Port of the Islands

After leaving De's we went to visit our friend Leah, who we have known since our days working
together in Miami in the mid-1990's. Leah now lives south of Naples in an area called Port of the Islands. It is right next to the Everglades in the west coast of Florida close to Everglades City. She has great condo that looks out over the canal. Manatees are an almost constant presence and I managed to get a couple of shots of one right at the seawall. (just for you, Ed :-)

While here we went on a hike with a naturalist friend of Leah's, Dick. He is very knowledgeable on the flora and fauna of this area. He is a volunteer at a wildlife preserve and hikes the preserve every week making notes on the animal species he sees. He allowed us to walk with him at Leah's request. We walked about 4 3/4 miles out then retraced our path back. We started at 7:30am and got back around 1:30pm. It was a very hot day and by the time we were back, we all were exhausted (except Dick who kept walking after we turned back).

It was worth it though because of all we saw and I go a few good pics although I discovered my camera is not very good for this kind of photography. The last gator pic is of a gator that was at least 10 feet long. He was HUUUGE :-)

Because Dick was keeping track, we counted 29 gators in one small pond, mostly small fry, many not much more than a foot long. Momma gator was keeping a close eye on all her fry.
Location: 25000 Tamiami Trail E, Naples, FL 34114, USA

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