Cortez Village

I stopped in Siesta Key to spend a few days with one of my bff's, Mary, and of course we went geocaching on the first day there, but not before we stopped at the Tervis store south of town. Tervis tumblers are manufactured in the area.

Our geocaching for the day would take place in a quaint old fishing village: Cortez.

We had to figure out our first coordinates based on the historical sign at the old store. I was delighted to see Philma again and she joined us for the day. We walked in the nature preserve adjacent to the restored store and school house for our caches. The trails are a work in progress and should be quite nice when completed.

Phil and I locate one of our finds and get a smilie.  This is my first trip using my gps which Mary kindly showed me how to use so I would not have to read the manual!

Now why am I the one to replace the cache?

Mary and I take a break in front of some pretty red flowers. She and I have been geocaching together for   eight years now.

One of our last caches was down along where the old wharf was. I think this is where Phil got in all the fire ants. I was busy absorbing the local culture. This area was known as Hunter's Point until the 1880s. It became Cortez in 1888 and mail came by boat three times a week.

Commercial fishermen settled the area by the end of the 19th century, most coming from coastal North Carolina.

Near the fish market is a fine little find where we refreshed ourselves and ate supper. It is little places like this that you love to find when out in the middle of nowhere. The locals called the area east of Sarasota Bay south of the village "the kitchen" due to the large number of scallops, fish and other seafood. By 1897 it was a thriving fishing village even shipping to Tampa. Much was destroyed by the 1921 hurricane but the determined residents rebuilt.

This is the reason I was up looking for tums in the middle of the night. I can't believe it myself but I did have some help with the alligator tails.

For dessert we located another cache in this palm tree. They make a great hiding place.

A fixer upper in the neighborhood.

Chainsaw Charlie was not at work but I bet we could have given him a call and bought some art!