Ilse. August 24-28

Since most of the ordered packages were ordered and scheduled to arrive by the 27th at the very latest there was finally some time to sit back and relax.

On August 23th we decided to visit the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. The museum is actually the former villa and estate from businessman James Deering (Deering-McCormick – International Harvester fortune)and was built between 1914 till 1922. He collected lots of European artefacts and built a house around it.

On August 24th we planned to go to the Keys but on the way changed our mind and went to visit the Everglades…When we arrived at the entrance they alerted us that mosquito level was high !!! I think we were the only ones wearing shorts and sleeveless shirts!!! Even with a strong Deet spray we could not really enjoy a walk through the park so we decided we would have to come back and prepare better… On our way back we prepared for our trip to the Keys the next day and bought beach chairs and a little tent to protect us from the strong sun! We could ship them on the boat to Grenada…

On August 25th we went to Key Largo and got some sun on a little beach with lukewarm water! Too warm to cool off, luckily there were showers so we could wash off the salt and have a nice dinner and cocktail at a local restaurant before going back to the hotel.

August 26th, the washing machine arrived !!!! Stefan decided to go drop off all our stuff today so maybe we had a chance it could still go on the boat leaving tomorrow. We arrived at 3PM (they closed at 4PM) with thunder and dark clouds…all the packing is done outside. We managed to get all our stuff in the D-Box with room to spare and they confirmed it would go on the boat tomorrow so arrive in 8-10days at Grenada!!! It was a tiring day which we ended at a restaurant on famous Ocean Drive

August 27th, pouring rain in the morning, after some hesitation we did leave for the Everglades and by the time we got there the skies cleared out. This time with long sleeves and pants :-). At the first visitor centre the ranger told us we could see a nest of a female alligator with 30-40 little ones who had just hatched 5 days earlier. Further down the path there were some more females on a nest all marked with a “caution” tape. For the first one we really had to look hard as we passed by it twice without seeing it…so many of them!!! We did a scenic route through the Everglades and at the end just barely managed to join an Airboat ride. The park closes at 5.30PM and it was 5PM. It was OK but we had already seen lots of alligators, turtles and herons on our walks that we did not see anything new…In the evening we went back to Ocean Drive to have Stefan’s picture taken with the “vuile brakees” bicycle shirt in front of the former house (Casa Casaurina) of Gianni Versace (murdered there by a spree killer in 1997).

August 28th, time for checking out and go to downtown Miami. Our flight was at 5PM so we had time to visit the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). A nice museum with a collection of especially south american artists. We left in time to catch our flight to Grenada. By the time we got through customs it was 10PM when we arrived at the hotel. We were starving only to find out that the restaurant was closed for the night and we were the only ones in the hotel…