Key West - Cuban Chugs

 

Note floatation tubes on each side - to prevent tipping too far. 

Key West is only 90 miles from Havana and is the destination of many in boats seking refuge. There used to be a “dry foot, wet foot” rule where if you landed and touched dry land, you could claim asylum. I believe Obama ended that rule. They crossed over in what are called “chugs” which were made-up boats out of odds and ends. The Key West Botanical gardens has the biggest collection of such vessels in the US and they are on display to remind us of how desperate people were to escape Cuba 

They were not much better when new

We walked through the collection when in the garden and it’s amazing what people would risk in order to come to America. The chugs are hardly seaworthy and many died making the trip. On many you can see a floatation tube along each side to prevent the boat from tipping over because if it did, there were plenty of sharks in waiting. 

My adventure continued this morning with three stitches to close the cut on my chin from the concrete I talked about yesterday. It reinforces you to open your eyes and pay attention to everything around you. Mostly, you feel really dumb when something like this happens, it would have been so easily avoided. However, now is the time for recovery and Key West is not a bad place for that.