Tuesday, April 15, 2008

ALLIGATOR LEFT!

Alligator left! Alligator left!

Explanation: During our trip to Florida, my wife and I visited the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, where we took an airboat ride. (If you're wondering, "Loxahatchee" derives from the Seminole word meaning "place where alligators eat tourists' children".) If you've never been on an airboat, there's really only one thing you need to know. The fan is loud. Everyone wears ear protectors, and as a result the tour guide can only shout brief instructions when the boat slows near something of note.

Well, as it turns out, airboat travels clockwise along a circular route, where the inside happens to be the only part of the Everglades without any alligators. As we drove, our guide just kept yelling "Alligator left! Alligator left!" As you might have guessed, I was seated on the right of the boat. Oh well. At one point our driver managed to mistakenly maneuver us so an alligator was in front of the boat. I snapped this picture around the person's head in front of me:

alligator
To maintain their body heat, most of the alligators were just resting in the sun, which rendered them slightly less active than the floating mud that my shipmates frantically snapped photos of when our tour started.

2 comments:

Willie Y said...

Did you happen to see Wally Gator and his buddys Lippy the Lion & Hardy Har Har and Touché Turtle and Dum Dum on your airboat ride as well?

Jeremy said...

A little before my time - I had to look these guys up. Now that I know Hardy is a non-laughing hyena, maybe I should look into it.