It's hot. REALLY HOT!!! I guess the summer is starting to creep up on the Keys.
Even the breeze through the palm trees does nothing to alleviate the heat. Only after 6PM, when the sun starts to descend through the palm trees does the patio start to cool down enough to sit outside for dinner. After 6, you can open the car windows and let the breeze blow in without being baked. And at night, it's absolute heaven, warm and balmy. Perfectly tropical.
When I got here last August, I thought I was going to die. It was raining down fire from the heavens. You couldn't be outside more than ten minutes before you were soaked in sweat, dizzy and ready for a cold shower.....and I'd rather have a kidney stone than a cold shower. Imagine moving into an elevated house (stilts downstairs, living quarters upstairs) in that heat! All I wanted to do was jump in the canal out back. Then I saw the baby barracuda......
The baby barracuda is all grown up now. Must be at least five feet long. He hangs out beside the boat in the morning and in the evening. I can see him from the porch upstairs. I guess he likes it there because my husband FEEDS him every day, him and the snapper that live under the dock. He's religious about feeding the fish leftover rice, bread, bagels. One day, Papi dearest, you're going to become someone's lunch....since you insist on swimming in the canal!
The water is absolutely awesome now. Every shade imaginable of blue, green and turquoise. Crystal clear to see the depths underneath. Imagine being in 50 feet of water and looking down to the coral heads beneath as if you could touch them. When we cruise on the boat, we see rays shuttling about, loggerhead turtles skimming the surface with that funny lopsided swimming pattern, the silver glimmer of fish. I love it when you're swiming in shallow water and you see the great schools of baitfish like a dark swirling cloud around you, changing speed and direction. Plus, no JELLYFISH! Swim without fear of pain....it's a wonderful thing.
I lived oceanfront in Daytona Beach for a year, up on the 21st. floor. The ocean view was incredible, too, but different. As much as I love Daytona Beach for its wide sandy beaches and its incredible sunrises over the water, the Keys are a world apart. And to think......I actually LIVE HERE!
The tourists don't know what they're missing. And I'm not going to tell them either....
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