Say "hello" to Gertrude

We took an airboat tour of a swamp south of New Orleans. In fact it was at a place called Barataria, which was Jean Lafitte's pirate stronghold before the War of 1812. It was desolate and populated with very friendy aligators just like this one. As you can see she was very friendly. we thought she was going to jump in the boat with us. I guess she wasn't that hungry. t would have been crowded, since she was abou 11 feet long. I was about 5 feet from those teeth when she snapped her jaw shut onto that chicken leg, and it was as loud as a rifle shot. The white object in the second photo was a marshmallow. She wanted desert and we weren't about to argue with her.