early to get a camping permit and I went to get food and organize the camping gear. I had asked the Belgium couple what we needed as far as shelter. They said we needed a tent (the part that is completely enclosed and is made partially of mesh for breathability and also to protect from bugs etc) but not rain fly (a waterproof covering that you place over your tent). So, naturally I decided to take out the rain fly, or what I thought to be the rain fly, from the tent gear and organized the rest of the equipment. Christ got back from obtaining a permit, we loaded the canoe and off we went. We got in the water sometime around 1:30 and off we went. It was a pretty cool canoe trip, we didn't see much on the first day, but the mangroves were fun to navigate through. Also, there were PVC pipes sticking out of the water to help guide you, but sometimes they were missing or far apart so knowing which way to go was a challenge. I think we got lost once for about 30 minutes, but nothing too serious. We arrived at our Chickee (see pictures) at about 6:45 and then started unloading the canoe. The first line of business was setting up the tent. After unloading the tent from its bag, I realized my most grievous of errors... I had accidentally removed TENT INSTEAD of the RAINFLY! At this point I was pretty sure we were screwed, but I set up the Rainfly as best as I could. Chris, having never camped before, didn't see what the problem was. He thought the shelter looked decent and that we should be ok. I tried to keep that attitude as well, but new that misery was lurking. Up until about 8:30 I remained hopeful... I though "Maybe its just windy enough to keep the mosquitos away." Wrong. Just about that time the first mosquito appeared and so we took to the shelter. The shelter only seemed to be aiding the mosquitos by creating calm air that they could fly in. After about 5 minutes in teh tent we figured we would try our luck outside. It wasn't worse, but it also wasn't better. About 20 more minutes though, and it was all out mosquitoville. They were everywhere! We tried everything. You can see some of our pathetic attempts to avoid the mosquitos in the pictures but nothing worked. I would lay down for an hour or so, then the constant bzzzz of the mosquitos would just about drive me CRAZY and so I would pace around the tight quarters of the Chickees just to not hear the bzzzz. It was maddening. At about 7:00 AM the sun came up and the night from hell was waning. I started packing everything up and we took off at about 8:30. Oi!

Day 3: On our canoe trip back, we were exhausted but were given new life when we came upon some dolphins. It was amazing! The water throughout most of the everglades is only a few feet deep, so I was very suprised to see dolphins in this shallow of water. I think we were both anxious to get back and shower and take inventory of the damage done. We ended up making it back by 11:30 or so. Thank goodness. After showering up, I took a look at the mosquito bites. I counted somewhere around 120 on my arms and legs and I estimated about 150 or so bites on my face. Itchy, itchy, itchy. Needless to say I layed low the rest of the day, taking a nap and going to bed early.

Day 4: Slept in, still feeling a bit under the weather from the day before. I finally got moving after lunch and decided that I would go snorkeling down in Key Largo. One of the guys staying at the hostel (his name was Dennis and he left that morning) recommeded snorkeling at John Pennecamp park and so that is where I went. Upon arriving, I paid and then got in line for the boat ride out to the reef to begin and lo and behold, Dennis was actually there going on the same snorkeling tour that I was. The snorkeling was pretty cool, a lot of fan coral and smaller fish. I saw my favorite kind of fish, the trunk fish (it has a kind of triangular shaped body when looking at it head on). I also had my first in water encounter with a shark (probably about 4-5 feet long) and also had a barracuda sneak up on me. All in all pretty fun.

Day 5: This would be the last day that I would spend in the everglades and I hadn't seen a gator yet... I was determined to see one. So, I went back into the everglades and walked some of the boardwalks. One of them had gators everywhere, they are pretty amazing creatures. Very prehistoric looking. Anyways, mission accomplished. The next morning I took off and decided that I would drive back up the gulf coast of Florida... Next stop Tampa Bay.