When I went down to breakfast this morning, I noticed people carrying pails full of flowers, and young men in white tuxedos…a wedding was in the works. A beach wedding as it turned out!
The poor guests sat in the blistering heat for close to 30 minutes before the procession began. This was ample time to notice how difficult it is to have an elegant and dignified walk in hot sand… The matron and maids of honour wore shocking pink gowns; one was in apple green, she might have been the junior bridesmaid. The men in the wedding party all wore white as did the bride. The person who walked her down the aisle was in a sport shirt…a surprising contrast…as were the hotel guests sporting bathing suits on their way to the beach amid the wedding finery…
Later I went on an air boat ride. I enjoyed it…but felt frustrated in the end. I am not quite sure how these work but they seem to glide over things such as water plants and shrubs.
They can go quite fast which was refreshing (literally) but they are very noisy which scares all the birds away. I did see some nice ones but never long enough or close enough to get a good photograph of any of them. THAT was the frustrating part. We saw some lovely creeks such as these. Our guide told us that these wild hibiscus flowers were also known as Mellow, Marsh Mellows, you can guess the rest..
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We did see aligator nests, and an egg. We even saw a mother, or should I say her eyes, who did not seem happy to see us. We did learn a little bit more about them, such as the fact that once a year females produce about 45 eggs, 10% of which will hatch after 65 days. Once out of the egg the babies are left to fend for themselves. Females build nests that look like compost heaps, and they do not allow males anywhere near them, although they are not against sharing a nest with another female. They are very protective and can be quite dangerous if threatened.
To cap the day, I stopped at a Ron Jon’s surf shop. It is an institution here. They cater firstly to surfers but also to tourists of all persuasion. There are roows upon rows of surfboards of all shapes and colours.
