Coral Hammock Key West

... glad you didn't bring Buster down with you to Key West" <br><br>Pictures from the Trip Five Guys Take a Trip - A Day Off<br><br>(Author's Note: Although this is dated in chronological order I've had to backtrack a bit since Internet access in Key Largo was been difficult, was having too much fun to check in, and too tired at the end to keep up.)<!-- LEGACY WHERE I STAYED --><!-- ALBUM -->

... the stress wasn't worth it, but guess it was an adventure, that luckily turned out well! The bus journey back went quickly and i arrived back in Miami at 10:30pm. I had to wait for the bus for 35 minutes which wasn't ideal at that time in Miami but again all worked out ok and i arrived back at the South Beach Hostel at midnight. There was a notice on the bus that made me chuckle and i wanted to take a photo of it but there were lots of dodgy looking people on the bus so i didn ...

Here we are in Key West Florida, the southern most city in the continental US, and man is it hot. It has been in the upper 90's with super high humidity. We've have been finding some fun ways to stay cool. Traveling around in the van isn't one of them. It is so hot here that there is no way we would be able to sleep in the van, or even outside in a tent. So, it really is our "smaller vacation within in our vacation" as Jess likes to put it, we're living it up in another ...

... but bordered by pine trees - free shade, hooray. The water was crystal clear and much calmer than South Beach. We saw a few colourful fish and a lot of people were snorkeling, but we are on such a tight budget now, that we couldn't afford to rent a snorkel :(. <br><br>After a lovely few hours spent on the beach, we returned back through Bahamian Village and Jim stopped off at a backstreet 'old skool' barbers, 'Floyd's', to get his hair ...

... we were soooo gutted. We never to got find out what it was on the end of the line, but speaking to Fred the next morning, he reckoned it was probably a barracuda or maybe a black-tip shark (!) as they are known to come in to shore at night.<br><br>05/10/2009 - I had been looking forward to this day for a while! About 20 miles south of Islamorada on Grassy Key, there is a Dolphin Research Centre, where you can swim with dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico sea. Jim had booked a ...

... it. <br><br>We headed to the lounger beach and hired a couple of loungers and spent a few hours sunbathing. The Fort is also known for its good snorkeling so I packed up my fins and mask and checked out the underwater life. The rocks a little way out are the best for snorkeling although on a day like today the visability was poor and the current a little feisty so I only saw a few parrot fish nibbling at the coral. The beach itself is very rocky with sharp ...

... at McCoy Indigenous Park , is a rescues center where heal animals are prevents from sea birds there are Seven Mile bridge to the Dry Tortugas . And another place A Key Encounter museum in Clinton Square Market Mall, the admission is free. There is three screen movie theater named "Natural Theater" where 3 movie at a time. And other attraction is "Jungle Walk" to see the wild animals. In noon I took my lunch at El ...

... with were really funny. The canadian guy was a small guy and wore bright pink stripy shorts and kept trying to do an English accent so kept copying everything I said. Funny at first..... We arrived back at the hostel in South Beach after midnight and we were confronted with a huge hostel argument. Someone had thrown beer over someone and had been chucked out. All seemed chaotic so we just went to bed. Craziness!

... making my way closer to home. It's taken me almost 3 months to get here. I still have 5 months to go. So much left to see. Though Texas is about the size of the first dozen States I drove through on the Eastern Seaboard. I drove to Key West this morning. The first 50 kms I drove through the Keys yesterday were disappointing. The next 100 kms I drove this morning were mostly disappointing. I think to really appreciate the Keys you have to be on a boat...or in an airplane. The ...

... to experience some of the locality we took the aforementioned walk down Duval Street. We experienced some shocking live singers in Duval Street; the worst being a bloke with a guitar butchering "Suspicious Minds"... I could have done a much better job and had they offered me an all-you-can eat seafood dinner afterwards, I just might have!! Our stroll ended at the harbor and we were then left open-mouthed by the expensive-looking boats that ...