Ecko tours takes travelers through Manatee County history, environment
MANATEE -- The Manatee River is a passageway through Manatee County's history. Local ecotourism nonprofit ecko tours hopes to showcase that history while providing tourists an informational cruise through the ages.
The Manatee River of Time is a four-day, four-night tour of Manatee County's mangrove forests, outdoor preserves and sustainable, local seafood options. The trip promises to take participants through the "incredible past, present and future of authentic Gulf Coast Florida."
A one-day preview of the tour started and ended in downtown Bradenton with nature, culture and environmental knowledge packed in between. An out-of-this-world experience greets participants to kick off the tour.
"It's a natural history of the earth with Florida as the focus," said Bishop Planetarium Director Jeff Rodgers. He shows Manatee River of Time participants the path they'll take and what they'll see during the four days of biking and boating through Manatee County while relating all of the history they'll experience to the bigger picture and taking them to the edge of the universe.
Before leaving South Florida Mu
seum, the home of Bishop Planetarium, participants can visit Snooty, Manatee County's most famous and the world's oldest manatee, and touch a Mastodon arm bone found in 2005 near 75th Avenue and Cortez Road West. After the evening presentation at Bishop Planetarium, Manatee River of Time tourists will turn in at a downtown Bradenton hotel.
The next morning brings a water taxi to Emerson Point Preserve where Karen Willey, naturalist and owner of Around the Bend Nature Tours brings participants into the history of Native American societies and the technology they used and invented centuries ago. Willey launched her tour company in 1999 and said the ecko tours are assembling like-minded organizations and partners in a way that helps everyone.
"Because they're packaging them and including so many things, it's helping everyone," Willey said this year. Twenty-five different nonprofit partners are providing guides and facilities for ecko tours and 32 community business partners have come on board to provide guides and tour services.
Hernando de Soto's impact
Another boat taxi ride takes participants to De Soto National Memorial for a tour of the park and a briefing on Hernando de Soto's impact on Native American societies living in Florida when the Spaniard arrived by ship with the first European expedition to the area in 1539. It's tough to fit an entire Spanish conquistador's trip into a couple of hours, but the Manatee River of Time gives tourists more of De Soto's experiences rather than a history-book lesson on his ventures. They'll hop off the boat to explore Florida's land just like De Soto did.
And after all that exploring, surely De Soto was hungry. But it's too bad he didn't have the same option tour participants have; a stop at Geraldson Community Farm for a lunch picked and prepared locally. Ecko tours are focused on sustainable living and helping tourists realize how easy and impactful small changes, such as eating produce from local farms, can be. And after eating a Geraldson tomato or a slice of their juicy watermelon and touring the farm's grounds, tourists' tastebuds won't accept anything else.
Instead of a nap after a delicious and filling lunch, Manatee River of Time takes tourists on an energizing bike ride through Robinson Preserve, adjacent to Geraldson's property. Manatee County's number one expert on Robinson and other natural assets in the county, Parks and Natural Resources Department Director Charlie Hunsicker, provides explanations of the ecosystems. The depth and knowledge from Hunsicker help tourists appreciate Florida's natural beauty with a new perspective.
The one-day preview tour finished at Robinson, but the actual Manatee River of Time tours provide a glimpse of Cortez, one of Florida's oldest fishing villages, as well as a trip to a prime example of sustainable living, Anna Maria Island.
"Anna Maria Island is a modern example of sustainable living," said Jennifer Shafer, executive director of the Science and Environment Council of Southwest Florida. The Science and Environment Council inspired the ecko tours after Shafer realized organizations in the council could bring a new option to Manatee and Sarasota Counties' growing, diverse tourism profiles. Shafer launched ecko tours this year with five sustainable options for tours of different Gulf Coast areas.
The next Manatee River of Time tour is scheduled for February and Shafer said ecko tours has three people signed up for it and needs three more for enough reservations to do the tour. To join others in learning about Manatee County's natural history and environment, see www.eckotours.com.
Janelle O'Dea, business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7095 or follow her on Twitter @jayohday.
This story was originally published December 27, 2015 at 11:22 PM with the headline "Ecko tours takes travelers through Manatee County history, environment ."