A Gator Story

Every week, we have what's called a "passeio," or "outing." Our language prof., Aryanne, takes us around town to different places, both to show us some culture and to help us open up our Portuguese vocabulary a little bit. Well, one Tuesday we went to a sort of natural park area, complete with trails, "rangers," and some different gathering places for people to have parties, etc. It looks very "jungle-ish" and even has plastic cast animals on which children (or adults) can have their pictures taken. There we were, the Bakers 4, the Atkinson 2, and Aryanne, and we hiked on down the trail to where a creek flows through the city.

Someone in our group happened to notice what looked like an alligator across the creek, lying on a sloping piece of sand. I saw it but for sure thought that it MUST be one of the park's plastic animals, just for decoration. . . I mean, alligators surely wouldn't have access to such a public place, would they? So, we decided to just make sure. If we through a rock at it, and we heard the big sound of knocking plastic, it was fake. After several attempts, we finally reached it, hitting it in the tail. No knocking sound. But it didn't move either. It must be a dead gator! About to leave, satisfied with our strange discovery, we looked back once more and noticed his mouth had moved a little. Is he alive?! We HAD to find out. Finding some more rocks in the shallow creak, we tried to get his attention. Finally, a shot landed square in his leathery belly. And lo and behold that gator TOOK OFF! --into the water, and in OUR direction. I ran like a little girl back toward the trail, my heart racing. Alas, we were safe, but frightened ourselves with the thought of other gators that might have been in even closer proximity to us.

Please don't forward this to PETA. To our knowledge, that gator is alive and well (not to mention really fast) . . . though perhaps with a slight belly-ache. (we tried to re-enact with this picture what would have happened if the gator, which was about this size, had actually reached us)