So you want to REALLY see the Florida Everglades, huh? You can, of course, hire a guide or take a tour but if you really want to have the time of your life on your Florida Everglades vacation, you need to make it a point to visit some of the more unusual attractions and there are an abundance of them! Here are listed just a few of the more unusual ones:
Monkey Jungle: Monkey Jungle is in Miami. It was launched in 1933 when Joseph DuMond released six crab-eating Macaques -- Java monkeys from Southeast Asia -- into a ten-acre Florida hardwood hammock. The monkeys thrived and multiplied so Joe expanded to thirty acres. The monkeys are territorial by nature so, of course, they began attacking the tourists. This was certainly not a good thing but Joe didn’t want to cage the monkeys....so he did the next logical thing...he caged the tourists. You will certainly enjoy this unusual attraction.
Parrot Jungle: Parrot Jungle is also in Miami. It was opened by Austrian immigrant Franz Scherr in 1936. Scherr had a feed store in which he kept several parrots that was near Monkey Jungle. He was always making suggestions to DuMond and DuMond finally told him that if he knew so much he should open his own Jungle...which is exactly what Scherr did. One of the main attractions was a "Parrot Circus," where the birds would pull chariots and fly a rocket to the moon. The star was Pinky, a cockatoo that rode a tiny Parrot Jungle bicycle along a high wire. Believe it or not, Pinky is still alive today but she no longer performs. Her successor is Nikki. Pinky is now 80 years old. You will want to take home a picture of yourself with five or six parrots clinging to your arms. No Florida Everglades vacation would be complete without one.
Skunk Ape Research Headquarters: (Don’t expect a large facility.) You will find the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters in Ochopee, Florida. It is a rather small town in the Florida Everglades. You have heard of Big Foot in the Pacific Northwest, of course, and the Skunk Ape of the Florida Everglades is apparently a distant cousin. According to Dave Shealy, self appointed Skunk Ape Expert, "There's never been a documented case of anyone ever being physically attacked by a Skunk Ape but also, there's a lot of people that go into the Everglades that never come out." The Skunk Ape is apparently a really stinky, hairy biped that lives in the Florida Everglades. You don’t want to miss this one!
The Old Jail: This one is a ton of fun if you like being scared out of your wits. This old pink stucco jail really WAS a jail that really did house prisoners until 1953 when it became a tourist attraction. You are given by big scary “inmates” (actors). You don’t want to miss the photo op of having your picture taken in the ‘bird cage”!
