2/10/23. John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park Key Largo

 Brother Russ came through again.  The bird walking on the lily pads in yesterday's post was a purple gallinule.  I just didn't recognize it as such because of its muted colors.

We got on the road this morning and headed to Key Largo, the first in a serious of keys out to Key West, which is the end of Route 1.  The traffic going out was bumper to bumper for a good part of the trip.  There is only one road on and off the keys and everyone seemed to be traveling south.  We got to John Pennekamp and stopped at the visitor center.  They have a small aquarium there and a film about the different species of fish seen in the water.  Our first stop was at a Coast Guard holding station for some of the boats that immigrants (mostly from Cuba and Haiti) have traveled in.  They were quite small and I can't imagine how they made the trip safely.  We saw on the news last night that 108 Haitians had landed in another part of the keys.  There boat was so small - they must have been packed in with no room to move.  We then took a .3 miles walk on the Wild Tamarind Trail.  They had native trees identified all along the trail.  I took a picture of a wild coffee bush.  The walk was gravel and easy to walk on.  We then took the .8 mile Grove Trail, which was difficult to walk as there were many roots sticking up on the dirt path.  The highlight of this walk is that it ended in an old key lime tree grove.  When we first arrived at the grove we saw a young couple looking up in a tree.  They had seen an iguana running across the ground and up into the tree.  It took a bit of doing, but we finally spotted up way up high.  I was finally able to capture his picture.  We walked down to Cannon Beach and watched as people snorkeled around the reefs.  We will definitely come back another time to do the same.  We had lunch at the park and then headed back to town.  The ride was much faster on the way back.  We gassed up the car and stopped at the post office to send some mail.  I have laundry in the dryer so am just waiting for it to be done.  We haven't decided if we are eating in or out tonight.