Friday, 7 November 2014

Day 1 (November 7, 2014): "Uh, Turks and What? Where?!"

"The Turks and where?"  That's the reaction many people have when you mention these tropical islands.  Turks and Caicos just seems to be hidden under the radar more than most Carribean islands.  So why come here?  Well, for starters, for the powdery white sand beaches and turquoise blue waters, the likes of which you rarely see anywhere else.

A number of islands make up the small country of T&C:  West Caicos, Providenciales, North Caicos, Middle Caicos, East Caicos, and South Caicos.  The largest settlement of close to 10,000 people is Providenciales, where the International Airport is located.

Our journey here was pretty tame, as vacation travels go:  a 3AM rise, at the airport by 4AMa 5:30AMdeparture.  Then Halifax > Toronto > Providenciales, with an arrival just after noon.  We actually had to be de-iced in Toronto - a far cry from the 30C temp that whopped us as we deplaned here today!

Flying into Providenciales, you cannot help but be amazed by the turquoise blues and white sand. Simply stunning!


By 2PM, we were checked into the Windsong Resort on Grace Bay and were at the beach shortly after.


There is a protected coral reef right in front of the hotel, so we snorkelled there this afternoon.  The water was so warm and easy to slip into, and an abundance of tropical fish make the reef their home.
We stayed at the beach til 5:15pm, watching the sun go down.

Then it was off to a neat restaurant at the Turtle Cove Marina for a supper that included conch chowder and lobster-and-macaroni-and-cheese.


Here's a quirky thing about T&C:  they drive on the left hand side, but cars are configured as in North America, with the driver's seat on the left.  So as we get used to our rental car, it's really something tricky to get used to!

Tomorrow we'll visit a conch farm and explore more of this tiny but stunning country.  G'night from T&C!

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