See ya later
alligator.

 

Today marks the
halfway point in our trip as we docked in Fort Lauderdale Florida at Port
Everglades. Most of the people were
disembarking and going home but we, along with 600 or so others, were
continuing aboard for the second leg. We
took a tour in Florida today visiting the Everglades and experiencing a
brilliant airboat ride around the river system. 
Many people incorrectly believe the Everglades to be a marsh or a
bog. It is, in fact, a river system
which flows at around one mile per day. 
As well as slow moving it is very shallow and home to millions of American
alligators as well as other wildlife.

The Everglades river
system is fresh water mostly becoming slightly salty only when it opens up to
the ocean. In the slightly salty areas
you can find American Crocodiles. The crocodiles
themselves are incredibly endangered with only about 2000 remaining. Their cousins, the Alligators were hunted
almost to extinction in the sixties and seventies and became protected when a
head count revealed the extent of the damage caused to their numbers. Now, they are thriving and can be found
throughout the 5000 square miles which make up the Everglades eco and river
system.

The sad thing about
the alligators (well sad and totally understandable) is that any of the beasts
who reaches over four foot in length AND winds up in someone's back yard or in
an area inhabited by people, has to be captured and either rehomed in captivity
or euthanised. They are considered pests
at more than four feet in length and can NEVER be released back into the wild
once trapped. The law permits just those
two options, rehomed or killed. Luckily
for them there are a group of boys and girls called the "Gator boys"
who make their living from rescuing these larger gators and rehoming them. I took some pictures of the Gator boys show
which we watched after the river tour. 
They use the gators to show off some dangerous stunts. This show earns them tip money which then, in
turn, allows them to rescue more of the animals or buy them from other trappers
who would have killed them.

The river tour was
on an airboat which looks like a giant sheet of metal with two propellers
attached to the back. It was GREAT
fun. You have probably seen that tv
program which has an airboat at the very start of it weaving its way in and out
of the marshy looking river. We can't
recall what that show was called! It
felt as though the boat went really fast and it cornered sideways which was
exhilarating to say the least! I can't
believe how loud it was with the propellers going at full blast. The boat works in such a way that it almost
skims the surface of the water, thus allowing it to navigate the grassy
waterways without getting stuck. It was
just brilliant fun. We saw an alligator
and got so close to him that I could have reached out and touched him. I managed to resist the urge but I did take
some pictures of the little guy. (he was
five foot long but not in an area inhabited by people so was perfectly
safe). It really was a shame that the
river boat tour only lasted half an hour, the time went so fast and we would
have loved to have seen more.

After the tour, we
saw the gator boys in action and that was also quite exciting. I have seen the program on TV but it was very
nerve wracking watching it in real life. 
There was one point when the alligator the man was trying to grab really
didn’t want to play anymore. You heard
his jaws shut with a loud and hollow snapping sound and the man jumped back
about 4 foot. The guy knew what he was
doing and, although the show was a bit gimmicky, we know it was all for a good
cause and the tips received from the public go directly into allowing them to
rescue more gators.

 

Once the tour was
over, we were back on the coach and heading towards the ship port for the
second leg of our tour. Because we were
classed as "passengers in transit", we did not have to line up with
all of the new people coming aboard. 
This was nice and took a lot of the stress out of coming back to the
ship. Sadly however, it would appear
that 3000 fairly nice people left the ship and about 3000 idiots have come
aboard. (this is an exaggeration of
course, but there are most certainly some right idiots with us now)

First example….

The adults have ONE
pool for just themselves….ONE. It is
located right at the very end of the ship and looks out directly off the
back. Kids and teenagers have the use of
THREE pools. We were sitting down to eat
dinner outside by the adults only pool and I nudged Dave, pointing out a women
in the pool with what appeared to be a two year old kid and a four year old
kid. You could see a lot of people
looking at each other and frowning, pointing at the "adults only"
sign and shaking their heads. This area
is our sanctuary away from kids….I don't mind kids but, c'mon….no no no! I was
about to shout down to her (the eating area looks down on the pool) but, just
before I did, a man walked over to her, pointed at the sign and then at
her. She was MOST unhappy at his
helpfulness and looked up at us shaking her head as if she expected
support! I said "THERE IS CLEARLY A
SIGN THERE SAYING ADULTS ONLY". 
Once she realised that she was getting absolutely no support from any of
the adults around the pool, she said something which sounded like:- "COME
ON BABIES, LETS GO, THERE ARE GRUMPY PEOPLE HERE". David almost choked on
his food and shouted down to her:- "WE ARE NOT GRUMPY, WE ARE
LITERATE". She then stormed off
dragging her little cherubs along with her. 
Oh and….one of them was in diapers and there is also a sign which reads
"ABSOLOUTLY NO PERSONS OF ANY AGE WHO REQUIRE DIAPERS ARE ALLOWED IN ANY
POOL OR SPA". Anyway, she stormed
off, everyone clapped…job done.

I know it sounds
mean but, this is the ONLY adult pool….it is tucked right out of the way and it
is TINY in comparison to the family pools of which there are three. She was being obnoxious and she was rightly
put in her place.

The other very rude
person we met shortly after was in the lift. 
We got in and then he did….he looked at me and said "PUSH
NINE"  Clearly please and thank you
were not in his vocabulary! I was,
initially, quite shocked and just stared at him. I found my voice once we got out of the lift
on the same floor and reminded him that manners cost nothing. He, like the pool woman, was also
American. It is such a shame when we
have met people like Carey and Kelly who were just amazing, to then meet the
stereotypical American person. There
seems to be a LOT more kids and teens on this leg of the cruise but I have no
problem with that so long as they are watched and behave.

 

We have left Florida
now and are heading for our second time stop at the Island of Eleuthera and the
resort of Princess Cays. We won't be
doing a tour this time and so will have time to wander the resort itself and enjoy
the beach. This isn't something we do
very often so it will make a nice change to be beach bums for a day! This stop is the only one which is a
repeat….from Princess Cays onward we have different stops to the first leg.

I've gone on long
enough anyway!

Hope the weather
there isn't too bad. It is lovely here,
very hot and sunny today and tomorrow is set to be the same. Mid eighties ish. Take care and I will post more tomorrow.