17 hours in Fort Lauderdale

It’s a funny thing to find yourself at the airport after over a year of travelling, with the realisation that this is your final journey. Thankfully we had a random bonus 17 hour (!!!) stop-over to enjoy in no other than sunny Florida, which certainly softened the blow somewhat. One more day lounging on the beach in the sun-you can’t really complain can you?...

Until you turn up and it’s only bloody raining!

Thankfully I’d done some homework so after our 2.5hour flight from Managua, we skipped off the plane, picked up our giant backpacks and hopped onto a bus (well, three buses), and arrived at Fort Lauderdale beach front by about 7am in the morning. Desperate for some food but loath to spend any money, we menu-trawled until we found somewhere relatively cheap ($8 for a filled croissant and a coffee!!!...We clearly were no longer in Nicaragua). Turns out our cheap eat was none other than the Hilton, which as it turned out was a stroke of luck as it appears that putting on your poshest English accent and smiling lots will get you concierge service and the free storage of your bag for the entire day. Screw you expensive don’t-open-til-9’o’clock airport baggage storage!

Our plan to sunbathe all day having been foiled, we decided to get a day’s pass on the Fort Lauderdale water taxi….essentially a hop-on, hop-off boat that takes you all around the waterways of FL, with a delightful running commentary by a posh wrinkly Floridian, about who lives in or owns all of the fancy-pants mansions and yachts. Quite a culture shock after our time in Central America, but interesting in a nosy, how-the-other-half-live kind of way. Some people have a LOT of money.

We filled our day pootling about on the water and visiting different tourist spots around the area. We also hired weird horizontal bicycles and had great fun attempting to avoid each other, pedestrians, tree and lamp-posts as we wiggled along the waterfront….and in my case failing miserably! 

(Brodie is a long-way ahead...turns out I can't multi-task and cycle and photograph at the same time)

One of the rare moments when I'm not in a hedge 

Thankfully we survived our last near-death experience of the year and made a full day of it in time for our 11pm flight...and this time it really was the last one...