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Photo by Chris Loose

SPRINGS AND MANATEES OF FLORIDA SNORKEL/CANOE

ITINERARY

Day One: Crystal River

Our adventure begins with your arrival to Tampa International Airport. We will meet you outside baggage claim between 5:30pm-6:00pm.
From the Bay Area many flights arrive between 4:00pm-5:30pm.
Our destination tonight is our private waterfront home on a tributary of Crystal River
(dinner included and quad occupancy rooms in our cozy Florida home).


Our comfortable Florida style home will provide our base for the next three nights.

Day Two: Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge 

After an early breakfast, we'll travel by pontoon boat into the river, searching for the endangered West Indian Manatee. This warm spring fed river is a critical winter habitat for the manatee which seeks refuge here as the Gulf temperatures drop. Crystal River has the highest concentration of manatees each winter than anywhere else in the United States. Our plan is to snorkel side by side with these amazing gentle animals. Birding along the river is excellent. Brown and white pelicans, cormorants, ospreys, and several species of wading birds are commonly sighted along the river's edge. Back in our cozy home tonight we'll gather for dinner and sunset over the waterfront

(breakfast, lunch, dinner and quad occupancy rooms included).

Day Three: Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge:

After breakfast, we'll head out into the river for another day exploring the bays and marshy creeks of Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge. In addition to snorkeling among adult manatees and their calves, an array of fish species both freshwater and marine are found in the clear, warm 72 degree water. Schools of mangrove snappers as well as needlefish, sheephead, gars and even huge tarpons are frequently seen. Occasionally bottlenose dolphin follow schools of fish into the freshwater springs offering an unusual sight.

(breakfast, dinner and quad occupancy rooms included; we'll stop for lunch at a waterfront restaurant: lunch on your own).

Day Four: Ocala National Forest

We will have an optional final swim with the manatees and then travel into Florida's interior and to the spring fed waters of Silver Glen Springs in Ocala National Forest. Our group will have another opportunity to snorkel through sparking clear water that bubbles up from cracks and caverns in the limestone. We commonly see osprey diving for mullet in the warm spring water, their tallons flared. During our travels today we'll visit protected habitats which are rapidly vanishing with the development of Florida's interior. We'll discuss other environmental issues facing Florida. Our destination tonight is the newly remodeled

Hampton Inn in Ocala.

(breakfast, lunch and double occupancy room included; dinner on own).

Day Five: Ocala National Forest

Today we'll travel to Juniper Springs Run for a fabulous day of canoeing. The vegetation surrounding this area is lush and tropical. Thick and vibrantly green mosses coat tree limbs and fallen logs. Buttressed cypress trees testify to their successful adaptation to an aquatic existence. This rich river swamp habitat is the home to a variety of animals including river otter, black bear, white tail deer and gray fox. The river provides an ample supply of freshwater apple snails, the primary food for a cryptic wading bird, the limpkin. Massive alligators that feed on turtles, wading birds, deer and fish are sometimes seen in the marshy section of the run. We'll explore this rich ecological area at a leisurely pace and then return to The Hampton Inn (breakfast, lunch and double occupancy room included; dinner on own).

Day Six: Ocala to Tampa Airport

After breakfast, we'll head back to the Tampa International Airport arriving by 11:00am to catch afternoon flights.

.  Please make your flights any time after 1:00pm.  A snack lunch will be given to you for the plane ride.

ACCOMMODATIONS

For our first three nights, we have rented a  private waterfront home on a tributary of Crystal River.  The location is fabulous and our comfortable Florida  style home has triple to quad occupancy rooms as well as a few  beds tucked away on the Lanai. Your Blue Water Ventures staff will be cooking most meals at the house. The rental house is cozy and somewhat like a big slumber party!  In Ocala, we have reserved double occupancy rooms at the newly renovated Hampton Inn. You may take a look at our rental house at: http://www.nativevacations.com/House.htm  and the Hampton Inn at: http://www.hamptoninn.com/en/hp/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=OCFFLHX

Photo by Jenna Slovis

For Fabulous Photos and Manatee Facts Please Visit:
http://www.brandoncole.com/profilemanatee.htm
http://www.savethemanatee.org/repro.htm
http://www.fun2dive.com/photos.htm

For Photos and Facts about Juniper Spring Run in Ocala National Forest: http://www.clubkayak.com/cfkt/trips/juniper_springs.html

Gift Certificates are always available.