Florida '10: Everglades

After a week in and around Orlando we left the area heading for Key West. On the way down there we took a detour to the Everglades for an airboat ride in the mangrove forest to see some 'gators. Which we definitely did. The guide stopped the boat and told some dry jokes, like "it seems we're out of fuel" and "everybody out of the boat for a bath". We gave him a dry laugh in reply, then he followed to get the alligators closer to our boat by feeding them marshmallows, and when they were right next to the boat he switched to fish. He even lured one of them to start coming onto the boat, as you can see in one of the photos. I almost had an accident with one of the alligators. It was just laying there right next to the boat, and I thought that would be a cool video shot, so I took out my video camera and started filming. I put the camera over the edge of the boat to get a better view. As I started doing that I could hear the guide saying "you might want to be a bit careful there" at the same time that I could see the alligator opening up its mouth and charging for my hand and camera. I yanked my hand back to not loose it, of course, and felt the adrenaline rushing. An excellent addition to my adventures! :) The alligator obviously mistook my camera for a fish because it's silver and shiny. At the end I got to meet a smaller alligator, which didn't try to eat me or anybody else.