[Ron Reefman]

In Miami or in the Keys?

We use Blackfin Resort in Marathon. It isn't a resort, it's kind of a mom & pop motel. It's fairly priced by Keys standards (not cheap but less than the Holiday Inn). We get an efficiency because there is a bit more room, in bad weather or if tired we can cook in the room and it's away from all the units that share a common hallway where some people party too late into the evening/night for us old timers! It's not fancy, but it's clean. It has a nice pool. It has an itsy bitsy super small sort of beach. There is an island 100 yards off shore that is worth snorkeling (we do it as a check our equipment and water temperature test when we arrive). And there are some cool things even in the rocks at the marina exit and around on the west side of the peninsula 'beach' like lobsters, crabs,feather dusters, sponges and tropical fish. We take bagels, fruit and coffee out to the beach and have breakfast in the morning. They have a nice table under a thatch roof and it seems nobody else does breakfast out there. We find it very peaceful. They have grills out there as well and some do cook dinner out there.

They have a boat ramp and a small marina if you want to keep your boat in the water. We take our boat to other ramps which makes the commute to snorkel locations by boat shorter. They have a scuba dive boat operator, Tilden, next door and their boats are in the same little marina. A restaurant, the Hurricane, is also next door and other amenities are close by. Bahia Honda State Park and the Horseshoe are just over the Seven Mile bridge from the motel.

So it isn't fancy at all, but we basically only sleep there, the rest of the time we are out in the water or seeing other sights.