Hatching Alligator Florida
Ella’s Gator
I want readers of my travel blog to know that they don’t have to go out of the country, or even out of their home state, to find incredible places to visit. Although my journeys have taken me all over the world, I can still find theme parks, museums, nature preserves, five-star hotels and historic landmarks practically in my back yard.
Gatorama is an experience unlike any other, a wild and wonderful consolidation of different categories of attractions. This is a place where visitors can get down and dirty with some of nature’s most intriguing reptiles: alligators. These scaly scions of the swamp have a bad reputation, one that is mostly undeserved. True, they have large jaws and sharp teeth, and can bite with over 2,000 pounds of force, but most alligators reach only five or six feet in length, and seldom attack people. Their larger cousins, crocodiles, are a different story.
Patty she runs the place with her husband. She is a tiny woman with a large presence, and does an amazing job of overseeing the hatching. She had a such great stage presence that I thought of her as of formerly a Broadway actress. Patty inherited the alligator farm from her parents. We spent a lot of time getting acquainted, and became fast friends. I met a lot of great people at Gatorama, and made a bunch of new friends.
I specifically wanted to come to Gatorama during hatching season, which runs from mid-August through mid-September. The most exciting part for me was helping to hatch a baby alligator. No, I didn’t sit on the egg for two months! Gatorama has a trained staff who knows all of the aspects of raising alligators, and Sarah, one of the employees, walked me through the entire process. She took all of the photographs of me.
I named my adopted alligator Mr. Zen, after a new online business venture of mine, Tropical Shore Zen. I had hoped that he and I would have bonded after our shared experience, but without even a brief goodbye, Mr. Zen slithered off into the swamp. When I asked Sarah if I could return and visit my unsociable charge, she gave me a strange look and replied, “Yes, of course. He will be swimming in the swamp with the others, but if you can find him . . .”
I bought some nice alligator meat, along with some Everglades spices, and Sarah gave me a good recipe. (Please don’t tell Mr. Zen)!
Next year I am going to come back and volunteer at the farm. The drive was somewhat grueling, but totally worth it.
See you later, alligator!
– Ella
Hatching Alligator Florida
I named my adopted alligator Mr. Zen, after a new online business venture of mine, Tropical Shore Zen. I had hoped that he and I would have bonded after our shared experience, but without even a brief goodbye, Mr. Zen slithered off into the swamp. When I asked Sarah if I could return and visit my unsociable charge, she gave me a strange look and replied, “Yes, of course. He will be swimming in the swamp with the others, but if you can find him . . .”
I bought some nice alligator meat, along with some Everglades spices, and Sarah gave me a good recipe. (Please don’t tell Mr. Zen)!
Next year I am going to come back and volunteer at the farm. The drive was somewhat grueling, but totally worth it.
See you later, alligator!
– Ella
Hatching Alligator Florida
