Everglades.

National Park

The Everglades (or Pa-hay-okee) is a natural region of tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee. Water leaving the lake in the wet season forms a slow-moving river 97 km wide and over 160 km long, flowing southward across a limestone shelf to Florida Bay at the southern end of the state. The Everglades experience a wide range of weather patterns, from frequent flooding in the wet season to drought in the dry season. Everglades is a unique treasure found in South Florida and the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in the United States. It consists of 1.5 million acres of sawgrass marshes, mangrove forests, and hardwood hammocks dominated by wetlands. And it is home to endangered, rare, and exotic wildlife.

Most important pieces of information you can find on a U.S. National Park Service site. Like in other National Parks, there is also an entrance fee, 30$ per vehicle for 7 days. If you are planning to visit more National Parks or even some recreation areas, I recommend buying an Annual Pass, America the Beautiful. It costs 80$, valid for a year and covers the pass owner and three accompanying adults. You can buy it when entering the park, or online at USGS Store or at Rei.

The Everglades.

Everglades is one of the places I wanted to see if I ever go to Florida. There are so many things to see, nature is beautiful, depends on the time you are going and the weather, you can see a variety of animals, and you simply just enjoy some beautiful quiet time in nature. Here is a TripAdvisor list of Top things to do in Everglades National Park. To see all that, you can spend a whole week just in Everglades. So we decided to go to Gator Park, on a short airboat tour. It was a guided bus tour from Miami.

Hovercraft

That day wasn’t so hot, it was about 28-29°C, very cloudy and high humidity, so our Spanish speaking tour guide said it’s the right weather to see many different animals, such as alligators, esnakes… 😀 And we really did see some alligators in their natural habitat.
We went on an airboat or hovercraft, and it was really fun driving fast on water and grass, the water was splashing all over us when we were turning. I only watched this in movies and Tv series like The Glades, and yeaaah finally I’ve been there.

Alligator wrestling

After a short ride with hovercraft, we went to see alligator wrestling. This is actually a guy showing how to catch an alligator. And then he shows a dangerous scorpion, and some cute little alligators you can actually touch.
The second we sat under this house where the gator wrestling was, it’s started to rain sooo hard. Everywhere I go it’s raining, but this time I really had luck, that I was sitting under a roof, and it stopped raining just when the show was over 😀

Difference between crocodile and alligator

Crocodiles and alligators are both reptiles from the same order of animals, named Crocodylia. There are however a number of important differences which set these predators apart.
Crocodiles have a longer, more V-shaped head then alligators. Alligators have shorter, wider heads that are more U-shaped.
The fourth tooth of a crocodile sticks out when its mouth is closed.
Crocodiles are better adapted to living in seawater.
They tend to have a lighter appearance than alligators.
Alligators are less aggressive than crocodiles.
Crocodiles in the wild are found all over the world while alligators are only found in the US and China.
Alligators strongly favor freshwater while some species of crocodile live in seawater.

We have only seen alligators =)