Key Colony is a very small town on the island of Marathon, Florida. It is 80 miles away from Cuba. I am here in Key Colony in autumn, which is considered the rainy season. Although when it does rain, it will pour for an hour at the most. Every day I bike down to the beach, and on these bike rides I always see really cool things that catch my eye, like tiny or big lizards.

It rains for at the most an hour in Key Colony. Today it rained for about 10 minutes

raindrops on the palm tree leaves

Before I head to the beach, it starts raining so I wait for about 8 minutes for the rain to stop. The rain isn`t a cold rain; it`s still humid out and the rain falling onto my skin feels warm. In this first picture you might not be able to see it well, but it is pouring rain. I took it from my second floor deck overlooking some houses and the canal. There is a canal between every block. It`s very cool, I always see my next door neighbors fishing in the canal. The canal is filled with boats and leads out to the ocean. We aren`t allowed to swim in it though, because sharks come into the canal at night. The raindrops linger on the palm leaves even after it stops raining. After the rain clears up and it is sunny again, a white crane appears on the roof of the house next door. These big birds are very common in Marathon. The cranes usually just sit around the island and wait by the canal to catch fish. 

crane was standing on the roof next door after the rain stopped

got our bikes and headed to the beach, this is my dad

Today is particularly hot, which means there will be tons of lizards out. Lizards love the heat. There is a spot near the beach that my family calls “the iguana sanctuary.” As we are biking over to the beach, we head by where the lizards like to hang out. We stop our bikes and see two green iguanas lying in the sun. My sister and I approach them very slowly. One of the lizards sees us and jumps into the canal and starts swimming away. The other lizard stays very still; we are close enough to touch it. My sister touches it and it looks at us and jumps into the water, swimming away.

lizards enjoying the sun

as we approached the lizard one of them jumped into the water and started swimming away

My sister jumps into the pool of the Cabana Club before going into the ocean to swim. She lies on her back and just floats, letting her hair spread across the water. After cooling off in the pool, we head to the ocean. The beach has a lot of seaweed today, which is weird because it doesn`t usually. I walk along the water while the waves kiss the shore, letting them hit my feet. I see lots of little birds by the water. Every time the waves hit them, they fly a little bit back so the water doesn’t touch them and the moment the water falls back, the little birds come back to only be hit by the waves again.

my sister floating in the water

little bird along the shore

over the water a small group of birds are looking for fish

palm tree bark

The beach at the Cabana Club isn’t very long, maybe about 200 metres. I see something catch my eye. It’s blue. I pick it up and it’s a claw of a crab. I have never seen a blue crab before; I think it’s really cool. The beach has tons of interesting animals like sting rays, but unfortunately I didn’t see any today. The beach ends at a dock. I usually see a bunch of guys fishing up there, but today there aren`t any. I start to head back to the Cabana Club and I see my sister and dad swimming in the water. I take out my camera to take a picture of them but this lady walks in front of it. I like the way the picture turned out, though.

blue crab claw 

dock at the end of the beach

I wanted to take a picture of my dad and sister in the ocean but a lady walked in front

I walk back along the shore, it’s very hot so I think I just might take a little dip in the ocean.

on the way out of the Cabana Club, I saw a parrot mosaic

Becca Tran is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program.

All photos courtesy and copyright Becca Tran