Because the chances of us getting wet were pretty high during a kayak trip, we opted to NOT bring our camera. So the rest of these pictures where taken from online. They are pretty accurate so they show what we were seeing well. The Everglades are fascinatingly beautiful and creepy at the same time. We started out in open water and then kayaked through a twisting and confusing maze of mangrove tunnels. Inside those tunnels it's dark, the air is thick and muggy and teeming with life. There is a distinct smell too - a warm rotting vegetative smell. It's quite disconcerting to be inside something so thin and close to the water as a kayak. When we started off I had wild, imaginative flashes of alligators crushing through the hull of my kayak with their massive jaws. 
It got incredibly easy to put the man-eating gators out of my mind when the bugs honed in on Mr X and me. We were ridiculously easy targets and even though we had generously coated ourselves with repellent earlier, we were eaten alive by mosquitoes. They were relentless and Mr X and I just kept paddling faster and faster until we were frantically barrelling through those mangrove tunnels, frequently haphazardly. Many times I managed to smash my kayak into a web of mangrove roots, from which then I had to extricate myself, stirring up even more mosquitoes in the process. Mr X piped up from behind me (we were in separate kayaks with me in the lead), "I think we HAVE to go slower!" As much as I didn't want to slow down to allow bugs more time to feast on me, Mr X was right. A few times it was kind of unclear which way to go and then I started worrying that we'd get lost in the Everglades but rather than dying of thirst or being eaten by some beast, I imagined that the mosquitoes would just slowly drain me of all of my blood and that's how I would die. But of course we found our way and once we got out of the worst of the tunnels I was able to enjoy myself again, admiring the amazing birds and views and even some playful dolphins. I relaxed enough that I even dragged my fingertips in the water from time to time. Our excursion was about 4 hours long. I was exhausted and sore by the time we got back, but I had a great time. I thought it was a bit funny that when we returned our kayaks, the lady said, "I hope you didn't put your fingers in the water - It's not the alligators that'll get you, it's the snapping turtles." Nice. I could have used that advice four hours earlier. See this photo below of the mosquitoes on this person's hat? Imagine them multiplied by 10 and all over this person's body. That's how bad it was inside those mangrove tunnels and I'm NOT kidding. Mr X says that these mosquitoes were significantly worse than what he'd experienced even in the rain forests of South America. They got through our clothes and even through our SHOES. We were wearing our running shoes, with socks, and they went right through them. We both had bites all over our feet. Well, all over our bodies, really.
The above is a sliver of my lower back. Below is just my right side. I counted until I got to over 200 bites and then I quit. I'm slightly allergic to mosquitoes so I swelled up all over the place and turned red and purple. Mr X said it looked like I'd been in a car accident. I was bumpy and swollen all over. I didn't care so much about how I look because I itched SO BAD. At night Mr X and I tossed and turned, itching incessantly. We went through an entire bottle of rubbing alcohol and two things of Calamine lotion.
This is Mr X's back. His bites appeared much smaller than mine because they didn't swell up as much but all of those little red dots, not just the big patch on the right, are bites. It was AWFUL.
That being said, I still would have done it. It was worth it - beautiful and fascinating and exhilarating.
1 comment:
This further confirms that you guys are crazy.
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