I wanted to see an alligator so I went where the alligator resides in the Lower Keys, at the Blue Hole on Big Pine Key.
Key Deer Boulevard ploughs due north from the lone traffic light on the Overseas Highway in Big Pine and a couple of miles up the road is this new and nice looking sign. Incidentally the boring 30mph speed limit is closely monitored so speeding is generally a bad idea around here. The Blue Hole has lots of information on billboards though what use they were to the crop of foreigners visiting I'm not sure. We in Amurika don't put tourist signs up in foreign languages.
The Blue Hole is actually a murky shade of green but it is a catchment for rainwater so it is fresh and not salty. 
It used to be that a large and well known alligator lived here, and came to be known as Bacardi. That alligator, the fearsome creature, ate a child's plastic toy dropped i the water. The toy stuffed it's digestive system and the alligator starved to death. As usual the wildlife has more to fear from us, than us from them.
There is a replacement now floating around in the Blue Hole. 
It was a quiet and placid afternoon in Big Pine last Thursday afternoon. I saw a turtle head pop out of the water in the middle of the hole and a couple of large fish tempted fate swimming past the alligator's snout.
However boredom seemed to be the agenda.
The alligator rose and sank every few minutes, taking a breath and then sinking out of sight. It was all very peaceful and not at all threatening.
I wrote more previously on the Blue Hole here:
http://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2008/12/blue-hole-revisited.html
Key Deer Boulevard ploughs due north from the lone traffic light on the Overseas Highway in Big Pine and a couple of miles up the road is this new and nice looking sign. Incidentally the boring 30mph speed limit is closely monitored so speeding is generally a bad idea around here. The Blue Hole has lots of information on billboards though what use they were to the crop of foreigners visiting I'm not sure. We in Amurika don't put tourist signs up in foreign languages.The Blue Hole is actually a murky shade of green but it is a catchment for rainwater so it is fresh and not salty. It used to be that a large and well known alligator lived here, and came to be known as Bacardi. That alligator, the fearsome creature, ate a child's plastic toy dropped i the water. The toy stuffed it's digestive system and the alligator starved to death. As usual the wildlife has more to fear from us, than us from them.
There is a replacement now floating around in the Blue Hole. 
It was a quiet and placid afternoon in Big Pine last Thursday afternoon. I saw a turtle head pop out of the water in the middle of the hole and a couple of large fish tempted fate swimming past the alligator's snout.
However boredom seemed to be the agenda.
The alligator rose and sank every few minutes, taking a breath and then sinking out of sight. It was all very peaceful and not at all threatening.
I wrote more previously on the Blue Hole here:
http://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2008/12/blue-hole-revisited.html
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