Cayo Hueso

This post comes to you from Key West, the most southerly part of continental USA. It's a spectacular five hour journey from Miami - the Florida Keys are all linked by a causeway, which bridges the channels between the islands. One of the bridges is seven miles long. We drove through a thunderstorm to get here yesterday, which lent some drama to the journey - lightning striking down (or is it up? I can never remember) either side of the road.

We got here in the end, and the storm had abated. We headed straight for the hostel, unpacked quickly, then walked downtown in time for the sunset. (The sky was a bit cloudy, unfortunately, but it was still pretty impressive).

Mercifully the hostel has a/c, so we got a good night's sleep. This morning we walked into town again, exploring the shops and museums. We stopped for lunch in a vegetarian café (gasp!). After this post, we're going to head to the south side of the island, where the beaches are, plus a daft-looking buoy marking the southernmost point in the USA.

Trivia: the Key West is so called because the first Spanish settlers called this island Cayo Hueso (a 'cayo' being a small island, 'hueso' a bone). Key West is a corruption of the original name.

Tomorrow we set off on a marathon (22 hours) voyage to Wilmington, North Carolina.