Turks & Caicos Trip
- Second day, first flight of the year Jan 2, 2023
Half an hour delay so far…
- Third day, second flight of the year Jan 3, 2023
Delayed yet again!! But I am thinking I am on island time already!!
- View from the airplane seat Jan 3, 2023
Of the Caribbean Sea as we approach Turks and Caicos.
Blue has to be the most beautiful color ever. Although, my Russian speaking friends probably see two different colors in what we simply label “blue” in English.
- Approaching the island of Providenciales Jan 3, 2023
Unforgettable blue colors
- Almost on the ground Jan 3, 2023
The water is at least 15 feet deep. You can clearly see our planes shadow at the bottom of the water. If you zoom in, you will get a feel for how clear the water is.
You can also see the sky blue water and the deep blue water on the north side of the island.
- Grace Bay Beach Jan 3, 2023
Surprisingly no birds so far this evening
- That brought back a lot of childhood memories Jan 3, 2023
Saw these lanterns after a long time. They were at our dining tables by the beach. I have seen some of these put up for decorative purposes in many places before – but none in actual use.
In the village, we grew up sitting with family members in the evening by these things chatting away to glory. Later, in Durgapur, during those days of “loadshedding” (rolling blackouts), we did our homework and studies by these lanterns in the evening.
I asked the waitress if there was a special name for this in the island. There was not. They are simply referred to as a “lantern”. In Bengali, we used to call them “hurricane” (no relation to the storms – although if you let the wick out too much, it would cough up a storm of soot cloud quickly).
Folks who remember this, do you recollect the two clever pieces of engineering – a spring that was used to open up the glass container for cleaning and the lever that you pushed down to make space to stick in the lit match stick to get it going?
- Morning walk on the beach Jan 4, 2023
- View from the breakfast table Jan 4, 2023
- The adventure begins Jan 4, 2023
Steering wheel on the right side and driving on the left side. If only I can stop myself from starting the wipers every time I want take a turn, I should be in a good shape.
- Airport number 153 Jan 4, 2023
PLS was very smooth for immigration and customs. Out in 5 minutes.
153 is an Armstrong number, by the way. The cubes of the digits add up to the number!
- Sapodilla Bay Beach Jan 4, 2023
The sands were as fine and white as talcum powder!
- Sapodilla Bay Jan 4, 2023
Feast of blue colors
- That stingray came up to us without any fear Jan 4, 2023
- We made new friends from New York Jan 4, 2023
Almost three out of four American tourists we met are from New York!! I now have a friend whose mom lives in Haiti. Need to plan a trip there now that I know a local person!
- I have a job offer! Jan 4, 2023
The deal I have with Geo is that when he starts his water scooter business, he will let me serve at his beach bar. Or when he goes to visit his family in Bahama. For the longest time, I have thought that it would be a dream job for me to do for a couple of years.
I passed his test when he showed me a bottle and asked if I knew what it was. (It was Mamajuana)
- Bird’s eye view Jan 4, 2023
- “Can I tell you something?” Jan 4, 2023
After our successful trip to Sapodilla Bay, we had become very hungry. Found that the only one Indian restaurant in Provo was literally a kilometer away from us while we were driving. It is called SJ Curry Club. Not sure why, some of the best Indian restaurants I have found are in the Caribbean! Remember Indian Summer in Nevis?
The food was incredibly good. It is difficult to differentiate yourself on yellow dal but SJ absolutely nailed it. Sharmila thinks it was the lemon zest that gave it the uniqueness.
Got to know the owner and his wife. But the highlight was getting to know their two daughters. When we entered, the two kids – Neha and Sudha – were sitting in a corner table playing games. After I tried some of my long lost Tamil on them, they were at our table.
Specially, the younger one – Sudha. The entire time I had my lunch, she kept me entertained with one story after the other.
They invariably started with “Can I tell you something? It is a secret!”
Again, as I have always maintained, the best part of vacations for me are the natural sights and the local people. Never been into long dead people… the living ones energize me so much!
- Smith’s Reef Jan 4, 2023
Another riot of blue colors.
We wanted to try some snorkeling but it was a very private beach. There was nobody renting out or selling snorkeling gear.
- Bight Beach Jan 4, 2023
Great sand, great waters. Coral Gardens Reef right on the beach. Still no snorkeling gear 🙁
- New adventure for the day Jan 5, 2023
Off to explore North Caicos and Middle Caicos
- Reached North Caicos Jan 5, 2023
Off to yet another bright colored compact car with the steering wheel and driving on the “other” side!!
- It is like we are in Eleuthera all over again Jan 5, 2023
Beautiful azure waters, one long straight road with vegetation on either side growing on hard rock!
- Sandy Point, North Caicos Jan 5, 2023
Reminded us so much of Coco di Mama Beach, The sand you see on the other side is Parrot Cay. You can pretty much walk on the sandbars (and maybe swim in spurts of ten yards) and reach the private island. Some of Hollywood’s who’s who own properties there or stays there often.
Needless to say, we stayed on this side of the sandbars.
- Sandy Point Beach Jan 5, 2023
Beautiful sand, perfect waters and not another human being. The seaweed was an eye sore, though!
- She chose her attire… Jan 5, 2023
… assuming there won’t be much teal color around…
- The causeway! Jan 5, 2023
But for this causeway, we would have never made it to the Middle Caicos (which would have been a shame… wait for future posts on that). This was built for the first time with European funding literally after I even moved to Atlanta. It got battered not by one but by two hurricanes (Hanna and Ike). It has been rebuilt. There was a portion we had to drive thru where construction was still going on.
- Crossed over to Middle Caicos and reached Mudjin Harbor Jan 5, 2023
This spot promises some spectacular views. But first things first. Some cocktails.
Since Mother Nature provided the green and blue, I threw in some red (Bloody Mary).
- View of the waters from Mudjin bar and grill Jan 5, 2023
The riot of blue colors is mesmerizing!
- View of Dragon Cay Jan 5, 2023
- Feeling like she is on top of the world Jan 5, 2023
We climbed up some nearby rocks for a view of the waters that words cannot possibly describe.
- The sharp cliffs reminded me of Aruba (south side) and St. Kitts. (northwest side) Jan 5, 2023
There are very beautiful beaches at the bottom but I do not think they are accessible other than by boats.
- Those islands/rocks are like mini Eleuthera Jan 5, 2023
The seem to exist to separate out the deep blue waters from the sky blue waters.
- Enormous rock formations near the beach Jan 5, 2023
- Sharmila venturing into Dragon Cay Jan 5, 2023
Note how the waves are coming in from two opposing directions to her
- The fury of the waters lashing onto the rock Jan 5, 2023
- The sand was so soft, it was difficult to walk Jan 5, 2023
Look at the amount the sand kept giving every time we stepped on it. My toes dug in about 4 inches.
- Can anybody solve this for me? Jan 5, 2023
You remember from the previous picture how much the sand was giving in. And then suddenly, in the middle of the beach, there is this formation. Almost like a cliff of sand. How do you explain that?
You would expect the cliff to have broken down and be like a gentle smooth slope. The rest of the beach was. Just in this portion there was this cliff. To test out whether there were rocks underneath, I started breaking down one small portion of the cliff at the end. There was nothing other than sand. The sand there did feel a little more wet.
Why this complete anomaly in the geographical formation?
Can anybody help me?
- My new friend in Middle Caicos Jan 5, 2023
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!
- This is confusing!!! Jan 5, 2023
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.
- Another new friend with a great story Jan 5, 2023
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.
- Why they call it Fish Fry, I will never know Jan 5, 2023
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!
- But I am sad to say… we’re on our way… Jan 6, 2023
- West Caicos Jan 6, 2023
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! )
- That used to be my home base airport! Jan 6, 2023
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.