Dry Tortugas

They say going to Dry Tortugas is something you need to do once in your life. I totally agree. It is a 2.5 hour boat ride each way to Dry Tortugas and costs $169. You can camp there and I think if I were to do it again I would camp out or at least take the plane over to see how beautiful everything is by air (it costs $249/pp).

We took the Yankee Freedom Boat over to Dry Tortugas National Park and Fort Jefferson. This was originally named Dry Tortugas as a warning to pirates and merchant ships because no fresh water can be found and there were lots of sea turtles that ships passing by could put on their ships for weeks at a time and eat. The Fort was one of the only that was never attacked in war.

The boat ride provided breakfast and lunch. We went on a tour but only stuck around for about 1/2 of it. We only had about 2.5 hours there on the island and wanted to go snorkeling as it was supposed to be some of the best snorkeling in the Keys. The Fort in general was really neat. There was a Cuban refugee boat there as well that wasn't that old that was successful in reaching land. The Fort does get refugees that are successful.

The water was freezing. From above the snorkeling looked like it would have been fantastic. I have never seen a jellyfish anytime I have snorkeled or gone diving and here there were hundreds of them! I spent most of my time dodging them it seemed. It was neat to see them moving around, they really are beautiful. Jellyfish are Omar's arch nemesis and so it was pretty difficult to keep him in the water. I finally found where there was coral and fish and it was right around the mote - everywhere else it was dead and no fish. They say there is no swimming in the mote. I commented to my mom, why would anyone want to swim in a mote? She heard a young girl and her dad talking and the girl kept asking to go snorkeling in the mote. I thought that was hilarious until I realized that all the fish would swim through a few holes into the mote - so that was where the cool snorkeling must have been.

See the jellyfish

I tried imagining being a prisoner there at the Fort - how it was so much like paradise there - just so picturesque, but it must have been horrible really. There are park rangers that live there too - that must get so boring - I can only imagine horrible cabin fever after a while.