Grand Turk
When Norine found out Spring Break at her work was 2 weeks this year, we immediately went and checked our Air Miles. How many points do we have, and where can that get us? Right in the middle of the warm and tropical offerings from Westjet was this little island cluster of Turks & Caicos. That sounds like it might be a nice escape from the cold and rain of Vancouver's March weather.
(click to enlarge)
We board our Westjet flight in Vancouver at close to 11pm on Sunday, after a brief wait in Toronto, we arrive at the Turks & Caicos airport at 1:40pm the next day. Looking out the window of the plane, the colour of the water changes dramatically as we get closer to the islands.
Now we have a bit of a wait for our "Air Turks & Caicos" puddle jumper to the island of Grand Turk. It's only a 25 minute flight, but it ends up taking a lot longer than that. We knew we had to wait until after 4:00, as we didn't want to chance missing the connection, but when it is time to go... we finally get an update. The plane we are supposed to be on was going in for maintenance, and they are bringing another plane over from the Dominican Republic, it should be about 20 minutes. It's an hour and a half later before they start boarding. As we are sitting on the tarmac waiting, they start bringing more people onto the plane, apparently merging flights. To be clear, this is a small plane, they ask you your weight when you check in, so to make up for the extra passengers, they start unloading baggage. When we finally arrive at Grand Turk, I find out that my suitcase is one that was unloaded. It will arrive the next morning, almost 24 hours in the same clothes, no toothbrush, and to top it all off, our mode of transport on Grand Turk will be bicycles... not exactly luggage friendly.
Grand Turk
My grand plan was since it was the Turks & Caicos islands, that we would spend 1 week on a Turk Island, and 1 week on a Caicos Island. When you arrive to this Grand Turk view from the back patio, the flight and luggage issues become less of a concern.
We found this little place on VRBO.com, a 3 apartment bungalow on a quiet part of the island, close to the beach. You always wonder if the descriptions and pictures will match the actual places, OMG, it was even better than we expected. A nice little patio in the back, step over the wall and you are on the beach, just steps away from the water. The amazingly blue warm water.
On our first day we were adopted by a couple dogs, they just come wandering up the beach, say hello, welcome a pat, and then just find a shady spot to curl up. We found a bowl and put out water for them, every day that we were there, another dog was added to our pack.
There definitely is a dog issue on Grand Turk, some dogs have collars, some have licences, but some need medical attention. One of our dogs has a large tumor on her snout, and another has a nasty cut on his ear. There is a large group of dogs that wander around on the other side of the Salina, our pack makes sure they stay over there. These crazy dogs are everywhere, but they are super sweet and gentle, how can you resist them? They just want attention, fresh water, and a scrap of food here and there.
The funniest thing with our pack is the walking routine, it's a short walk into town for dinner, we were always accompanied by 1 dog or the whole pack. They happily walk along to the restaurant, and then disappear. As we are walking back to our place, one by one they appear and escort us back to the beach where they find a place to sleep. It's nerve racking as we walk along the road with traffic passing, but they definitely have street smarts. One of the golden dogs called Amber, happily barks our arrival as we travel the streets.
After getting a taxi to pick up my suitcase, we spent the morning on our beach, before wandering with a few of our pack to get some lunch, and explore the town a little. One of our favourite spots, is a little barefoot restaurant on the beach called The Sandbar.
One of the biggest claim-to-fame of Turks & Caicos is their Conch farming (pronounced KONK), an endangered shell/animal in most places, it is plentiful here, randomly rolling up on shores, and the shells are on display everywhere. The Sandbars special today is Conch fritters... kind of like Calamari. This would start 2 weeks of a lot of seafood meals. Amazing view, amazing seafood.
After lunch we wander down the narrow walled streets of the main street, so many interesting buildings, from the run down post office, to the colourful shops, and the elegant church and court house. There was definitely signs of Hurricane damage, financial damage with some structures just abandoned mid construction, but they were surrounded by historical and quaint little houses.
One of the sights I didn't expect to see was wild horses and donkeys around the island. Apparently they were used a lot in the early days of the island to work the 'Salinas', shallow saltwater pools that produce salt. When the salt industry died on the island, the horses and donkeys were just released to run free on the island. As we wander the island, we see them everywhere, on the beach, off the beaten track, or nestled in someone's back yard.
NORTH ISLAND
We heard about a historic lighthouse on the northern tip of the island. It was built in 1852 to warn ships of the numerous reefs surrounding the island. We rode our rickety old single gear bicycles to the far end of the island, but what we didn't realize is that there is a channel that separates the 2 sides of the North end, and we couldn't actually get to the lighthouse, and we weren't going to backtrack.
Instead we decided to check out the beach at Little Bluff Point, part of the Columbus Landfall National Park. This is where Christopher Columbus is supposed to have first set foot in the Americas. As we walk out to the beach, what do we see, a flock of pink flamingos grazing in the flats... awesome, this beats a rusty old light house any day.
One odd sight as we are riding our bikes back out of the park, is this trash... either the horses have amazing aim, or takeout here is the shits.
Apparently Turks & Caicos is home to hundreds of different types of birds, everywhere we go on the island different birds are abundant, seabirds, wading birds, itty bitty birds.
After a day of biking the North end of the island, stopping at Cee's for groceries, we make our way back to our patio to watch the sunset.
Suddenly our neighbor runs over yelling "There's a bull in our garden"... sure enough when we race around the corner of our apartments, and there is a bull in the garden. A few minutes later, the entire herd comes walking down the street, right in front of our place, and they just wander aimlessly into peoples yards and down the beach... crazy.
After watching the cows wander away down the beach, we could go back to watching the sun set.
The next day the water is flat, and the colours of the Caribbean really come through, seems like a perfect day to get on a boat.
WHALE WATCHING
We noticed a little sign at the Oasis dive shop that they had a Whale Watching tour that afternoon, so we joined our neighbors and started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship. The mate was a mighty sailin' man, The Skipper brave and sure, us passengers set sail that day, For a three hour tour, A three hour tour.
For the first part of the trip we made our way out past Salt Key into what the crew referred to as the "Humpback Whales Playground". We saw whales breach from a distance and followed them for a bit, and started working our way back. Just when we thought it was going to be a disappointing tour, we ended up smack dab in the middle of a pod of Humpback whales, for almost an hour we enjoyed their company, blowing plumes of spray, breaching, and flipper slapping.
You always knew when they were about to surface again, as the water changed colour just before they appeared. Numerous times they swam right under our boat to the oohs and aaahs of all on board. The whales seemed to know we were already past our 3 hour duration, so they did a couple of dramatic tail breaches before we sailed away and left them in peace.
After an amazing day on the water, it just made sense to sit back and enjoy another sunset.
As we sat on our beach a cruise ship went by. Unless there is ships in port, the shops and restaurants in the Cruise Ship Center are closed. Today was our chance to explore the Cruise Ship Center and the South end of the island. We hopped on our bicycles and pedalled South.
As we pedal past the airport it's hard not to notice the space capsule by the airport sign. In 1962 astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth and his space capsule splashed down in Grand Turk waters. He was brought to the island for a medical checkup and post flight de-briefing. There was an American Air Force base here too, but apparently it has been taken over by goats.
Our first stop is the beautiful Governor's Beach... white white sand, and barely a soul on the beach. That would change once the cruise ships start off loading. We take advantage of the serenity of the beach before the mass of day visiting tourists start arriving.
The Cruise Ship Centre is pretty much what you would expect, a mix of tourist souvenir shops and high end trendy shops with jewelry, purses, perfume and art. There is a few smaller restaurants, and one great big one... Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. It's a zoo, with it's combination restaurant, gift shop, and poolside bar. Nice that people would travel to this amazing island and spend all their time at a franchise poolside bar. But, maybe that's just me, I'd rather rent a scooter or a bike and explore the island.
We couldn't leave the cruise ship centre soon enough and found our way to the Hawk's Nest Salina and White Sands Beach/ Booby Rock Point. They seem to name their locations appropriately on this island; the sands are white, there is a hawk's nest (Osprey) on the salina, but there was no boobies at the rock point. At some time this may have been a nice beach, but it has been neglected. Whether that is due to the Cruise Ship Center having their own beaches, or the result of a past hurricane, there is a lot of garbage on this lovely beach.
More of the wild donkeys have made this desolate area their home, a nice area if you want to be left alone.
On the way home we stopped at 2 restaurants close to the cruise ship centre, the first one called "Local Village" was so busy and disorganized with cruise ship tourists we left without even ordering. The second place a was a little hidden restaurant called "Jack's Shack", it was less busy, on a nice beach with a volleyball court, and was the destination of the ships crew, away from the tourists. They served up a great Jerk Chicken BBQ, which we enjoyed on probably one of the hottest days of the year.
After riding our bikes around in 85+ temperatures it just made sense to head back to our beach and cool off in the water. I threw on my snorkel and fins and checked out the sealife just a few feet out from our beach chairs. Not a ton of fish, but a nice variety.
Along with the dogs, we had a few other pets, the occasional small lizard, and a nasty looking Silver Argiope Spider. It's famous for its zig-zag patterned web, infamous for choosing to have that web in the rafters of our patio. Luckily Norine didn't notice until the end of the week.
That night we decided to make the bike trek to the Bohio Resort at the South end of town, it was their international night, and this one was greek food. How could we not go? We got on our bikes and started peddling... halfway there Norine gets a flat tire, so we chained the bikes to the post office and walked the rest of the way. The 30 minute walk included an amazing sunset, and a flock of flying flamingos.
The view from the restaurant at dusk was fantastic, the food was pretty good, but we were most impressed with Bohio Resort when it came time to leave. We asked the waitress if she could call us a cab to take us back to our bikes, and the next thing you know the hotel manager was at our table. "I'll have my partner drive you home, he'll pick up your bikes, and take you to your place." she said. We were blown away, and tried to convince her to just get us a cab, but she says "This is the Bohio way". We piled into a pick up truck with the manager/bartender, and he was most surprised that the keys weren't already in the truck. He drove us to our bikes, and we convinced him we could walk the bikes from there with a very appreciative thank you. Bohio Resorts and the T&C people blew us away with their hospitality that night.
By the time we woke up our apartment manager had already had the flat tire repaired. Today would just be a day of relaxation, hanging at the beach, and wondering if we would have to stay here a few extra days. Turns out that in 2009, the United Kingdom suspended the Turks and Caicos' self-government after allegations of ministerial corruption. When they did this they also cut all civil servant wages by 10-20%, this included firemen and other important positions. On Thursday all the firemen and a large number of civil workers phoned in sick to try to get their wages back. If there is no fire department, it is illegal for planes to land or takeoff. So the airports were closed, and flights were cancelled. Unfortunately the "SICK OUT" only lasted one day, and we weren't going to be stuck in paradise. 
After a really strenuous day of doing absolutely nothing but swimming and soaking up rays, it was time to watch another sunset.
After watching the sunset again, we headed to one of our favourite restaurants for our last dinner on Grand Turk, "The Secret Garden". Nestled away from the street in a garden, the grilled grouper is to die for, and it's only made more island like when Mitch Rolling starts playing classic tunes. It only gets better as one by one locals join the band, first it's Big Red with his Bucket Bass, a construction pail with a stick and a string. Then they were joined by a local with a saw, but not what we expect when he plays it like a washboard. Finally just as we leave another local shows up to add his Bongo into the mix... a truly memorable night, and the music was pretty good.
On our last morning on Grand Turk, we had to leave our amazing beach view, and head to the airport for another puddle-jumper flight back to the island of Providenciales. This time the flight went smooth, and our luggage went with us... yay!
Once again I am reminded just how amazing these islands are as we look out the window down on the shorelines, and amazing waters. A final wave to our amazing Crabtree Apartment (blue arrow), as we flew away from the laid back and colourful island of Grand Turk.
