12.06.2012 – 12.06.2012  33 °C

A nice lazy start to the day even though we had to be at the dock by 9am to catch our boat out to the reef. We arrived at the dock to be greeted by another 80 odd people who were also catching the first catamaran out to the reef! First thought was that with this many people its going to be peak hour out on the reef. The equipment we got on board was the basic rubbish snorkelling gear that was going to cause me no end of pain once I hit the water!

For all of the faults the cat ride itself was just lovely. Balmy hot breeze wafting over the rolling deck.. Yep rolling.. I did feel queasy a couple of times on the way out! Trust me, even with only a slight roll I’m still looking for the bathroom!! J Anyway, we arrived out at the reef and the line up began to get off the ship. M&D went down the stairs, I got tired of waiting and just jumped over board. Immediately, my goggles filled up with water.. I swear I spent half of my time out in the water adjusting my mask.. The main problem, was the design. It was one of those old fashioned styles so your nose is inside the goggle glass bit.. This means that your poor old nose gets squashed! I had to pull in my mask so tight (so that it wouldn’t leak) that my nose was perpetually squashed!!! (That’s what you get for having a big nose huh?).. Moral to the story, if you want decent snorkelling equipment get your own.. (But why would you carry snorkelling equip for one dive.. I guess I shouldn’t whinge then should I? I knew the equipment was going to be ordinary….) One positive equipment wise was that I tested out snorkelling with a pool noodle stuck across my chest.. It’s quite a nice way to snorkel because you don’t have to use your arms and legs as much to keep yourself afloat.. when you find heaps of fish the pool noodle just keeps you up!

Unfortunately, the coral was terrible.. Very brown and only a few fan corals to give any slight colour to the ground. The fish were pretty though, big rainbow parrot fish, little cute electric blue fish and even a big sleek barracuda. The fish did make up for the poor coral! J And to be honest, just being out on the water was fantastic. The way back, the crew opened up the bar so there was plenty of fun and enjoyment on the hour trip back to shore! NB: For those reading this blog who enjoy a dive/ snorkel… You will be disappointed here in the Keys.. the best coral I’ve seen in the past few years was off the Big Island in Hawaii… Go there for nice coral and fish!

Once back on dry land we headed back to our digs for some lunch (left over homemade hamburgers from last night) and an arvo of R&R so that we could spend the evening downtown on Duval St checking out the nightlife. I spent my afternoon in the bar of our hotel emailing and blogging and sipping a tasty rum cocktail. Life’s tough isn’t it??

By 3.30pm I was fed up with blogging and thought I might head into town to see Ernest Hemmingway’s house and his infamous cats! Forget that this house was once lived in by EH it is a really fine piece of colonial architecture. The house was built in the mid 1800s by a ship wreck salvager. He would go out with his team to recover people and goods that had gone down in a ship wreck, any goods he salvaged would then be his and he would then re-sell them back to the owner (if they still wanted it) at I’m sure an inflated price! The trade must have been lucrative as the house is an architectural beauty. The walls in the house are made from limestone and are at least 40cm thick, so no chance of it falling down in a hurricane!! In fact, some of the old houses, EH included, are used as hurricane shelters when they get a 4+ hurricane bearing down on the town!!

EH is an interesting character, and one I really knew nothing about. He started his career (and his fame) as a war correspondent. He covered both world wars and the Spanish civil war. He wrote heaps (I have no idea how many) of best sellers and became a real American legend. He was a womaniser (5 wives) and a heavy drinker and spent the prime of his life in Key West and Cuba. He left KW after his second wife (who owned the house) kicked him and his mistress (soon to be 3^rd wife) out!! Funny story about his 2^nd wife.. she was so cranky when he ran off to cover the Spanish CW with his mistress that she had a salt water pool installed in their back garden. This was during the depression, so the pool she installed is estimated to have cost in today’s money at least 380 thousands dollars!! Back then, there was no funky filtration devices on the pool, so everyday the pool was emptied of its salt water and fresh sea water was pumped in!!! Can you imagine the cost??? EH paid for the whole lot and on his return is reputed to say to his 2^nd wife that she had spent everything and she may as well even have his last penny! Needless to say his 2^nd wife divorced him as soon as he returned and kicked him out of KW!!

He left for Cuba and never again returned to his house in KW. Another cool thing about his house is the cats! All of the cats (and there are 40 odd) that live in his house have 6 toes!!! Apparently, cats with 6 toes are good luck so EH allowed his first cat (Snowball) to ‘play the field’ and the descendants of his original cat still live in the house. Actually, the only residents of the house are the cats! The vet visits weekly to check on them, god knows how the cats are kept fed (I guess my entry ticket pays for the food..). Each of the cats are named after famous actors, so today I met Kathryn Hepburn.. Every cat is allowed to breed once and then is snipped so that they don’t end up with a plague of cats… (Personally; 1 cat is plenty, but 40.. imagine cleaning up the cat fur!!)

By the time I got back to the hotel everyone was ready for dinner so we headed back into town to find some yummy food and to just wander Duval St and check out the nightlife. Dinner was at a café on the footpath of Duval St, I had a really tasty prawn salad and for dessert I ordered the best dessert I’ve had in ages.. Key Lime Pie… Holy smokes, KLP is just divine! It is a bit like a lemon meringue pie but no meringue and made with limes… It is definitely going to be made when I get home.. SOOOO Good!!! The town is really cool and really gets happening once the sun goes down (and the temp starts to drop), we wandered the strip for an hour or so before we went home to get some rest as we have a big day of driving tomorrow. So long Key West, I might just have to come back and visit you one day!

Song of the Day– Beach Boys, Kokomo