Visiting the Everglades 🇺🇸

When most people think of Florida, they probably imagine swamps, crocodiles and the Everglades rather than the Kennedy Space Center or Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I therefore could not leave the Everglades out of my visit.

The Everglades is a national park in southern Florida known for its vast wetlands and distinctive wildlife and plants, particularly crocodiles and alligators. Its combination of salt water and fresh water makes it the only place in the world where both species live together.

Everglades City

Everglades City is probably the only town in the Everglades. It has fewer than 500 residents, sits on the north-western edge, and depends entirely on tourism, offering airboat tours, alligator shows and all kinds of souvenirs.

Farther beyond Everglades City, reached along a long road across the water, is Chokoloskee Island with around 300 residents. There you can visit the Smallwood Store, founded in 1906, and learn something about the settlement of the Everglades.

Airboat tour

The essential Everglades attraction is an airboat tour through the wetland channels. An airboat has no conventional engine with a propeller in the water. Instead, it uses a large propeller mounted at the back, enabling it to reach relatively high speeds.

Because of this propulsion system, the boat does not really have brakes. It can only accelerate, slow down and turn. Braking therefore involves a 180- to 360-degree turn, sometimes at speed, with water flowing around the feet of anyone sitting in the front row. The propeller is quite loud, so every passenger receives ear protection.

Several companies in Everglades City offer airboat tours through the nearby channels. I took an hour-long tour for about $40, plus a tip for the captain.

There were six of us aboard with Captain Jack, who wore three layers of clothing and wondered why we all had short sleeves on such a terribly cold day—below 25°C. He began by taking a selfie with us and giving us the basic safety instructions.

He waited until we had left the shore before giving the safety briefing because, he claimed, people occasionally want to get off after hearing it. The Everglades is wilderness and the channels are narrow, so you might run into spider webs and spiders as you pass. A snake could even fall from a tree onto you; apparently it genuinely happens sometimes. Life jackets are unnecessary because if you fall into the water, you should be able simply to stand up—the water is relatively shallow.

Along the way you encounter alligators that pass so close to the boat you could almost touch them.

Captain Jack was clearly friends with one raccoon, which made its way through the trees to meet him.

As a reward, it drank from his bottle of Gatorade, although I cannot say whether it really contained red Gatorade or something else. Piranhas also became excited when he poured some into the water.

The airboat ticket also included an alligator encounter. A smaller alligator named Marshmallow could be stroked, while an even smaller one could be held for a photograph.

Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk

On the way back from Everglades City along the Tamiami Trail, I stopped at an inconspicuous little pond beside a Native American shop selling items such as traditional dreamcatchers. Behind the pond was Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk, a nature trail through the wetlands.

As everywhere in the area, a sign warned about alligators. One genuinely swam past only a few metres away just as I finished reading it.

Walking along the trail takes you deeper and deeper into nature. You hear all kinds of sounds and spend the entire time waiting for an alligator, panther or some other animal to appear.