Wanderlust Issue 220 Florida Sampler by Wanderlust Publications

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Taking The Road Less Travelled Since 1993

In search of the wild

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FLORIDA KEYS DISCOVER NEW RAIL ADVENTURES

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THE FLORIDA KEYS OF MY IMAGINATION

The Florida Keys might be the road well taken, but its wild coral waters, mangrove-covered islands and fiery sunsets reveal a more natural side Words Lyn Hughes

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here’s a magical moment on every sporting exploits of the likes of Hemingway and others, but trip when I think: “This is it! This is the these days it is about celebrating what is here more than what place I crossed the Earth for and it’s you can take from it. I’d come in search of the islands’ natural everything I imagined it to be.” side; one that can often be lost on first-timers. My first few days in the Florida Keys had been very enjoyable but I’d yet to IN BOATS WE TRUST have that moment. In Key Largo, I spent “You know the Overseas Highway? Well, think of this as the a couple of nights on a houseboat, getting fish highway,” said Captain Brady as he pointed to the Northup before sunrise to sup coffee on the west Channel on a map, explaining the route we were going upper deck while to take. “We have dolphins year-round pelicans passed overhead. My first here because there is plenty of shallow warm water around the Keys, plus lots night had involved a meal of excep“I turned and saw tional seafood while I marvelled at just of food via the channel, too.” a grey shape crest how many of the silver-bearded diners It was a sunny but breezy morning, around me resembled the writer Ernest and I was on-board SQUID, Key West’s the ocean just metres Hemingway. And on an eco-boat trip, first electric-powered charter boat, for from the boat. I had seen manatees and birdlife galore. a dolphin-watching trip. There were But that moment – the one when “Dolphin!” I squealed” seven of us on the tour, plus the captain I had to pinch myself and think, “Hey, and Jaclyn, both marine biologists. I’m here, really here in the Florida The wind had curtailed plans to go Keys” – didn’t arrive until I was driving the Overseas Highway out too far; instead we headed to the Key West National Wildacross Seven Mile Bridge.This is one of the longest causeways life Refuge.This was established by former US president Theoin the world, yet just one of 42 bridges that link the 182km dore “Teddy” Roosevelt in 1908, to protect a crucial habitat island chain. With aquamarine water shimmering on both and breeding ground for birds, turtles and other wildlife. sides, I found myself in wonder at the geography of the Keys We motored along for an hour or so, rarely seeing another and how being surrounded by so much ocean had defined life boat. Entering an area called the Pearl Basin, Captain Brady here and given it the unique flavour that is now its draw. dropped our speed and shouted to keep an eye out for dolphins. The Florida Keys has these moments that creep up on you. I turned and almost immediately saw a grey shape crest the Its bountiful waters once stocked the fisheries and fuelled the ocean just metres from the boat. “Dolphin!” I squealed. ⊲

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Previous spread: Alamy; this page: Alamy; Rob O’Neal; Simon Chubb

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Clear waters (left–right) Snorkelling around Key Largo, which is home to the first undersea park in the US, John Pennenkamp Coral Reef State Park, established in 1963; Captain Sam of KeyZ Charters is one of the Stewards of the Keys; an osprey makes its nest on a channel marker in Blackwater Sound, in sight of the Overseas Highway; (previous spread) the road connecting the islands was forever changed by the 1935 hurricane, which destroyed the old railroad and allowed the state to buy the land and build over the rail bed – it now extends for 182km

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Previous spread: Alamy; this page: Alamy; Rob O’Neal; Simon Chubb

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I expressed surprise that a dolphin could recognise boats. It was a mother and baby, and they were almost close enough to reach out and touch. “They are coastal Atlantic “Definitely,” he smiled. “In two ways: visually, when we’re close enough, and by our sound.This boat makes a unique noise, so bottlenose dolphins, just like Flipper,” said Brady. Jaclyn was busy taking photos, ready to upload to a database. they will have known it’s us. They’re very relaxed and haven’t She had been collecting data and studying these creatures for changed their natural behaviour. That’s our goal. It’s a good two years. “We’ve been able to identify 125 individuals just here sign that they feel so comfortable with us, especially moms and in Key West,” she told me. “We note their dorsal fins and add babies. That shows trust… It’s really special to see.” the data to the Whale & Dolphin Tracker – an app that anyone can download.We use it to piece together the life stories of the REEF ENCOUNTERS dolphins we are watching every day. It’s kinda cool to get to We eventually left the dolphins and carried on to a quiet spot. know them on a personal level and tell people their stories.” Those who wanted to snorkel donned wetsuits and slipped into It turns out the Keys is a safe place the relatively shallow water. Below us, for dolphins. “The population is not just the sandy ocean floor was scattered “Several schools of stable but growing,” said Jaclyn. “There’s with large sponges almost a metre a lack of predators, such as sharks, and in breadth. Sheltering beneath them grey snapper swam plenty of fish to eat, so it’s a paradise for was an array of fish of different shapes by, whereas the redand sizes. The most dazzling were them. They can stay their whole lives.” the porkfish, coloured bright yellow A couple more appeared and seemed and-black groupers in a playful mood as they circled the with black stripes. Several schools of hung out on their boat. Brady explained: “We’re in a little grey snapper swam by, whereas the own, ignoring us.” bowl area, about ten football fields in red-and-black groupers hung out on their own, ignoring us. size, and we’re over a kind of underThe weather conditions that day were not suitable for water hill. The dolphins are just checking out that slope. I thought we would see them fishing – they drive the fish to going to the Florida Reef, the world’s third-largest barrier reef the shallow water, as they’re easy to catch there – but we have system. It is 579km long and, along with the mangroves and a mom and a baby here and they just seem to be curious about remaining native forest, provides important protection to the us. They know the boat.” ⊲ Keys from storms, flooding and erosion.

Alamy; Beth Higham; Tim Grollimund, Florida Keys News Bureau; Simon Chubb

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Alamy; Beth Higham; Tim Grollimund, Florida Keys News Bureau; Simon Chubb

Guarding the ocean (clockwise from top left) If you spot one Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, chances are that there are others around, as they tend to travel in pods; a diver for the Coral Restoration Foundation tends to one of the “trees” they use for growing corals; the Keys’ mangrove-covered islands are an important nesting and feeding site for brown pelicans and roseate spoonbills; a resident at the Marathon Turtle Hospital, which began life as a motel before its owner converted it into a turtle rehab centre, with the adjoining strip club becoming a treatment area; greedy pelicans gather at the marina at Robbie’s of Islamorada hoping for scraps from the fishing boats

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The old man and the house It was on the advice of John Dos Passos, one of Ernest Hemingway’s contemporaries and also part of the “Lost Generation”, a group of writers who came of age during the First World War and found themselves wandering Europe in the 1920s, that Hemingway first came to Florida Keys, and it was here that he settled, taking over and restoring a Spanish-Colonial-style house originally built in 1851; (right page) slow-moving West Indian manatees are drawn to Florida’s warm, shallow coastal waters where they can graze peacefully on marine plantlife and are often spotted close to shore, even around the marinas of Key West

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Writers’ retreat (clockwise from top left) Hairy Truman the cat is descended from the many polydactl (six-toed) felines Ernest Hemingway used to own, after being gifted one by a local sailor – as the author once wrote, “one cat just leads to another”, and today nearly 60 live in his old house; the wooden homes of Key West’s old town have charming verandahs and picket fences; the winter base of former president Harry S Truman; his 1950s Lincoln Cosmopolitan car; Capt Tony’s Saloon is a dive bar with a past, and back when it was known as Sloppy Joe’s, the cream of US literati drank here, from Truman Capote to Tennessee Williams, and of course, Hemingway

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However, like other coral reefs around the world, it faces a resurgence over the last five decades. From the late 18th threats ranging from climate change to pollution, to agricul- century onwards, the meat of green turtles was much in tural runoff, overfishing and damage from anchors and irre- demand in Europe, as the prime ingredient of turtle soup. sponsible snorkellers and divers. Chemicals in sunscreen can A lucrative industry grew in Key West, processing turtles kept in even harm corals. In Key Largo, I visited the Coral Restoration water-filled pens, called “kraals”, for export. Even when trade Foundation (CRF) to meet Roxane Boonstra, who filled me in was past its peak, it continued into the 1970s until protection on the scary statistics of just what had been lost. was afforded to local turtles under the Endangered Species Act. The good news was that the CRF has a successful At the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, I met with manager programme raising corals in nurseries.They grow 20 different Bette Zirkelbach, another Steward, who explained that I was species on “trees”, with each of them standing in the only dedicated turtle home to up to 60 corals. The foundahospital in the world. Upon my arrival, tion currently has eight nurseries but the reception area had thronged with “The Florida Keys is has plans for 45 in total.The corals are families checking in for its 90-minute then planted on the reef by volunteers, tour, of which it does several a day. home to five of the with Roxane working with local dive Such is the interest now in turtles that world’s seven operators on a programme that allows it gets over 100,000 visitors a year. species of sea turtle, The site was a motel and nightthe public to get involved for a day. Roxane was one of few local resiclub before being bought by founder but they face dents to have been designated a “StewRichie Moretti in the 1980s. He hadn’t many dangers” ard of the Keys”; she wouldn’t be the intended to open a turtle hospital but last I’d meet. In Islamorada, I joined fate led him down a different path. another Steward, Captain Sam Zeher, The Florida Keys is home to five of the one of the few female business owners here, on an eco-tour world’s seven species of sea turtle, and they face many dangers through the mangroves.We searched in vain for a crocodile that here; they often end up getting hit by boats or entangled in had been recently spotted; they are rare in North America but a nets, or swallow something indigestible, such as plastic bags. small population does live here.We had more success with peliBette also explained that green turtles can suffer from cans, boobies, egrets and an osprey, as well as several manatees. a condition called fibropapillomatosis, an aggressive herpeslike virus that causes tumours to grow. These can be treated THE SHELL GAME with chemotherapy and surgically removed. Research is still While the future of the region’s coral remains in the balance, being conducted but she pointed out that the condition is only things are brighter for its turtle population, which has had found around developed coastlines. ⊲

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The hospital had taken in 20 juvenile turtles from New England that were suffering from hypothermia and pneumonia. Bette took me to see some cuties hooked up to makeshift nebulisers; it was almost too adorable to describe. At the other end of the scale, size-wise, was the hospital’s latest arrival, Sheldon, a mature loggerhead turtle “Look at the size of his head,” Bette pointed, “he’s in his prime.We think he could be 50 years old.” Sheldon had come in a few days earlier having had his leg caught in a crab-trap line, but it was not badly damaged, so he would soon be returned to the sea. Bette’s passion for turtles shone through, and I asked her why she was so drawn to them: “They are one of the oldest species known to man; they’ve been around since dinosaurs walked the Earth – and they’re just really cool animals!”

held my room, it struck me that the only soundtrack here was one of cicadas, calling into the night like a million clicking typewriters hammering out page after page.

THE SUN ALSO SETS

Simon Chubb

The next morning, the soundtrack had changed to crowing roosters. Descended from jungle fowl from Cuba and the Caribbean, the local chooks were originally brought here as food and for cock fighting. They now freely roam the town, weaving in and out of the traffic. Locals call them “gypsy chickens”. “This is the only rooster-free zone in town,” said a guide at Hemingway House, pointing to some of the 58 cats that lived there. They are supposedly all descended from a feline called Snow White that Ernest Hemingway was given when he lived here in the 1930s. She had six toes on each foot (known as a polydactyl), a genetic mutation that many ships’ cats once LITERARY PURSUITS possessed and was considered good luck. Hemingway named Turtles were only one of several lucrative industries that Snow White’s progeny after famous people, and that tradition 19th-century Key West was known for. In the early 1800s, it’s carries on. A purring ginger tom called Buster Keaton curled said that the city was the wealthiest per capita in the United up on my lap as I took a quick break on a garden bench. States. However, its fortunes have waxed and waned since; now Hemingway spent nine years here in what is often considered tourism is by far the most important industry today. his most productive period, writing To Have and Have Not, Indeed, arriving in Key West, it all seemed a bit too touristy at Islands in the Stream and a couple of well-known short stories. first, as I walked to Mallory Square for the daily celebration of He had lived here with his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, having sunset. Stalls were selling souvenirs and been drawn to Key West by the laidstreet performers were doing their thing back lifestyle and deep-sea fishing. All – it was like a cross between Covent went well until he met the journalist “As the schooner Garden and Marrakech’s Djemaa El who was to become his third wife, Fna. Then the evening turned cold turned and crossed the Martha Gellhorn, in Sloppy Joe’s. Hemingway House is arguably the and windy, as a leaden grey cloud horizon, the clouds completely obscured the sun. I would best known of Key West’s sights, but cleared and the sky have to wait for my perfect sunset. the island is still crammed with things The disappointed crowd dispersed, to see and do, from the “Little White changed colour to many heading for the lively bars and House”, in which former president a flame orange” Harry S Truman used to take “workarestaurants of Greene and Duval Streets, the tourist hub. I stopped for tions”, to the fascinating Museum of a beer at Captain Tony’s Saloon, a Art & History. But there was one legendary spot that was the site of the original Sloppy Joe’s bar, quintessential Florida Keys experience that I was yet to have synonymous with Ernest Hemingway. A tree grows through its – seeing one of its legendary sunsets. interior, though only its trunk is visible. Stories abound that it The evening weather had been against me all week. My last was once used for hangings, and the bar is said to be haunted by chance was a private sunset sail, but the omens did not look a woman hanged for killing her husband and sons.Today, most good upon my arrival at the marina where a catamaran called drinkers are too busy perusing the ceiling, with its thousands Rogue Angel awaited me under a thick grey wall of cloud. “You wait! Captain Tyler’s smile will bring the sun out,” was of hanging bras, to notice if a Lady in Blue wafted by them. This wasn’t the Key West of my imagination just yet. But, the bold claim of one of the directors of Blue Sail Charters. after strolling a few of blocks, I entered a more timeless world. Once into open water, Captain Tyler pulled up the sail and The streets of the old town were lined with picket fences, behind it felt exhilarating to follow the coast of Key West while sipping which stood pastel-coloured wooden houses with “gingerbread” on prosecco and nibbling on a variety of cheeses. We passed trims and louvre shutters. I wondered at their inhabitants over Mallory Square, where the crowds were gathered in hope of seeing a sunset, and then turned away, rounding Sunset Key the years and the sights they had seen from their verandahs. I could see the appeal to writers and artists. Key West has and heading back to Stock Island.The only other vessel in sight been graced by literary titans such as Tennessee Williams, was a solitary schooner, the America 2, modelled on the winner Ernest Hemingway and the poet Robert Frost. Even today, it is of the first ever America’s Cup. As she turned and crossed the said that a disproportionate number of writers are based here. horizon, silhouetted against the skyline, the clouds miracuThe streets were hushed as I reached my hotel, Winslow’s lously cleared, the sky changed colour to a flame orange ... and Bungalows, which consisted of a collection of historic houses it was one of the best sunsets I had ever seen. converted into guestrooms. When I located the building that Yes, the Florida Keys of my imagination really does exist. ⊲ At the end of the day… (left) Florida Keys sunsets are coveted – even 19th-century writer Mark Twain was said to have made the trip to see the sun sink over Mallory Square, which now fills with a nightly carnival. Some choose to watch from a bar, others head to the southernmost point of continental USA (its marker lists the distance to Cuba – just 90 miles!), but by boat is the only way to bag lonely waters and unobstructed views

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A similar itinerary from America As You Like It (020 8742 8299; americaasyoulikeit.com) costs from £2,579 per person, including return flights with Virgin Atlantic from London Heathrow to Miami, seven days fully inclusive car hire, two nights at the Mangrove Marina & Resort, Key Largo, three nights at Winslow’s Bungalows by Kimpton, Key West, and two nights at Tranquillity Bay Beach House Resort, Marathon. Based on travel in November 2022.

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Vital statistics

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County Seat: Key West Population: 82,874 (Monroe County) Time: GMT-5 (GMT-4 Mar–Nov) International Dialling Code: +1 Visas: A visa or ESTA visa waiver (£10.60; valid for two years) is required by British nationals for stays of up to 90 days. Money: US Dollars (US$), currently around $1.33 to the UK £.

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When to go

November–March: Sunny and dry although you may still want to

wear a wetsuit when snorkelling due to the temperature of the water. High season is from December onwards. April–June: Shoulder season; fewer visitors. July–October: Hot and humid although tempered by sea breezes. There is a chance of rain showers and occasional hurricanes. It’s low season, so there’s lower prices and more availability.

Health & safety

Check the UK FCDO guidelines for the most up to date information on travel and entry requirements. At the time of writing, only travellers with proof of full vaccination may enter the US; they do not need to quarantine on arrival. The Florida Keys has a relatively low crime rate, but take the usual common-sense precautions.

Getting there

Miami is the main entry point. Virgin Atlantic (virginatlantic.com) flies direct between London Heathrow and Miami, with return economy fares starting from around £401, including complimentary food, drink and in-flight entertainment. This fare is available for selected departures from May 2022 through to March 2023.

Getting around

Given the USA’s car culture, a rental car is the most flexible option, with all the usual brands found at the airport. Once out of Greater Miami and onto the Overseas Highway, driving is a breeze. Alternatively, Flixbus (flixbus.com) is a new coach service that runs six days a week, with stops in Islamorada, Marathon and Key West, with additional stops in Key Largo and Big Pine Key planned for the future. The Keys Shuttle (keysshuttle.com) runs from Miami Airport and makes several stops on the way down. It can also be booked as a taxi service within the Keys. Once in Key West, it’s easy to explore on foot or two wheels. Cycling is only allowed on the Overseas Highway if you make use of the paved 170km Overseas Heritage Trail, which runs parallel to the road (Route 1) in many places.

Accommodation

Mangrove Marina & Resort (mangrovemarina.com), Tavernier, offers “AquaVillas” (houseboats) equipped with a kitchenette, bathroom and complimentary high-speed wi-fi. Protected by the mangrove trees surrounding the marina, this basin is a natural “hurricane hole

Map illustration: Scott Jessop

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FLORIDA KEYS HIGHLIGHTS Dolphin Watch & Snorkel Tour with 5 Honest Eco, Key West

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Small group tours with marine biologists. Enjoy dolphin watching and snorkelling on an electricpowered boat. honesteco.org

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Sail with Blue Sail Charters 6 Sunset Excellent charter company offering sunset cruises, eco trips and multi-day charters to the Marquesas Keys and Dry Tortugas National Park. bluesailcharter.com

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Harry S. Truman Little White House, 7 Key West

Food & drink

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Thanks to the Keys’ bountiful ocean, seafood lovers are in for a treat. Grouper is the most popular fish, while snapper and mahi mahi are ubiquitous. From October to May look out for stone crab and spiny lobster. But the most famous dish of all is key lime pie, available everywhere. The Fish House (fishhouse.com), Key Largo, has plenty of fresh seafood, including lobster and stone crab, served in a friendly, casual (no wine list!) “Keys style” atmosphere. Chef Michael’s (foodtotalkabout.com) in Islamorada serves a choice of less common “fish of the day” options, such as tilefish or hogfish, in a host of different preparations. Hungry Tarpon at Robbie’s of Islamorada (robbies.com) overlooks a marina where you can spot opportunistic pelicans, tarpon fish and possibly manatees. It’s a busy spot. Café Marquesa (marquesa.com), Key West, is a top-end restaurant offering contemporary American fine dining; it’s popular with discerning locals and visitors. Matt’s Stock Island (perrykeywest.com) dishes up “American coastal comfort food” by the marina at Key West’s The Perry Hotel. Blue Heaven (blueheavenkw.com), Key West, does decadent breakfasts. Lobster eggs benedict and key lime pie are served in the garden while roosters peck around your feet. It used to host Friday-night boxing matches refereed by Ernest Hemingway.