The Everglades Tour
The cruise ended early in the morning on November 22 and we and Susan and her husband had our flights back home on the 23rd, so rather than taking a shuttle from the boat to the hotel and waiting around for rooms to open up, we decided to arrange an after-cruise tour in the Everglades. The ship-arranged tours made this easy and baggage was handled as well.

The Everglades are directly west of Miami and the tour bus took us to one of the places that offer boat trips out into that wide, grassy river that runs from the lake in the center of Florida to the sea. They are driven by large fans that make so much noise that everyone is supplied with ear plugs.

The Everglades are essentially expanses of grasses which grow out ot the water that is only a foot or two deep. The boats usually navigate down watery paths that run through the grass. As the guide said, the boats could go anywhere but they dont go into the grass in order to preserve the vegitation. Many varieties of birds and also gators and crocodiles can be found in the Everglades and we didn't have to look far from the dock to see them.

After the boat trip, the tour group was seated around the guide and several alligators. The guide expalined that his particular Everglade business did not wrestle alligators but rather handled them in an environmentally friendly way. He could get their attention and pat them one by one by calling out their names - he said that it took a lot of trust on both sides to do this. It was a real interesting and fun trip and we were all glad that we opted for it.