Snake Show and Safari Ride

Tuesday, March 2nd
Post by: Andrew Davis

We began the day with an early start, with everyone waking up around 7:00 AM in our new surroundings. We headed to breakfast in the cafe at 8:30 where we had eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes and hash browns (a very hearty start to the day!). After breakfast, we visited their gift shop (they sold the traditional patchwork Seminole clothing), for about 10 minutes. In this time, a dark cloud rolled in and unleashed a torrential rain storm. Fortunately, we were scheduled to attend a venomous snake show, which was housed inside!

In the snake show, we were introduced to 6 snakes (all except one are indigenous to Florida) and a baby alligator. Almost every snake that we saw, with the exception of the Florida rat snake, was venomous. We saw two different types of rattlesnakes: the pygmy rattlesnake and the Easter timber rattlesnake. We also saw a coral snake, and learned the proper saying to identify these venomous snakes from rat snakes: "Red on yellow, kills a fellow whereas red on black is a friend of Jack." The show was amazing, as our park guide, Hans, was so knowledgeable and really demonstrated the importance of snakes in the ecosystem as well as the fact that they do not attack humans unless aggravated.

After the snake show, we went for another swamp buggy ride - but this one during the day! We saw much more than we did on the night ride. On the ride we saw numerous Asian Water Buffalo, bison, ostriches and the wild hogs. We were also able to see more of the vegetation as we drove through Hardwood Hammocks, cypress domes and also a rich array of ferns.

We had lunch under one of the outdoor chickee eating huts (the Seminoles had different chickees for different purposes - the eating one is open air and on raised platforms). Buddy, our guide for the two days, had packed us a picnic that allowed us to try some of Florida's produce: papaya, apple bananas, tamarind and mango. For dessert we had guava bars and cookies.

After our feast, we attended a birds of prey show that were all indigenous to Florida. At the show we were introduced to three different types of birds. The first we saw was a black vulture, which the trainer allowed to fly freely around the outdoor atrium. It was neat to watch them chase each other around. Then he introduced us to a red-tailed hawk, which was a bird that the handler had trained. He had rescued it himself when he found it with a broken wing. This bird was very unique as it was almost all white, with red tail feathers (the bird was older and aging). The third and final bird that we met was an American Kestrel. This bird was very pretty and small in stature. It looked like a Peregrine Falcon but much smaller. This experience was another informative show, and eveyone walked away with a new understadning about these animals.