Day 69 Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Tropical afternoon thunderstorms, wetlands, alligators, and afternoon shopping.
We expected the worst and were pleasantly surprised. You ask, why?
Our anticipated first face to face encounter with immigration and security procedures on arrival into Port Everglades turned out to be a fizzer. You know the old saying "expect the worst and then you are not disappointed", well, I hadn't looked forward to proceeding through all the red tape requirements and precautions to enter this lovely country, however the officials were very polite and friendly, and made our entry point welcoming.
Virtually the same group of 20 odd passengers who have been on Joanne's, Ros' or Brian's private tours hopped on to a shuttle bus to the Florida Everglades. Once there, we travelled on an airboat over a sea of grass to see alligators and the dense marshes of fresh water and tall grasses. Thank goodness I had smeared my face and arms with sunblock as we had to take our hats off and sit in the hot sun whilst we were on board the boat. 'Captain Bob' explained that the propeller at the rear of the airboat could be damaged by hats, scarves or anything which flew into the blades whilst it operated.
On arrival back to the airboat jetty we wandered around the collection of native reptiles, birds, turtles, black panthers and skunks before the shuttle returned to transport us to the 'Sawgrass Mill' shopping mall. I am embarrassed to have found myself walking through the collection a small cages and enclosures which housed the native animals of the area, as if I supported the owners of this shabby enterprise. No way!
Our afternoon wandering around the Mall gave me my shopping 'fix'.
As the ship sailed out from Fort Lauderdale we could see black clouds and lightning strikes making its way across the skyline of Miami.
On the arrival back to DP, we heard of the Hurricane Emily's presence in the Caribbean Sea and the need to avoid its effects. The Captain announced the port call to Cartagena would be replaced by Colón in Panama in the attempt to skirt Hurricane Emily.
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