Friday, December 31, 2021; New Years Ever at the Everglades

It has been a long time since we spent a night at a Best Western.  That takes us back to our kids’ swim meet days.  The breakfasts usually included scrambled eggs, sausage and DIY waffles, as well as a variety of baked goods, yogurt and cereals.  This Best Western had hard boiled eggs, sausage links, and a single waffle maker machine if you were patient enough to wait in line but the pandemic measures have made things much more awkward.  The dining room area is closed and the breakfast is supposed to be grab and go.  However, there are no grab and go bags, and the breakfast area hasn’t been set up very well for one directional flow, so everyone was a bit confused about etiquette.  It ended up working out to eat out in the swimming pool courtyard area, and the little birds that frequent the bushes around the pool are very appreciative of the crumbs.  It’s a good thing these are little sparrows and not crows or sea gulls.  We were disappointed that the Courtyard Marriott Fort Lauderdale Airport and Cruise Port hotel had no included breakfast.  The Embassy suites we had stayed at prior to our circumnavigation of South America offered a very fancy and extensive buffet. 

Getting to the Everglades was easy from this Florida City location since the park entrance is just a 20-30 minute drive.  We stopped at the Visitor Center and then went to the Royal Palm site where we had to cover the car with tarps to keep the buzzards from damaging the windshield wipers.  For some reason, there are flocks of black buzzards that hang around this parking lot who like to descend on cars and rip off the windshield wipers.  We saw them trying to tear up a rubber speed bump that had been installed near the entry to the parking lot.  At least with tarps over the car, it stays a little cooler, and is less likely to have its windows smashed in by smash and grab meth addicts prowing parking lots.  It was perfect conditions for visiting the park with a light breeze and blue skies punctuated by puffy clouds. The temperature is in the mid to upper 70’s.  The Floridians are complaining that they are experiencing a heat wave because temperatures this week have been in the 80’s, when it usually is in the upper 60’s-70’s, particularly at night.  

The waters in the Everglades are amazingly clear, and the wildlife did live up to its billing.  We saw alligators, anhinga birds, buzzards, turtles and lots of fish from the board walks.  We even saw a large turtle catch a fish and drag it to the depths of a pond.  There is a second loop trail called the Gumbo Limbo tree trail which takes you through a pretty lush mixed tropical and subtropical forest environment unique to southern Florida.  

We then made a beeline to the Flamingo site which is at the end of the main park road, on the southern tip of Florida.  The Bay of Florida is a huge shallow bay that extends from the southern tip of Florida out towards the Florida Keys, which lie out of visual range below the horizon to the south.  The drive is a little monotonous because the topography is really flat.  We joke that the highest elevation in the entire national park site is only 4 feet above sea level.  But we have learned that very slight differences in elevation make all the difference between Everglades (shallow grassy plains with slowly flowing fresh water), and hammocks (areas that rise slightly above the water so pines and mahogany trees can grow, and ironically, the tallest structures you see, which are the Cyprus groves, are the deepest parts of the Everglades.  Rotting leaves create acid conditions which dissolve the underlying limestone, allowing roots to penetrate deeper.  

Decaying leaves from mahogony groves also run off the hummocks and dissolve the limestone surrouding them creating natural deeper moats around them, and the constant slow flow of the fresh water trails the slightly acidic run off on the southern ends of the hummocks, shaping them like tear drops or tadpoles with long tails that point towards the ocean to the south.  

We didn’t see flamingos at the Flamingo site, but did spot a rather large crocodile, an osprey, and a hawk, as well as bubbles from a probable manatee in the murky waters of the marina.

We did a couple other short walks as we worked our way back out of the park.  Our last stop was to see an old Nike missile site, but the ranger was locking up the gate just as we arrived.  We had missed the guided tour, but she was kind enough to stick around and explain some of the history to us.  The Nike missiles were part of the Cold War defense missile network around the US, but because of the Russian missiles based in Cuba, these Nike batteries were the only ones configured with both conventional and nuclear warheads, and the only ones that could pre-emptively stop missiles and bombs from Cuba before they could target larger US cities.  These batteries remained manned and ready for action all the way until 1979, long after most other Nike batteries were deactivated and disassembled.  She also explained that some of the land around the old Nike site had been reclaimed from agricultural use by scraping off the topsoils that had been brought in as fill.  It was hoped this would restore the Everglades that had originally been in these areas.  However, even after scraping off the topsoils to expose the underlying limestone, during the dry seasons these areas remain dry except for a few areas where sink holes have developed, exposing small cenotes like what we had seen in the Yucatán.  Some of these were along the road to the Nike sites.  We were able to spot these because they often contain cat tails, which are invasive to the area.  We thought these were some of the most peculiar sites within the park that nobody knows about besides the rangers.  

We were hoping to sample some alligator meat at the gator grill situated between Florida City and the Everglades national park, but the pandemic and New Years Eve appear to have conspired to keep the small diner closed.  We ended up stoping at a very interesting and curious combination of farmers market, fruit stand, petting zoo and county fair grounds called “Robert is Here”.   They have the most amazing variety of exotic fruits that you can imagine as well as ice creams and smoothies made with these exotic fruits.  We sampled milk shakes made with sapodilla- a fruit that tastes like a pear with hints of brown sugar, and black sapote- a fruit that tastes like chocolate with a hint of banana.  Around back is an odd collection of animals including the usual barnyard calf, goats, sheep, pigs and chickens with tortoises, an ostrich and other exotic birds.  There is also a delicious smelling BBQ pit and impressive collection of antique tractors.  

We the tried to have new years’ eve dinner at a nearby restaurant called Chefs on the Run, which is famous for Cuban cuisine, but it had closed either for the New Years’ holiday or perhaps covid staffing.  We heard on the news that South Florida had reached a new all time record for daily Covid cases.  We are literally at ground zero.  Fortunately, our Covid tests came back negative for all of us.  They seem to be able to do PCR tests much more efficiently in Florida than in Washington state, where PCR tests take 5-7 days at public and commercial testing sites.  

There is a fast food place right next to the Best Western Gateway Inn called Pollo Tropicana.  You could envision this to be a Cuban version of Pollo Hermanos from Breaking Bad fame.  It was open, so we ordered a family meal with a whole chicken, Cuban styled BBQ pork and sides including fried plantains, fried yucca, and coquito cheese cake.  The good news is the meal was cheap- less than $50, and the pork was fantastic, The not so good was the chicken was a little dry, but flavorful.  We managed to get through the beers that had stocked our minibar fridge, which Ciara had packed up and dutifully brought with her off ship because neither she nor Tom had managed to drink it during the cruise.  It was actually quite pleasant eating pool side at the hotel.  

We had hoped to celebrate New Years by jumping into the pool as the kids had celebrated New Years in the Galapagos by jumping off the Catamaran into the ocean at midnight, but the hotel closed the pool and pool area at 10pm.  So we watched Harry Potter and then New Years’ fireworks shows on the TV while eating snacks we picked up at the Costco.  Tomorrow, we check out of this hotel and head back north after a paddling experience at Biscayne Bay in the morning.