Charleston II

Today is our second day in Charleston, and we began our day visiting a plantation called Middleton Plantation, a garden-museum from the 18th century. It is full of exotic trees and bushes and many types of birds, butterflies, dragonflies and even alligators!

In our trip so far we have seen also alot of squirrels, mostly in parks and gardens, but also a great variety of small birds (cardinals, grackels, mockingbirds...) and big ones (such as pelicans and many types of vultures and hawks).

In this case, there were in the garden mute swans, ibis, herons, etc. And in a pond also alligators! We saw a few of them by having their noses outside the water while swimming.

We took some guided tours to understand better how it was in the colonial time; the first one was about the botannic point of view, the second one explaining the animals in the stables and the last one (and longest) was about the slaves that served in the property. It was interesting to know te types of them, the historical view of the issue and in which conditions they came to America. Later, we saw the rice plantations and saw why it was so dangerous to work there, mainly due to the mosquitos, alligators and more than 65 types of poisonous snakes).

The garden itself had a lot of smaller portions, normally with a geometrical shape; the  owners played games on the lawn. The stables were great too! They had water buffalos, hogs comming from Europe (most probably from Spain, du to their black skin), peacocks, horses, sheep and goats, etc.

Then, after seeing this plantations, we went to Charleston center to eat lunch, and we did in a restaurant called Fleet Landing, eating typical southern meals (based on she-crab soup, french sausages and schrimps and grit). 

After that, we went to Folly beach, a very good one in an island very close to Charleston. While we swam, we could see pelicans flying in row above us, a very nice view! Actually, the beach was very good, and so was the sand. Matías found an oyster in the sand, and I found some shells.

Finally, we went once again to the grocery of yesterday to buy some food for dinner and then to go a little around the city.

Valdemar