Everglades Nature Tours (ENT) is taking the South Eastern Florida Everglades by storm! We are the one-stop touring company that is ready for your Everglades adventure in any way you want to see nature. We’ll customize and cater to your wants and desires as best we can. Our higher-end airboats, “FREEDOM,” is for those who want to tour in first-class private luxury. No ear bleeder here folks, just a smooth glide with plush cushion seats for your comfort. We also have another boat called ‘Stars and Stripes’. For those who want a little more up-close water adventure, take a guided canoe or kayak trip down through the umbrella Cypress and mangrove tunnels that lead into the bay. For our deep thicket adventurers who want to get away from the tourist areas and go further into the national park, take a drive on our nostalgic swamp buggy that sloshes through the sloughs and cypress thicket for further range tours. Picking up the pace at ground level, we invite hikers and walkers for a more up close and personal swamp and prairie experience. For total comfort in A/C andinsects try our van tours. If you or your family love fishing, we have some honey hole action in both the freshwater and saltwater arenas as well. And lastly, for the hunting sportsmen, we have an experienced Gladesman who will be happy to guide hunts for turkey, deer, hog, and gator when in season. We have taken the River of Grass and the deep Everglades to a whole different level of professionalism. We welcome any and all travelers, adventurers, and sportsmen who just want a unique experience with a personal, professional, and first-class outfitter. Our slogan says it best: “Where pictures and adventure stories last a lifetime.” We are conservationists and preservationists. We will continue to safeguard the integrity of the Indian preservation, National Preserve & Park, and the lasting beauty of The Everglades — or as some call it, “The North American Amazon.”
Capt. Erik "Fred" Lorentzen
“Be it by water” has always been Capt. Erik’s motto. Another Miami-Dade born child who was destined to love the outdoors and everything it had to offer. Yes, it’s true, he’s been a Blue Water Roamer for years, but unconsciously, he has always found his way inland exploring nature. The Lorentzen family moved to Highlands County, Florida in his mid youth. While being away from the ocean’s edge, Capt. Erik found that his calling for inland flora and fauna started to explode. He found himself involved in the FFA and 4H clubs taking trips to the Everglades to explore the fishing and camping in the undisturbed natural preserve of the Everglades. His interests in life in the Glades grew so drastic that he decided to pick up photography in order to capture those moments for when he wasn’t able to be out there; at least he could see them and ponder on what he had seen. As Capt Erik grew, so did his eagerness to see what the rest of world had to hold. Being from a Viking family background of Norwegian commercial fishermen, Capt. Erik started his own voyage across the globe. He has wandered through the lands and fished the seas from Australia, Norway, Ecuador, Guatemala to Hawaii with an array of countries in between. Though his travels through life were because of fishing, he never went anywhere without touring or giving tours of rainforests, estuaries or Glades. One of his favorite places besides his beloved Everglades was the OSA peninsula of Costa Rica. He lived in the primary rainforest on the outskirts of Corcovado National Park and gave tours and fished for several years. He loved the fact that he found a place where both his worlds collided and he could be two places at once. As time went by, Capt. Erik found himself back in Florida fathering a beautiful baby girl and had settled in Crystal River, FL on the Nature Coast. Nature Coast, coincidence? We don’t think so, we think it was his path back to his love of boats, nature and most of all talking to folks from around the world about his homeland…The South Florida Everglades. An educated, decorated captain with a 100-ton master license, he is also ready for any client who speaks English, Spanish, Norwegian or German.
Capt. Ozzie Gonzalez
Be it by land or by sea, Capt. Ozzie has done it all in South Florida in a little over 40 years. A successful land-based hunting/tour guide and an accomplished 100-ton master captaining licensed offshore and swamp charter boat captain. No doubt in anyone’s mind Capt. Ozzie lives for the outdoors. Since the age of 5 when his mother finally allowed his father to take him fishing and hunting, he never spent another day indoors. This young man’s love for nature, especially the Everglades, never changed. Born and raised in the Coconut Grove area of Miami, FL he spent a little more than half of his time fishing as he was able to ride his bike to docks. Being a young scallywag, he was thrilled at just being given the chance to be a wash down boy on the docks from ages 6 to 12. By 12 he started mating and the ocean was his until a few years ago when his call to inland nature had him wrapped up. He knew all too well what the Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park had to hold as his father would take him on the airboats, hunting and fishing out there every chance he got. As a young teenager, Capt. Ozzie found himself hooking up with some other hunters and heading to the swamps to spend the weekend out there to camp. Finding new trails and paths cut by the animals he would walk from sun up to sundown, stalking them. He grew to have great respect for the animals, flora, fauna, and weather the Everglades had to hold. He prides himself on his hunts and guided tours he gives. There is no doubt his passion for the Everglades thrives and he loves to show and tell the world his story. He spends his private time woodcarving fish and animals; his up close and personal relationship with the wildlife is what makes his artwork so detailed and beautiful. Whether you speak English or Spanish Capt. Ozzie is guaranteed to educate, have fun and always wear a smile.