Cayo Hueso, Key West, The Conch Republic

Cayo Hueso translates to 'Island of the Bones' which was what Key West was named when Ponce de Leon arrived in 1851 to find nothing but a burial ground. Later the name was changed to Key West and then for a short period of time it became The Conch Republic in protest of a blockade on US1. To get a better history of the island go to The History of Key West. So, as you can guess, today we are in Key West, Florida.

Surise

Why did the chicken cross the road?

My day started at 6:00am when the alarm went off. I got dressed and made my way to deck 2 to the jogging path. I met Dave up there and we walked a couple of miles. It was a great way to start the day and we got to see the sunrise as we walked. After completing the two miles I returned to the cabin and took a shower and got changed. Then Thomas and I met Dave and Deanne in the World Cafe for breakfast. Here there is a buffet but you can also order eggs the way you want. So we had a leisurely breakfast and made plans for the day. At around 9:00am the ship docked in Key West. To get into town we had to take a trolley. We docked at a naval base and you are not allowed to walk through or take pictures. You can only leave and enter on the trolleys and you have to show your ship card and a government photo ID. So we took a shuttle which dropped us off in Mallory Square.

"Embracing Peace" by Seward Johnson

From here we walked along Front St. for a while and then turned around and went back to where we started. Then we walked down Duval St. for a while. We just enjoyed looking at everything and went into a few shops. Around 11:15am we got back on the trolley and returned to the ship for lunch. We ate again in the World Cafe at the lunch buffet and then relaxed in our cabin for a short time before leaving the ship again - this time for a guided Trolley Tour. We were on the Old Town Trolley Tours which is one of those hop-on/hop-off tours. There are 13 stops on the tour we took. For the most part we stayed on the tour until we got to the stop for the Southernmost Point of the Continental United States. We got off the trolley and walked about three blocks to the marker. We had planned to all take a picture here but when we arrived we noticed a line that was almost two blocks long of people waiting to do the same. I just went and got a picture of the marker and then we decided to just walk along Duval St. back to Mallory Square to catch the trolley back to the ship.

The trolley driver/tour guide was extremely talkative and funny. One story he told was of the three names that Key West has had as I mentioned in the title and first paragraph. The interesting part was the name 'The Conch Republic'. It started with a blockade by the border patrol to fight illegal drugs and immigration. This was an inconvenience to tourist and Key West relied on tourism. So, to fight this they decided to secede from the United States in 1982. Of course, this only lasted a short time (only a minute), and then The Conch Republic surrendered and then demanded one billion dollars in foreign aid to rebuild their nation. You can read more about this at Our History - The Conch Republic. Their motto is "We seceded where others failed.".

Once back on the ship we went to our cabin, showered and changed for dinner and then joined Dave & Deanne for  drink in the Atrium. While having drinks the ship left Key West and we set sail for Cuba. At 6:30pm we headed for the restaurant for dinner. Tonight Thomas had the chicken and I opted for the destination menu. I had Key West Conch Chowder, Cilantro Crusted Grouper and Key Lime Pie. All were amazingly delicious! After dinner Thomas and Dave went for a walk around the ship and Deanne and I went and worked on a jigsaw puzzle and had another drink. We weren't worried about making it an early evening as tomorrow is a day at sea with nothing planned.

Sunset

We thoroughly enjoyed our day in Key West but we would have loved more time. No problem, we will plan another trip just to visit the Keys. So far the trip is definitely living up to expectations.