Recently I toured one of the local attractions, Fountain of Youth, here in St. Augustine, Florida. St. Augustine is the oldest colonial city in the US that has been continuously occupied since 1565.
While the colonial history is interesting, there is a lot about it that is heartbreaking and brutal. I was more intrigued with the earlier inhabitants of this area. The original native Americans in this area were the Timucuan Indians. They died out in the late 1700's. This area was originally the Timucuan settlement called Seloy. What I found particularly interesting from the tour was how fertile this area was. They said they only had to work 3-4 hours a day to provide for themselves through gardening and fishing and maintenance of the family compound.
Below is the re-creation of a family compound (the equivalent of a house) comprised of several small structures.
This would be the sleeping area with a small opening to control ingress and egress. It was about 5-10 degrees cooler inside, which is very important in hot hot Florida.
Pea Fowl
The most exciting part of this park were the pea fowl. And the boys were definitely on display that day!
This sleepy little hen (?) just didn't seem all that impressed with the boys.
Have no idea who this boy was showing off to. :-)
The peacocks and the re-created Timucuan settlement are very interesting and I look forward to going back another time.
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