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| There is an area on Islamorada
Key, which hails as a shopping mecca for serious sport fishermen.
It is The World Wide Sportsman. The multi storied building, is a
wonderful emporium for everything fishing! Inside, there is what is billed as the "sister ship" of Hemmingway's "Pilar." However, some say that it is a replica of the original, which still remains in Cuba. Either way - it is worth climbing aboard and checking it out. When I first tried to photograph it, I kept getting unusual violet streaming lights, that weren't visible to the naked eye, but would show up on pictures taken. Finally, Papa Hemmingway must have settled down, as I was "allowed" to take the scenes shown above. Directly, in front of The World Wide Sportsman, is the waterfront and marina. There are a variety of services provided there - ecotours, sport fishing, a wonderful restaurant, "The Islamorada Fish Company"is immediately to the left at water's edge. We had dinner there on two separate evenings. The Stuffed Lobster, and a wonderful Linguini with Shrimp were great. On one morning we took a 4 hour ecotour by boat. Florida had recently been affected deeply by severe freeze, which had significantly reduced the numbers of fish sighted, and manatees. At one point it was estimated that over 300 manatees had lost their lives to the cold weather. I suspect that number has been adjusted upward by now. You will also note the photo of the quintessential Hemmingway character, enjoying a morning scene of "Old Man and the Sea" near Indian Key! In one of the photos of the slide show, there is a large pipe running along the side of the bridge, which connects the island keys. That pipe is the single fresh water supply line that provides potable water to the keys. When we first arrived at Islamorada, there had been a break in the pipe, and we needed to resort to bottled water only for 36 hours. However, the bar at Islamorada Fish Company has a drink that I "think" is called, "Pirates Perfect Cure" - but I could be wrong. It has the liqueur, Cointreau, Rum, Nutmeg, and some other exotic ingredients. I understand that pirates would often have polluted water to contend with, and often needed to resort to rum to keep themselves healthy:-) During the Ecotour, we meandered along a few of the keys, and mangroves. We stopped briefly at Indian Key. Indian Key is heavily steeped in history and lore. The little island has been inhabited by Indians, Spaniards, pirates. One of the more notable inhabitants was Jacob Housman of Key West, who our eco-guide, stated had a nasty habit of turning off the glow of the lighthouse to cause shipwrecks. Depending on whom you talk to, Housman was considered either an enterprising ship "salvager" or an outright pirate! For an indepth article on Indian Key History, you can click on the following link: http://www.keyshistory.org/indiankey.html However, one of the most stunning examples of ecotourism came by complete surprise. As we were driving back to Sarasota from the Keys, we traveled through the Florida Everglades, along Highway 75 - also known as "Alligator Alley." I had spotted what I thought was a rather large alligator at water's edge -several feet from the side of the road. However, we had began to second guess what I had actually seen. After a great Cuban styled lunch along the way, we returned to our car, and continued in journey. Before long large numbers of good sized alligators were seen, along the road and at waters edge. Imagine my shock when one of them (about 10 feet long or so) snatched a large white bird and wrestled it right in front of my unbelieving eyes. . .There was no tour needed, or admission paid for that! Written by Myrl Jeffcoat 2/17/2010 ActiveRain archived at: http://activerain.com/blogsview/1499796/florida-key-ecotourism |