Wild Stuff To Do in Miami – LIFE AS A HUMAN

Encounters with wildlife might be the last thing you’d associate with Miami, but travel writer Darcy Rhyno finds the search for animals the perfectly contrasting precursor to a week aboard a cruise ship. Read Part 1 of this two-part story here.

Dr. Wasabi with Speedy at Jungle Island near Miami.

“Look at zis!” calls the bronze, sculpted Adonis cavorting in the waves. I look around… yes, he’s talking to me for we are the only two on South Beach. At 8 a.m. on a rainy morning in July, this isn’t surprising. Okay, now what? I’ve never done this kind of thing before.

“Look!” Adonis beckons. This is my first trip to SoBe or South Beach, and at 50 years old, I am already self-conscious about my northern, middle-age spread. Still, I’ll be leaving SoBe in an hour and might never get back this way. What do I have to lose?

Tentatively, I step into the waves. The water is warm. Very warm. It’s ahhh, soak-my-feet-in-a-basin-of-Epson-salts therapeutic warm. But it isn’t just the temperature that makes these waves so different from the icy ones at home in Nova Scotia. There’s something aggressive about them. They come at me quickly and with energy. I’m up to my knees in an instant and rocking from the constant barrage. I want to lie down and be washed about by them.

Adonis points down to a shadow floating beside him over the light brown sand. A raft of seaweed, that’s what it is. I’ve seen it many times at home. Individual strands of thin eelgrass collect into a shapeless raft and wash to shore. No, it’s not seaweed, and the words “Look at zis” don’t amount to a German pick-up line… oh my God, it’s a body! Adonis has spotted a corpse and needs my help!

I push further into the water. Yes, it’s a body all right, but not a corpse. It’s a living, moving body, a huge grey mass the size of a WWF wrestler just beneath the waves. I can’t believe what I’m seeing. I’m familiar enough with Florida fauna to know that manatees are not supposed to be here on this endless stretch of sand in mid-summer, but there it is.

“I get my kamera,” says Adonis in his incongruous accent as he bolts from the water back to his belongings. When he returns, he snaps shots while I hold the plastic bag he’s using to protect the camera from the splashing waves and rain. We walk with the docile creature as it makes its slow way along the shore, giving a push with its broad tail or raising its black nose for a breath now and again. Eventually, it swims to deeper water. Adonis and I part, a private and extraordinary encounter between complete strangers no more than lingering smiles on two or – I’d like to think – three faces.

Typically, swimming isn’t nearly so extraordinary an adventure in South Beach. It can be more like battling crowds at a mall with your clothes off. But for those fresh from the homeland of the snow shovel and the wool mitten, swimming is the thing to do here any time of the year. It’s by far the easiest and most rewarding activity for those waiting to head out on one of dozens of cruises from Miami, the world’s busiest cruise port. And if it’s a wildlife encounter you’re after before heading out on a floating city, you don’t have to depend on a chance encounter at the beach.

Within sight of the cruise terminal and South Beach is (deep voice-over) JUNGLE ISLAND! (sound of jungle drumbeats). A purchased pass comes complete with free shuttle service to and from any number of Miami hotels. And the best reason to visit Jungle Island is… okay, I can’t decide because there are TOO MANY!

Darcy Rhyno with baby alligator at Jungle Island.

For starters, there’s the 900-pound liger, a cross between a male lion and a female tiger. The paws on that great animal make one weak in the knees. Or how about the African penguins that love to play with colourful children’s toys… I reverted to childhood, laughing at their lively games. The brilliant macaws that greet you at the gate and the pink flamingoes stationed in the pond like it’s someone’s birthday are pretty cool too. For a fee, you can lounge with the lazy red kangaroos – they like to be scratched on the belly and don’t mind presenting same as an invitation.

Perhaps the animal that beats all for watching – better than the intelligent orangutans, the howler monkeys and the attention-seeking camel named Archie, aka Flash – are the humans, in particular the little ones alternately gazing in amazement and howling with laughter at the animal antics in Dr. Wasabi’s show, which features Speedy the turtle, those cute penguins, some pickpocket monkeys and a couple of leaping lemurs. Their tiny, black hands, their penetrating eyes are a marvel. And their fur is so soft, I felt I might be hurting the creatures with just a gentle pat… Okay, so maybe the lemurs are my favourites.

Parrot on the shoulder of a Jungle Island visitor.

On the way out, Jungle Island staff drape the unsuspecting with harmless snakes that are nevertheless shiver-inducing. Others offer up baby animals for photo ops. I got to hold a leathery little alligator, a lot less intimidating than those on the Everglades tour that was next on the agenda. Sure, there are the pro sports teams like LeBron James’ Miami Heat, major performing and visual arts productions in gleaming new state-of-the-art facilities like the Adrienne Arsht Centre for the Performing Arts and the New World Symphony, there’s nightlife galore, but another time. I’ve booked an airboat cruise into the vast Everglades National Park.

Darcy Rhyno with lemur at Jungle Island.

With scheduled pick-ups twice a day at many downtown hotels, a minibus speeds us 45 minutes out of town to an outfit run by Miccosukee Indians… the place was literally crawling with gators, baby ones to beefy ones. There’s a restaurant and gift shop where you can buy souvenirs like alligator jawbones and t-shirts with gators on them that say “Bite Me,” there’s a short but fascinating interpretive talk about alligators and a shorter boardwalk trail through the forest.

But of course the real highlight is the airboat ride. Even though there’d been a serious drought that caused forest fires and seriously limited our access to the park, it was still an exciting thing to cruise along a water road, earplugs firmly in place, and watch gator after gator cross our path. The tour guide at the controls stopped the boat often to talk about these ancient lands as the ancestral home of the Miccosukee and the hundreds of species of birds, reptiles, fish and other animals that live with them. This is the third largest National Park in the lower 48 states and a World Heritage Site. I felt honoured and awed to be one of the one million people a year lucky enough to see just a small part of it.

There. That’s one breathless day of pre-cruise cruising, starting with an early morning dip at the beach followed by a stroll through Jungle Island and finishing up with an expertly interpreted cruise into the Everglades. A perfectly exhausting holiday launch to justify a relaxing cruise to the Bahamas or even further into the Caribbean then back again to the world’s cruise capital, Miami.

Read more from Darcy Rhyno’s trip to Miami:

Miami Mode: The Cuban Press

Miami Mode: How the Arts Saved a City

Miami Mode: Homes Away From Home

Photo Credits