In order to keep anglo-french relationships from boiling over, and due to a lack of English people in the hostel, I'm of to the alligator farm with the French man. Entry is $15 as we get a discounted rate from staying at the hostel. The first place we went to was the breeding pool that contains around 300 alligators. It's quite a strange feeling looking into a pool of that many gators with only a little fence to protect you. Everywhere you look there are eyes staring back at you.
Next on the agenda was the snake show. Where the guy/charmer (Eddie) demonstrated how the 2 different types of snake kill their prey before eating them. Firstly was the venomous snake, where Eddie waved about a King Cobra like it was a toy. This obviously kills it prey by biting it and injecting a lethal dose of venom before devouring it. The second type of snake was the constrictor that basically strangle it's prey before dining on it. He showed us a snake that feeds on other snakes (I forget the name of it). Again he was waving it around the show the assembled audience, when the snake mistook Eddie's finger for lunch and took a chomp on it. Now if you struggle against a snake bite then the snake just bites down harder and doesn't let go. It took about 5 minutes for the snake to realise that the finger wasn't lunch and let go. After the show Eddie gave us the opportunity to hold the constrictor for a photo opportunity. There weren't any takers.
Next up was an air boat ride. The farm is situated just on the boundary of the Everglades National Park and is therefore not restricted by the hand propelled craft only rule. The airboat ride takes place on existing old airboat routes so as not to destroy any more of the habitat or upset the wildlife. If any of you don't know what an airboat is, it's basically a tray with a powerful hair dryer on the back to propel it at high speed around shallow waters, as seen on 'Flipper'. This tray had 20 people on board. As I sat down in my seat an alligator surfaced right next to me. I could have patted him on the head, but I didn't as I may need the use of my arms for the rest of my life.
The water was dirtier than it was on the 'Glades, but there were many more creatures for us to see. The cute soft shelled turtles would come up to the boat looking for food. After a gentle ride to start with to see the wildlife the pilot opened it up and took us on the wild ride. The noise is deafening and the ride exhilerating, with high speed 360 degree spins. It was awesome. It's something I'd always fancied doing and guess what, I've done it.
After the ride we went to the alligator where the intrepid Eddie does really stupid things with alligators, like wrestle them and go nose to nose with them. He ain't all there that man. Afterwards we got the opportunity to hold a gator and having wrestled mine to the ground I held him up for the camera. It was a close run thing for a while as it was all of 2 foot long and had it's jaw taped up. Dear little thing though.
Next up was to watch the feeding in the breeding pool. I think they should throw 2 or 3 small children over the fence and see how they fare. I'd pay money for that, but alas it was just our friend Eddie entering through the gate, like the fool he is, and chucking rotten chicken at the gators. At this time you see the slow docile alligator become a whole other animal as there powerful strike ensures that the rotting chicken is indeed dead. From the smell of it I can confirm it is dead.
I had a great day at the farm and when we got back to the hostel the french guy cooked for me. Thanks Folques (I think).
Oh yeah, the Marlins won the world series 4-2. So now the Yankees are getting rid of most of their players like the good losers they are. They are so similar to Man U.
