Day 2: From the jungle of the Everglades to the jungle of Key West

After a good night’s sleep in Homestead, Best Friend and I started our day out quite early. We had hoped to enter Everglades National Park in the morning when the animals would be active. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive Florida Panther, but he was a no-show. What I did see were countless alligators, many types of birds including mother and baby Screech Owls, turtles, and lizards.

We took the main road through the Glades from Florida City to the southern tip of the peninsula in Flamingo. I was actually more impressed with the Everglades than I thought I would be. I remember passing through several years ago and only seeing the saw grass prairies, or also called the River of Grass. The road we traveled did pass through the River of Grass, but also through hammocks of tropical trees that grow nowhere else beyond the Caribbean other than Florida. We passed by canals, brackish swamps, and finally to Florida Bay on the Gulf of Mexico.

Of course, I enjoyed it most when I got out of my car and did what I love best—took a hike through a few trails. I was praying wildly that I would not see a snake. I had heard the horror stories of people dumping off their pet Pythons into the Glades and such. I also remember seeing a very disturbing picture of one of these released Pythons that attempted to swallow a full grown alligator. It killed the gator but the gator was so large that it caused the snake to split wide open, killing it, too. Eeek! Thankfully, I did not encounter any slithery nightmares on my way through the mangrove trails. But I did see too many gators to keep count.

With all the animals and thick tropical vegetation, I felt like I was in a jungle.

After leaving the jungle behind, we continued south to the almost-Caribbean little islands known as the keys. Shortly after leaving Florida City, we hit the Overseas Highway that connects the islands via dozens of bridges, one of those being 7 miles long. The sea was so beautiful and blue-green. Nothing beat having the sunroof of my car open and the windows down as the 80+ degree winds blew through my hair as I crossed the blue sea.

We camped at the Fiesta Key KOA off Long Key. (Because there were no other accommodations available; plus camping is cheaper!) It was a really nice place to camp. The beach had a tikki bar and kayaks available for rental, but we had too much to see and too much to do to tarry there very long, so we quickly set up our tent under a stand of palms and continued down the Overseas Highway toward Key West.

We made a stop before reaching our destination at Bahia Honda Key, which was twice rated one of the best beaches in America. It was so pretty there. I searched for Bahama Starfish, but didn’t see any. Still, I got the chance to practice snorkeling with my new gear. I wanted to get back in the groove of breathing correctly and working those fins before we headed out to one of the reefs off Key Largo the next day.

After some snorkeling and soaking up rays at Bahia Honda, we made the rest of the trip into that crazy little island the Spanish named Cayo Hueso (Island of Bones) and we later renamed Key West!

We strolled along Duval Street (the main street) and checked out the sights and then we headed down to Mallory Square for the daily Sunset Festival. (You gotta love a place that makes up every excuse under the sun—literally—to have a party. The Sunset Festival takes place at sunset 365 days a year!) The sunset was beautiful and all the festivities were entertaining and fun. The only problem was it was hard to distinguish the drunk people from the plain crazy people here.

I felt like I started my day out enjoying wildlife and ended it by watching wildlife of another variety.
More pictures from Key West will follow in the next post.