Estero Island Cottage and Matanzas Pass (**where our bus broke down)

My overall opinion of the Estero Island Cottage and Matanzas Pass was a good and lasting one.  In fact, my boyfriend and I have been planning on going to see the sunrise at Matanzas Pass, where the tour guide assured us a good view.  I felt that the Estero Island Cottage and Matanzas Pass was a great display of the “old” Fort Myers Beach, and did its best to educate and somewhat conserve what little bit of history and nature it had left of the former beach.  The woman who talked to us about the beach and the cottage was not only a lovely woman, but very knowledgeable and caring towards Fort Myers.  The sight at the very end of Matanzas Pass was my favorite, where we were able to see a great view of the ocean and wildlife across a long stretch of land and weren’t constricted by bushes and a small boardwalk.  The enhanced, local quality of life around the Estero Island Cottage and Matanzas Pass include the many shops and restaurants that surround it, the many hotels, homes, and resorts that bring in tourists and revenue, and the numerous people that come to enjoy those very things by boat in the many canals that have been constructed over the past fifty years and more.  It has and hasn’t included the quality of life, however, in multiple ways.  And as for the environment and the beaches themselves, the quality has not been enhanced.  My hometown has changed drastically over the years, mainly into a dump.  It is not so much the town it is now that brings me a sense of community, but the memories I get when I try and look at the crummy town that was my home many years ago.  If a developer offered me 300% the market value of my childhood home to develop into condos, I have no idea if I would take it or not.  I am not exactly sure if I’d necessarily want to change my old home (even if it is a dump now) with my own actions, however, condos would probably look much nicer there and do much more good in the neighborhood.  If the county approached me about purchasing the land under the 20/20 program, again, I am not exactly sure what I would do.  Since that will never happen, I guess for the sake of this blog I will respond that for both scenarios I would turn down the offers and leave everything (to rot) as it is…