11 January 2023

Woke up to a big surprise

My flight is mid morning today. Woke up to the news that all flights across the country have been disallowed to take off due to FAA system glitches. My hotel room looks straight across to the SFO runway. The runaways are eerily empty. Usually, it is lined by a retinue of planes waiting to take off! Bracing for an interesting journey back home today. (or tomorrow? 🙂 )

10 January 2023

Have you ever had coffee like this?

My friend, Matt Moore, always takes me to unique coffee places every time I come to San Francisco. This time, he took me to Red Bay Coffee and we had a Charcoal Latte! The coffee is literally sprinkled with finely granulated charcoal powder!! I was fairly intrigued by what it would be like. The coffee was great to taste and I could feel the occasional grain of charcoal on my teeth.

That was a different experience!!

6 January 2023

West Caicos

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! )

5 January 2023

Why they call it Fish Fry, I will never know

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!

5 January 2023

Another new friend with a great story

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.