Key Largo: Everglades Boat Tour

On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, while many people all over the US including Florida were hitting the Black Friday sales (many starting at midnight) we left the Pelican Beach Hotel at 9am. We drove via the Florida Turnpike to the Keys, well to the 1st key, Key Largo. The drive wasn't too bad. We stopped at the first big dive shop when we hit Route 1 off the turnpike, the Divers Outlet. What a cool store. Its HUGE. They have a frequent shoppers club I joined (tropical adventure club) after you spend $250 you get $10. We got Shayna her full wet suit (which it turned out she needed since the water was cold in the Keys), and I got fins. They said there was an ever bigger store IN Key Largo so we planned to stop there later that night so Manny could get his shorty* wetsuit. When we got to Key Largo we had a late breakfast at the Kountry Kitchen (I found out later I earned frquent flier miles through american airlines from that meal) and then went to Dolphin Cove in Key Largo for the Everglades Eco Tour at 1:30pm. We went on a 24 foot deck boat with Captain Bob, and began in Florida Bay and then into the canals of the Everglades and some other waterways...not sure all the names of the various places.

The Everglades begins in Florida Bay. Here is the actual spot of the boundary:


We saw these birds in Florida Bay. there is a Pelican, some Cormorants, and ?:
also in the above photo, you can see a live aboard boat in the top right corner. You can find these all over the Keys. Its free- no marina fees. they anchor thier boats out in the bay and then live on them year round, commuting ashore via dinghys, rowboats, motor boats, etc.

In the photo below, we spotted this Great White Heron sitting amongst the mangroves in the canals of the Everglades park:
here is one of the wider canals. You see a lot of kayakers here. The narrower canals had the mangroves growing so close they form a roof, and it reminded me of where Yoda lived in Star Wars. The mangroves we saw all over Key Largo (and our hotel was nestled among them) were GORGEOUS. They are made into giant works of art the way the upper branches come down and root into the water. In fact, there was a huge one at the entrance to our hotel that was so wide and tall and filled with the drooping branches close together, I realized on our last day what a great photo backdrop it would have made but we were rushing off to the Miami airport when I came to that realization.

Here is what the locals call "Hemingways Pass." It was picked by National Geographic as the most beautiful spot in the Everglades.


We went through what is officially called the Marvin Adams Passageway but known colloquially as "the cut." Its a keys form of the panama canal cut to connect the bay to the ocean. For a more detailed explanation see:
http://keyshistory.org/thecut.html

We went here mainly to see the fossilized coral but found these cute Iguanas:

Here is some fossilized coral:
The Keys is made of coral, so the land is all made up of fossilized coral and you need a jackhammer to dig down. On the beach at our hotel they had huge rocks made of the fossilized coral.

At the end of the tour we went into the little canals where the canal houses are looking for the manatees. The houses there are adorable. I said one thing, if we don't get a house with a tiki hut then I will get one put in...and you call the indians (seminole) to get a tiki hut put in. MUST HAVE HOUSE WITH TIKI HUT (and sunset view would be nice too).

we saw what they call the "footprint" of the manatee and the top of thier heads, but no photos as they are too sneaky to be photographed.

Some Everglades Tips:

Best time to see wildlife in the Everglades is the dry season which is winter december-April.

You can see alligators in the fresh water part of the everglades but not in the salt water and brackish parts which we were in while in Key Largo. The fresh water parts are North closer to Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

Best time to spot dolphins and manatees in the keys is in the summer because they like warm water.

*when we told Jami we wanted to get a shorty, she thought we were talking about the movie "Get Shorty." So we joked about that a lot.