Flying over Fort Lauderdale enroute to Atlanta. FLL was where I used to fly out for work from before we switched to DFW and then finally ATL. First time I came out in the open air in the USA was right there below. About 30 years back.

We were airborne and did a three quarter of a full circle turn banking to the south and then straightened out north wards. As we flattened out, we could see West Caicos. Even thru the airplane window, the picture came out well. The island is mostly empty but I understand it is being built out as a high end resort place.

The lake inside (Lake Catherine) has the same sky blue water. And the reason is that it is connected to the ocean thru underground inlets. (Even the tides come in and out! )

In the island of Providenciales, every Thursday, they have something called Thursday Fish Fry. It is very popular. As you can see, we parked our cars ON the sidewalk. There was live music going on – a lot of dancing. Many food stalls, many more cocktail and beer bars. A lot of local wares being sold.

And there was that one solo stall that was selling fish fry!!

But a great sense of camaraderie can be had with other tourists and locals at this event!

Mark Dillon was born and brought up in Montreal, Canada. Fifteen years back, he came to Turks and Caicos and decided to move permanently. He brought his family here, started doing lots of different work to earn a livelihood (like construction work) and then eventually made enough money to start his own Italian restaurant called Lupo.

According to Mark, he works here harder in terms of hours than before but the pace of island life makes a very big difference in how much he enjoys it.

His son who is going to school here and his wife helps him out in the restaurant. Sharmila and I spent two evenings at his bar!

If you ever come to this end of the world, do pay a visit to him. He has some great stories to narrate.

As if the right hand steering and left hand drive was not enough… The cars have speedometers in kmph, but the posted speed limits are in mph. And they do not mention that they are in mph. I had to google it to realize it.

A vacation is never a vacation without making friends with new strangers. Had a great chat with Christine who has moved to Middle Caicos from the Philippines. Always great to hear stories of how far people will travel to live their dreams!