Daily Times

At the boat harbour near Naples, we boarded a speedboat that seated six passengers. The boat did not appear to have a rudder or a propeller but it had a big fan

As we boarded our flight to Florida, the Everglades were very much on our mind. Everyone had recommended them.

At the boat harbour near Naples, we boarded a speedboat that seated six passengers. The boat did not appear to have a rudder or a propeller but a big fan, which was mounted on the back, was apparently going to provide the propulsion.

Two large vanes mounted behind it were going to be the aerial rudder, like on a plane.

As we entered a dense and thick mangrove forest, the captain asked us to put on earmuffs. When we arrived at a lagoon, the captain turned off the engine. He asked us to take in the view and breathe the fresh air.

An eerie silence hung over us, redolent of the climactic scene in the Robert De Niro movie ‘Cape Fear’.

There was no wildlife in sight –not in the river, not on the ground, not in the air.

Where had the creatures, large and small, gone?

The captain said it was because the cold weather was coming in.

I asked him if we were going to see any alligators and, with great confidence, he said no.

I wish we had known us before we bought the tickets.

Then the boat flew off at high speed without any announcement.

At some point I felt the wind rushing through my hair.

The captain suddenly cut the engine and took out a fishing rod and moved toward the front of the boat.

My baseball cap was bobbing in front of the boat and he fished it out.

I did not even know it had flown off my head.

We had become accidental fishermen and the cap was to be the catch of the day.

It had been purchased last summer to ward off the heat in Chicago.

It proudly bore the words “Wriggly Field” in the front, as a consolation for the premium price I had paid for it.

We reached the harbour 50 minutes after we had boarded the boat.

We were $80 poorer, had seen no alligators, but I was reunited with my cap, which was dripping wet with swamp water and which was washed several times in the bathroom sink back at the hotel that evening.

We tipped the captain and asked: where should we go to see the alligators?

He said the receptionist would give you a map to a river where they are found in abundance.

We found the river and spotted our first alligator.

He was asleep, or so it seemed, on the other bank of the river.

Then, by driving along a dirt road, we spotted a second one and a third one.

As we entered a dense and thick mangrove forest, the captain asked us to put on earmuffs. When we arrived at a lagoon, the captain turned off the engine. He asked us to take in the view and breathe the fresh air. An eerie silence hung over us, redolent of the climactic scene in the Robert De Niro movie ‘Cape Fear’

In about 15 minutes, we had spotted 15 alligators but the tires had kicked up an incredible amount of dust, even at 15mph, and we decided to return to the tranquillity of the visitor centre.

In the rest of the weekend, we checked out the Edison-Ford Winter Estate in Fort Myers, the Botanical Gardens in Naples and Sanibel Island.

The tour of the Estate was the high point of our visit.

It was truly impressive with a colonial style building located on the bank of a river with a beautiful, plantation style garden.

On display in several of the auxiliary buildings were exhibits highlighting the innovations of these two icons.

We came to know that not only did Edison invent the light bulb; he also made movies and was really into botanical research.

Later, we visited the Botanical gardens, which were located south of our hotel.

They were beautifully laid out.

They featured several sub-gardens that represented various regions of the world including Brazil and the Caribbean.

On another day we toured Sanibel Island.

You took a very long, two-lane causeway to get there and it was followed by yet another causeway.

Traffic was barely crawling.

There had been an accident and when I inquired of the toll collector whether this was an everyday event, she told me that several emergency vehicles had gone that way just an hour ago. Along the way, we saw numerous signs pointing in the other direction with the wording: evacuation route.

We stopped at the visitor centre and checked out the exhibits.

One that was remarkable featured the skeleton of an alligator that was overlaid on a portrait of a dinosaur, suggesting a possible genealogy.

I asked the ranger at the reference desk if he had heard about the python, which had eaten an alligator, killing both, half expecting that he would refute the urban legend.

It turned out to be true, but it had happened in the Everglades and not on Sanibel Island. He seemed singularly uninterested in discussing the episode.

He directed us to take the four-mile wilderness drive.

At the first mile of the four-mile drive, we spotted some three dozen white pelicans on a sand dune in the distance.

A ranger encouraged us to see them through her stand-mounted scope.

We did as instructed and suddenly they were standing right in front of us, some nibbling at their prey and others cleaning their bills.

At the second or third mile there was a raised “Broadway” that seemed to meander through a grove toward the sea.

The invitation to walk on it was very clear.

So we did.

But after seeing nothing, we began to turn back when another ranger who was posted there called out to us, with evident disappointment, saying “Don’t you have some questions for me.”

So I asked her why it was called Sanibel Island and she said it was named after St Isabel but don’t ask me why.

So I asked instead: how did St. Isabel become Sanibel? She said one morphed into the other as the Southern accent kicked in.

She was clearly from Brooklyn.

Then she asked me where I was from.

When I said San Francisco she said but you don’t have that accent.

I said that is a long story and she said, in that case let’s move on to the next question.

So I told her I was of Indo-Pakistani origin.

She said I thought I picked up a British or European accent.

No wildlife was visible and I expressed my disappointment.

So she pointed out the inch-sized tree crabs, which were clinging to one of the mangroves. They looked like black spiders.

I asked if they eventually ended up on the dining table. She said no but the birds feed on them.

So I asked how do the birds find them since the mangroves are so thick and provide cover.

She said the white ibis come in low and track them down and pluck them with the long beaks.

On the last day, we went to Venetian Bay. As we walked toward the parking lot, I spotted a white Porsche with a bumper sticker – the first Porsche I have seen with one.

It read, “Most people wait until the 11th hour to discover God. Unfortunately, death comes to them at 10:30.”

The writer has visited 35 countries on six continents. He can be reached at ahmadfaruqui@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, October 25^th 2017.