Travels in a Tin Can

radio ahead to ask them to postpone the manatee talk until we arrived but she
refused. So we all sat there watching time pass, getting frustrated and sharing
wisecracks about how we could call AAA (the U.S equivalent of the AA or
RAC) on our mobile phones. Eventually our guide abandoned ship, returning
to the park entrance with the repair crew. Fortunately the engineer we were
left with was friendlier than our guide, and nursed the ailing boat along to get
us to the park. We rushed to the ranger talk – ten minutes late - to discover
that it had been cancelled due to staff shortages. Great, we thought, having a
really good time.
Things immediately improved when we went to the main viewing area
and got to see the manatees that the park cares for, from above and under
the water. They were being fed massive quantities of lettuce and it was just
incredible to watch them lumbering around eating. It was like the salad bar at
Pizza Hut, but with less mess. From above the water all you can see most of
the time are their huge blue-grey backs big enough for three or four people to
sit on - like living sofas. We spent a long time trying to take photographs of
them - quite hard to do when 98% of the creatures are featureless – and we
came back home with a lot of photos apparently of blue walls.
We finally dragged ourselves away from the manatees an hour before
the park closed in order to finish looking round. This involved a nature trail,
but without the normal excitement of nature trails: ‘What will we see? Will we
see anything?' This trail was more like a zoo with all the 'wild' life in
enclosures. We did get to see some nice birds and animals however,
including a hippo, a fox, some very photogenic bald eagles standing
(tethered/drugged?) by a US flag, and a three legged deer. Several factors