Okeechobee Visit

by FERENC IVANICS
We walked all the way along the eastern shore of the Okeechobee lake. Haven’t seen much of the lake itself, though, since there’s a levee around the lake. There’s a walkway on the top of the levee but it’s not recommended to sleep on the dike due to the alligator threat.


After Belle Glade the swampland began to disappear and trees started to show themselves. Somewhere at this border we stumbled upon a fruit garden. But instead of seeing the common—of course, to us common—apples, pears, apricots, peaches or cherries, we saw mango, papaya, tamarind, avocado, coconut, carambola, custard apple. But mostly mango.



We followed our walk with a papaya, two pieces of mango and a dozen tamarinds in our hands. Along the road there’s wild forest here, they look surprisingly abandoned and tangled with vegetation. Well, this still is Florida. We visioned thousands of unknown species in the wild around us. We heard some strange noises, probably the sound of wild birds and insects. A few minutes ago the librarian lady scared us with rattlesnake stories. We haven’t seen wild rattlesnakes but yes, wild papaya. Of course it’s a plant, it does no harm, and even though it’s a lot smaller than its cultivated cousin, it’s really tasty.


Rainstorms are still common, we try to keep ourselves dry dressing up in garbage bags and putting one on our backpacks as well. Today a lightning hit pretty close to us and it scared us shitless... We have a new fierce enemy: fire ants. They are extremely aggressive, I think they eat anything that’s not metallic. We have to look around where to put our bottoms when having a break. That’s all for now, we’re on to Orlando.

Strange Fruits, Part 1: Custard-apple, Argan and Cactus Fig
Strange Fruits, Part 2: Palmyra Palm Seeds, Bissap, Persimmon