Downtown Fort Myers And Its Beauty

Last class, last trip, but don`t worry, not the last post! We went to Downtown Fort Myers for our last colloquium class. We learnt a little history, walked around then saw a wonderful view from the top of a building.

We visited the SWFL Museum of History, which offered us a variety of pictures and objects from as long as 13,000 years ago. One of the most interesting things for me was the little model of the size of Florida then and now. Did you know that, 13,000 years ago Florida was twice the size as it is right now? Global sea levels increased due to higher temperatures melting polar ice caps. Florida`s waters were also dwelled by enormous sea animals, dinosaurs, which we could see on pictures. It was fascinating to see the huge animals used to live around here. There were dinosaurs not only in water but on land too. This big one was displayed in the museum and looked pretty legitimate.

Thousands of years later Indians inhabited the peninsula. The exhibit showed us lifestyle of the Calusa Indians, who were builders and transformed the landscape of Southwest Florida by building hundreds of shell mounds, altering the waterways and constructing canal highways that connected the coasts. You could also learn about the Seminole Indians, their three wars and how they lived back in the day. There are a couple more modern interesting items displayed as well, such as the iron lung they used with polio patients. The polio virus paralyzed muscle groups in the chest so patients had a hard time breathing or they could even die. Below you can see how it worked, but basically the point was to keep the patients alive and keep their lungs active and working.

After the museum we walked a little more in Downtown and walked by a very interesting palm tree park. It was really cool! Look at the picture below. We were told that most palm tree species on Earth are planted there. It was so beautiful.

Check out this view!

We were on top of Fort Myers. What a great way to end a semester.