Dry Tortugas

KEY WEST, haven to artists and writers, chefs and hippies, is somehow more Caribbean than FloridianThe indie-minded transplants work hard to keep it that way. One-speed bicycles weave their way through… colorful village streets crammed with as many chickens as cars. Happy hour blends into dinner. And everything is oriented around the ocean, from the fish market-driven menus and the nautical-inspired art, to the sunrise worshipers who gather each dawn and the tipplers who wave goodbye at sunset. Be careful or you might just catch what islanders call “Keys disease” — a sudden desire to cut ties with home and move there.