Visitors to Miami frequently want to supplement their urban experience with a trek into the nearby Everglades, that untamed marshy wilderness a short distance to the west of the city.  What some consider a swampland is in actuality a vast, slow moving river of grass which flows from Lake Okeechobee (located in the south central portion of the peninsula) southward to Florida Bay. 

These waters have some lurid tales to tell, and soon, you’ll get to learn a few of their choice secrets!

SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

Currently if you book the Everglades Tour, you catch a bus that takes you out to Gator Park, where you get to enjoy a 40-minute airboat ride and a 30-minute nature show in which you get to hold a baby alligator and observe the art of alligator wrestling.  But soon you’re going to have a new option for the Everglades: a narrated bus tour, similar to the one currently used for our Miami City Tour.

The bus used in the City Tour is a state-of-the-art, 36-seat, air-conditioned GPS equipped vehicle with a pre-recorded narrative that starts and stops at all the appropriate points.  Of course, the drivers have a lot to say, too, and keep things interesting with their own colorful anecdotes.  You have the option of using a head-set in which you can hear the same professionally-recorded information in Spanish, French, Italian and German. 

NOT YOUR GRANDMA’S BUS TOUR

(above) The bus currently used for the city tour will soon be increasing its fleet

These tours opt for the colorful over the standard fare, so you’ll get an earful of some of the region’s most infamous history, as well as off-the-beaten path information you won’t hear anywhere else.

Miami Tour Company’s expeditions were recently chosen as the number 1 attraction in all Miami by tripadvisor.com reviewers.  It was also named best Miami city tour by the SunPost.

Among the stories you’ll hear on the new Everglades Tour is the grisly tale of one Justo Padron, an ill-fated 36-year-old car thief who was spotted burglarizing vehicles one November afternoon in 2007 at the Miccosukee Resort and Convention Center, a popular Everglades tourist destination.

When police arrived, Padron panicked and took off running.  There aren’t many places to hide in the Everglades, so Padron decided to pull the old hop-in-the-lake trick.  Unfortunately, he failed to notice a prominent sign which read, “Danger Live Alligators.”

His mangled body was recovered the next day by authorities and his death ruled accidental.

You’ll see the lake as you continue along your journey, and your head will soon be swimming with similar tales of python invasions, CIA training camps, and the Cuban missile crisis.

More details will be coming soon about this not-to-be-missed South Florida experience.

Douglas Eames is a freelance writer, homespun philosopher and budget bon vivant who divides his time between Southern California and South Beach. Doug’s column appears Fridays at Miami Beach 411. See more articles by Doug >