Life at Key Largo

A few weeks ago, we biked to John Pennekamp State Park. Here we are at one of the beaches at the park. Most of the protected area is offshore under water. The reef area is one of the few in the world and is in danger as are most reefs. Key Largo bills itself as the dive capital of the world and the presence of these reefs and of the wrecks lying in and around them are the reasons why. The harbor where we live is full of dive boats that go out everyday full of people. National Geographic has a spot here and we think that Cousteau boats are along the canal on the way out as they all are named Calypso ...








At the park is a building housing live exhibits of the life on the reef. This is an example of brain coral. A coral reef is a delicate ecosystem existing in a very small range of conditions. The creatures living here are some of the most amazing on earth. We were able to snorkle one day on the reef and view some of this beauty in the wild. We had to cut our day short, however, because a colony of man o'war jellyfishes came through. They can cause extreme pain and even paralysis and death.

Not all the dangers are in the water. Gary did a one point landing over the front of his bike one day. His nose took the blow, bent, but did not break. For a few days, he looked like he was wearing hamburger on his face. It healed quickly and most of the teasing was over soon after that.