We definitively didn't expect to see animals like longhorns (not pictured), zebras, and peacocks. It was like a zoo, but in the swamp lands.
They had a pavilion right on top of a swamp with many gators inside. We were lucky enough to see this big fella (11ft long) swimming just a few feet from us.
There's the gator swimming away in the background
As we continued to wait we were able to feel this cut little guy ;) Surprisely gators are super soft. I wanted to take his skin home with me :)
When the time came for our tour, they had to cancel on us because Tropical Storm Debbie started to bring rain. We simply rescheduled for the following week and went to eat at the little shack near by that sold fried gator. Crazy I know, but we had to try it. It tasted similar to chicken, but with a slight flaky fish texture. It was good.
Luckily after days of rain due to the storm, Thursday morning brought wonderful weather and we hopped on our little boat.
We saw several rare birds including a bald eagle and it's gigantic nest. I never knew their nests were so big.
Here's swampy lake we were on. It has about 3000 gators and boy did we get close to a few before they swam away.
Jordan sporting his earmuffs.
That's a cow out there in case you were wondering. You can't tell from the picture, but it's extremely swampy. I was surprised to see cows eating in the water. Our tour guide told us that gators have no problem gobbling up any wild life in the swamp and they have lost plenty of cows and dogs to them...yikes!
The boat doesn't just go in water. There were plenty of times where we were flying on grass alone.
This is were we saw tiny baby gators about a foot long each. There are gator nests all alone the banks. Apparently June/July is nesting season.
This is a gator nest. We were disappointed because our guide told us that there is usually a mamma gator sitting on top and hissing at the boat because it's so close.
After our hour long tour through the swamp lands, we got to finally hold the baby gator. This gator was so funny. The owner would sling it up over his shoulder like a baby and the gator's arm would hold on to him and hug back. Plus the gator was trained to wave his hand when you waved to it...incredible!
Overall we had so much fun. Those boats go really fast by the way. We want to go again but next time at night. The people there tell us that the wildlife is much more active in the evening.
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