COMEBACK IN THE KEYS
Islanders show their resilience after destruction of hurricane Irma
Resilience is part of the DNA among people living and working in the Florida Keys, so it comes as no surprise that within six months of hurricane Irma, the string of islands is once again hopping with tourists.
“It’s part of who we are, living on an island generation after generation, to be resilient and help each other get ourselves and our hospitality business back on their feet,” Key West, Fla., tourism representative Carol Shaughnessy tells us as a parade of seafood and craft cocktails streams out of the kitchen at the bustling Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar on Grinnell Street.
One of the 10 most powerful to hit the Keys since the 1930s, hurricane Irma did most of its damage in the central keys, sparing the popular Key West from the brunt of the storm.
During a recent five-day stay, my first stops were in the central Keys communities of Marathon and Islamorada. While the area has become stark with trees and vegetation blown away and some businesses, including fast food franchises, not yet reopened, many popular attractions, hotels and seafood restaurants are up and running — and, on my visit, packed with tourists. Busy staff have tales to tell.
At Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters, staff stayed behind to ensure generators kept running for the safety of the various stingrays, sharks and tortoises kept in a series of tanks and enclosures. All were kept safe, although species kept in an internal channel were swept away in the storm surge.
Closer to Key West, at the 3,700-hectare National Key Deer Refuge, it’s unclear how many of the tiny endangered key deer, a subspecies of the North American white-tailed deer, were lost. But in a pond, a volunteer noted one long-present species of fish was swept out with the surge while a new species was swept in.
None of the 42 bridges along the Florida Keys Overseas Highway, including the famous Seven Mile Bridge built in 1978, suffered significant damage from Irma. The bridges, along with small airports such as the one in Key West, are what connect the 200-kilometre coral archipelago which separates the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
At the Ernest Hemingway House and Museum, the top tourist attraction in Key West, staff opened the doors to the property’s 54 normally outdoor cats, each of which filed inside without much prompting, including the reclusive six-toed feline named Howard Hughes.
Storms always have been part of life in the Keys. Mother Nature’s wrath and the treacherous reef were the first economic drivers in Key West where so-called wrecking crews salvaged shipwrecks after first saving their crews.
Wreckers are immortalized at the rustic Key West Shipwreck Treasure Museum, a popular stop at Mallory Square for those arriving by cruise ship. Artifacts from the 1856 wreck of the Isaac Allerton highlight the museum. Unfortunately, the 20-metre lookout tower where spotters once scoured the sea for wrecks was damaged with an unknown reopening date when I was there.
During the heyday of salvaging shipwrecks, Key West was among the most affluent towns in the United States. As the wrecking business faded, Key West became a centre for processing natural sponges, employing 1,400 workers at its peak 100 years ago. Workers from Cuba were at the centre of a once-thriving cigar-making industry and a turtle processing plant has long since been converted to a pub.
By the time Ernest Hemingway arrived in the 1930s, Key West was a shadow of its former self and being reinvented as an artists’ community.
Hemingway and his second of four wives, Pauline, arrived in Key West intending only to buy a car and drive to Idaho. Instead, they fell in love with the place, moved into a house paid for by Pauline’s uncle as a wedding gift, and stayed 10 years during which time Hemingway was prolific, writing A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls, among other novels.
When he wasn’t writing, Hemingway could be found at a bar called Sloppy Joe’s. Sloppy Joe’s is in a different location from the one haunted by Hemingway in the 1930s. The original Sloppy Joe’s is still a bar called Captain Tony’s.
Many patrons, including Hemingway, were upset when Sloppy Joe’s had to vacate its original bar, so much so that they ripped out fixtures, including a urinal which Hemingway took home. The urinal was turned into a fountain, which is part of the tour for tourists today.
About half the cats on the grounds of the privately operated Hemingway House are polydactyl (six-toed). Cats normally have five toes on their front paws and four on the back. Hemingway was given a six-toed cat called Snow White by a ship’s captain and all the cats today are descendants. Unless a hurricane threatens, the cats live outside or in the basement. Each is named after a famous person.
Other Hemingway haunts include what’s now the Blue Heaven Restaurant, where he used to referee amateur boxing matches.
The Blue Heaven Restaurant also was a spot for cockfighting which, along with gambling, was once everywhere in Key West. Roosters and chickens walking wild on the streets are much-loved descendants of the fighting birds and on one occasion I saw and heard an impromptu scuffle break out.
In 2016, the most recent year for which statistics are available, more than 330,000 Canadians visited Key West, making us the largest source country of tourists.
It’s easy to see why, hurricanes be damned.