Fricatas...a tree or shrub that grows in muddy, chiefly tropical coastal swamps that are inundated at high tide. Mangroves typically have numerous roots above ground and form dense thickets.
Our tour started at around 9:00AM and lasted until about two. We traveled through the mangrove by canoe and then later we walked on planks that were about ten feet above the swamp. The picture above is of all the frigate birds that live in the swamp. Frigate birds are mostly scavengers, I think, and during this time of year they are in mating season.
The best part of the tour for me was when we did this little exercise to see who could potentially plant a mangrove tree. We took mangrove seeds (the looked like a cross between a carrot and an asparagus shoot) and dropped them off of the 10-foot high balcony. It was somewhat unlikely for our seeds to stick in the mud at a 90-degree angle, but that was pretty much the only way for the seed to potentially grow in to a tree (a mangrove tree will typically grow in about forty five days). Anyway, all of us dropped our seeds down to the swamp below but my seed was the only one out of our group to land at a 90-degree angle in the mud. So in about forty five days, it is very likely that there will be a mangrove tree grown in the spot where I planted my seed.
