What a Wonderful World (An #AtoZChallenge Post): B is for Biscayne National Park

 

The front of an orange kayak enters into a waterway lined with mangroves at Biscayne National Park

My husband recently re-retired, and we are front-loading travel. My#AtoZChallenge posts this year will explore our adventures--some pre-retirement, some post. Today's location: Biscayne National Park in Florida, USA. 

Though Biscayne National Park is located in Florida, it would be more accurate to say that it is in the waters off Florida, as 95 percent of the park is in Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. We knew that when we visited, we would want to be on the water, so we signed up for a kayak tour of the mangroves through the Biscayne National Park Institute. We met our guide, Daniel, at the Dante Fascell Visitor's Center, just as the winds started picking up. Daniel told us that he had some concerns about the weather, but if we wanted to give kayaking a try, he would be willing to take us out, as long as we understood that he might need to cancel our trip at any time. There were six of us there; four decided to go ahead and get out on the water, and the other two rebooked for later in the afternoon. (In retrospect, they should have gone ahead and gone with us, as the afternoon outing got canceled.)

Daniel was an excellent guide. He taught us about the various types of mangroves. Red mangroves are able to use arial roots to desalinate the water they grow in. Black mangroves have lots of roots that come up out of the ground, and those roots need to stay above the water, or the tree can drown. Mangroves reproduce through viviparity, which essentially means that fully formed little trees break off from the parent tree. Those little trees will float around in the shallow waters until taking root in the soil. 

We explored various mangrove channels and spotted numerous birds. It rained for most of the time, but the water was relatively warm. We had a great experience kayaking, and would definitely recommend it. The following video shows a white bird (a great white heron, perhaps?) sitting in a mangrove while rain falls, then the bird flies away. 

Come back tomorrow to see where in the world we will visit next!