Currency:
US Dollars

Highlights:
The unbelievable city of Fort Lauderdale, South Beach, catching up with friends in Florida, V's faux pas

Our Adventure Summarised (Miami, Florida):

After our short stay in Guatemala and surviving our one night in GC we headed to the airport bright and early the next morning to jump on our flight to Miami. One thing to be said about GC is that the airport is awesome and probably the best part of what we saw in GC! Next stop Miami, Florida.

Miami is a major coastal city in southeastern Florida, in the United States and is recognized as a global city because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts and international trade. The city is home to many company headquarters, banks, and television studios. It is an international center for popular entertainment in television, music, fashion, film, and the performing arts. The city's Port of Miami is known for accommodating the largest volume of cruise ships in the world and is home to many cruise line headquarters. Miami is also home to the largest concentration of international banks in the United States.

After 2 1/2 hours in the sky we began to descend on Miami and looking out the window we were greeted with some slightly overcast clouds but my word the beauty of Miami from 5000 feet was clear for everybody to see. After some amazing aerial views over Miami we descended and we were ready to get a taste of Miami. Welcome to Miami (well for some of us at least).

Before my next story there is a bit of history that I need to fill you in on and it goes something like this:

There is a new regulation in the USA that you need to fill in an ESTA application which is an online application form and you need to give some of your personal details and answer all the mandatory questions of not being a tourist or having a criminal record etc. The travel team all managed to submit their applications successfully besides Al. V kindly filled in Al's application after hers and for some strange reason his ESTA was declined. After multiple phone calls, emails and a few abusive words Al had asked Paul his best mate in Dallas to submit the application 24 hours after V's initial application and the second application had been approved. Shoowee.

So the team all hit the US immigration lines and Lara, Georgie and I all managed to get through without any problems. Al and V were next in the queue and the rest of us headed down to the baggage claim to go and round up our luggage in the interim. After 10 minutes or so and with no sign of Al and V I decided to head out and go and sort out our rental car with Lara and Georgie waiting for Al and V. After jumping on a shuttle bus to the car rental place I received a text from V saying that there had been some problems getting into the US and Al needed to go for some questioning. Now for any of you that know US immigration you know that going for questioning gets you stuck in a room with hundreds of dodgy looking characters and free police escorts to the restrooms and maybe a rubber glove or two if they see fit.

Meanwhile Lara and Georgie, who had no mobile reception in the airport, had decided after an hour or so to leave Al and V's bags and come and meet me at the car rental place. After 3 1/2 hours of killing time at Dollar Car Rental, with a few text message updates from V in between, the Dollar Car Rental bus finally arrived with the remaining two rather grumpy looking travel team members. Happy to see them and eager to hear their war stories and what happened with US immigration, V was looking rather sheepish behind her man. Al then rehearsed the story of how he was grilled by a US immigration officer after waiting for 2 hours in the dodgy room on why his first ESTA application had been declined. It eventually came out after some brutal questioning that his first ESTA application was declined due to the fact that he had admitted to having a criminal record. Doh. V had tried to get her new husband kicked out of the USA by answering yes to one of those questions to which you never answer yes! Yes, she is still drinking tequila fines for her faux pas.

With the travel team all back together and in one piece we picked up our car keys from Dollar Car Rental and eager to see what awesome upgrade we had been granted we were greeted in the car park by our new car for the next few days which can only be described as a hearse or more affectionately 'the beast' as we began to call it. It was a big Mercury Grand Marnier which had more boot space then anything I had ever seen. A little far away from our dream convertible and many laughs later we all jumped in the hearse and headed to our destination, South Beach Miami.

We headed to our hotel for the evening, Greenview, which was in an awesome location in South Beach on Lincoln and Washington. As Lara and I only had that afternoon and evening in Miami we headed out straight away to go and check out South Beach and stroll along the beach at sunset. South Beach is absolutely awesome - lined with Palm trees, turquoise blue seas, white sands - you can definitely see why this is the playground of the rich and famous. We headed onto the famous Ocean Drive which had already come alive at sunset and is filled with restaurants, bars, hotels and live entertainment venues all which were already packed with people. What an awesome vibe.

We headed back to the hotel to pick up the rest of the team and we took them back to Ocean Drive to a viby restaurant called Finnegans Way. Here we welcomed ourselves back to civilisation by tucking into chicken wings, oysters, steaks and Coronas. What an awesome night and an awesome city. Welcome to Miami.

You can see our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=347500&id=713415257&l=79d8a62dad

Our Adventure Summarised (Fort Lauderdale, Florida):

The next morning Lara and I woke up early for some breakfast and coffee and began our drive up to Fort Lauderdale Airport where we were going to pick up one of our friends Jana (one of Lara's very good friends from uni days in Hawaii) who had flown down from New York to come and meet us.

The drive from Miami to Fort Lauderdale made me fall in love with Florida. The streets are lined with palm trees and you are constantly surrounded by water in the form of canals, the ocean, lagoons etc. In turn everything is built around the water including houses, office parks, shopping centres etc and all of the water is lined with boats ranging from ski boats to luxury yachts. Everything is pristinely clean and modern condos and houses line all of the shores. Absolutely awesome and definitely a place that I could live.

We arrived at the airport and after picking up Jana (who we thought at one stage had landed at Miami instead of Fort Lauderdale) we decided to head to our hotel, the Days Inn in Fort Lauderdale and drop off our bags.

Fort Lauderdale is known as the "Venice of America" due to its expansive and intricate canal system. It is in Broward County, Florida, United States. Population is over 170,000. Fort Lauderdale is a stylish, sophisticated city with café-lined riverside walkways; and it's also popular among the yacht crowd for its lovely, Venice-style waterways that many people don't even realize exist. Of course, there's also a great beach. As well as that Port Everglades is the nation's second busiest port for cruise ships, after Port of Miami.

Fort Lauderdale became famous for starting the Spring Break tradition. Spring break, (also known as March break, Study Week or Reading Week in some parts of Canada) is a week long recess from studying in early spring at universities and schools in the United States, Canada, mainland China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, and other countries.

There is an interesting history of how Spring Break came about and the history is as follows:

In 1936, the swim team from Colgate University in New York traveled down to Fort Lauderdale to practice at "the first Olympic-size pool" in Florida. The excursion was a success. Eventually, Fort Lauderdale "started staging the College Coaches' Swim Forum." The event drew attention from nearby military posts. "One thing led to another," and the modern Spring Break was born. By 1953, 15,000 students made the spring trek down to Ft. Lauderdale.

So after dropping off our bags Lara, Jana and I decided to head for lunch and meet one of my work buddies who is located 20 minutes north of Fort Lauderdale, James. James recommended an awesome little spot called Aruba which was right on the beach front in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and we spent a few hours in the sunshine catching up and looking out over the ocean drinking some ice cold beers and enjoying a great meal. James very kindly sponsored us lunch and the favour will definitely be returned when he comes out to either South Africa or the UK in the near future. James unfortunately had to head back to work so Lara, Jana and I decided to live the life of the unemployed and go and laze about on the beach for the rest of the afternoon.

From the golden sands we watched the world go by and many of the locals were either surfing or fishing off of the pier. As we were about to leave and head back to our hotel to get ready for the evening we were literally walking out the door when an old friend from school Nick Stead walks into the same restaurant that we were in with his cousin and his wife. What are the chances that on the other side of the world in Fort Lauderdale I would random bump into an old school friend? This definitely deserved some beers as all of us then settled into some sunset beers catching up on the latest happenings.

After spending a good few hours with Nick and his cousins, Lara, Jana and I decided to head off on more of our explorations around Fort Lauderdale. There are many things to do in Fort Lauderdale, but the beautiful beach is a prime attraction and the most popular section of beach is where A1A runs along side the beach, between Las Olas Blvd north to Sunrise Blvd. On our way back to the hotel we drove this awesome coastline lapping up all the beauty that Fort Lauderdale had to offer us and what an amazing coastline it is.

After a few quick showers at the hotel we all jumped into a cab to go and ride the infamous Fort Lauderdale water taxis which is a definite must for all visitors and an unbelievable way to see the city. On the water taxis there are guides that give you hundreds of fun facts on Fort Lauderdale and our first stop was Las Olas Riverfront and the Briny Riverfront Irish Bar and Restaurant. There was a live band here and we settled into some drinks before dinner before jumping back on the water taxis where we spent the next hour on the water taxi listening to the very entertaining and informative guide telling us all about Fort Lauderdale.

Of all the stories our guide told us he informed us of one Florida's richest men, Wayne Huizenga . Harry Wayne Huizenga (born December 29, 1937 in Evergreen Park, Illinois) is an American businessman who grew Blockbuster Video, Waste Management, Inc., and AutoNation into successful companies. He is the former owner of the National Football League's Miami Dolphins, the National Hockey League's Florida Panthers and the Major League Baseball's Florida Marlins.

Looking at the houses and condos of Fort Lauderdale from the water makes you appreciate the wealth that Fort Lauderdale has to offer and shows you how many of the houses and condos are not just multi million dollar homes but absolutely beautiful and unbelievable multi million dollar homes. What makes it more impressive is there is not just one or two boats or yachts in the water but hundreds ranging from speedboats to fifty million dollar yachts that belong to the likes of Greg Norman and Evil Kenevil. Truly amazing and all of this set in the most amazing waterways lined with palm trees, sunshine and blue skies.

Getting back to Wayne Huizenga: although Wayne's office was only a 5 minute boat or car ride from his home to downtown Fort Lauderdale he used to ride his private helicopter to and from work much to the disgust of 5 of his neighbours who were continually wind swept by the helicopter and not to mention very tired of the noise that the helicopter made. So what did he do? Instead of catching a boat or car to work he bought all 5 of his neighbours properties so that he could still fly into work. Bear in mind that each house probably cost in excess of ten million US Dollars each.

After having a great time on the water taxis we jumped out at Las Olas and headed to the beach where there is a stretch of bars, clubs and restaurants and we picked Sangrias which was a fresh Mexican Spanish grill and we settled into some massive margaritas, some great food and a hubbly bubbly to finish things off.

What a great day and night in Fort Lauderdale and definitely a place that we fell in love with. Not even the mad cab drivers stories that he told us on his way home of how we were staying in a very dodgy neighbourhood and he would not normally go there could put us off. Now all we need is a few million dollars to buy ourselves a boat and an awesome spot in Fort Lauderdale on the water.

You can see our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=347502&id=713415257&l=a3ba827800

Next stop our Caribbean cruise.

Leise + Lara.