Key West, FL

Posted by Ankur on Jun 6, 2012 in Travel | 2 comments

Corner #1 has been covered!! I spent the last day and a half around the coral archipelago, Florida Keys – the southernmost region of Florida. The first destination was Key West – the southernmost point of mainland US. The route to Key West is really scenic and interesting in several ways. It is called the Overseas Highway and takes about two and a half hours to cover one way for only 120 miles. But the drive is beautiful and a must-do for any roadtrip lover. With aquamarine waters on both the sides, the highway hops from one tiny island to another. It is a designated scenic highway and is truly an engineering marvel (especially considering that the first version of the highway was built in the late 1930s). I spent most of my time walking around the streets in Key West and occasionally reaching a street dead end.. which faced the ocean.  Key West has a decent number of quaint Cuban sandwich shops (it is only 90 miles away from Cuba). There are several businesses which are branded as “The Southernmost XYZ” – this includes a cafes, a hotel, a house etc. There’s also the popular tourist spot with the sign saying “Southernmost Point”. There was a long queue with people waiting for their turn to take pictures. While waiting in the queue, I was people watching and decided to take candid pictures of these tourists.  There was a cute Japanese couple, who took at least 10 pictures in different poses and obviously, annoyed the others in the queue waiting under the burning sun. Then there was this middle-aged man (who I’m guessing was Cuban), posed for a couple of shots and then intruded into the frame of a different couple posing next to the sign 🙂 While all this was fun, for me Key West was mostly touristy. The real fun started when on the way back, I got really mesmerized by the colorful waters and the beach in one of the keys – the Bahia Honda Key. The moment I approached this key on the highway, I made a split second decision to pull over and take the exit into this island. There was a broken, old railroad bridge built in the early 1900s, which stood next to the island. The shallow beaches along the island were surrounded by corals, which segued into the bright blue and green shades of the sea. There were a few people on the beach and there was a coast guard too. So, I decided to go for a swim. It was probably the best thing I had done in this trip so far. Here are some pictures from Key West. Next stop is Charleston in South Carolina.

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