Everglades Interlude, Part 1

South Beach, Miami

Jane has successfully defended her master’s thesis, reflecting on her experiences as community organizer for the Aetas. She and Bruce finally left for Oregon where they will stay with family until September, when they leave for the Philippines for good. On their last weekend, we went on a road trip to South Florida with Ben, one of my research colleagues; Jane wanted to see the Everglades before she left. It is the largest subtropical wilderness in the US, stretching from Miami in the Atlantic to Naples in the Gulf of Mexico. We drove down I-75 from Gainesville, changed to the Florida Turnpike at Orlando, and stayed there until it merged with I-95 north of Miami. The turnpike and freeways around Orlando are set up like snares with toll roads to bag as much tourist dollars from visitors at Disney, their booths, manned mostly by the elderly with a diligence for doubloons worse than buccaneers in the Pirates of the Caribbean. We stayed in a cheap motel near Biscayne Boulevard, north of town, that reminded me of Timog Avenue in Quezon City. We were right next to Black Gold, an all-black strip club.

Shark Valley Trail (from Google Earth)

We stayed away from Flamingo, the more touristy destination on the southern tip, and instead crossed the length of the Everglades, westward, along the Tamiami Trail (Highway 41). A third of the way, before the road bent north to the Big Cypress National Preserve, we made a stop at Shark Valley, near Miccosukee. There we rented bikes ($6.50/hour!) to follow the 15-mile looped trail. It was already half past eleven, not exactly the best time of the day to be out in the sun, but Ben, being a big troublemaker, was intent on biking instead of taking the tram tour ($15). We could have been sitting under the shade, with a guide to point out what would have been hard to discern in the featureless green, while sipping cold soda, instead of getting sun burnt. I made sure I bitched about it the entire way.

Everglades Wildlife

Not a lot of wildlife on this trail, and I don’t blame them: it was hot! We did see a hawk, a heron, a baby alligator, and the real thing itself, looking mean and ugly. There’s as much wildlife here as on Lake Alice on campus, or on the pond outside my apartment complex where mallards and ibises regularly drop by to feed. One thing did delight me: a heron by the roadside swallowing a silver fish. On the outpost, half-way around the trail, we saw some tortoises sunning themselves on a rock. At least somebody was enjoying the sun.